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redsun9

What Nut Trees Are Relatively Safe from Squirrels?

I'm thinking of planting some nut trees. We do have some wild life, like squirrels, rabbits, even ground hogs.

So what nut tree I should consider in this kind of environment? If the squirrels get the nuts before they drop, then there is no hope. I'm thinking about chestnut, where squirrels get them after the nuts drop.

How about hazelnut and pecan? The walnut trees are out.

Comments (11)

  • glib
    9 years ago

    chestnuts. but you have to pick them within a one or two days window, when the burrs are just cracking but not open yet. If you miss the window even once you will train the squirrels forever. wear heavy boots and drag burrs on the ground, they will open. Then store in hardware cloth lined box. one year I made the window, picked them but I did not want to store for the winter just yet, too busy with other things. I stored them just for just 3 or 4 days in a trash can in the garage, when I went to put them in long term storage they were all gone with a hole at the bottom (squirrels). buy a chinese hybrid, of course.

  • franktank232
    9 years ago

    Didn't know such a thing existed.

    I have an attached garage....walked out the other day and here is a squirrel in the back of the garage (the door was open from the kids) eating sunflower seeds from a sunflower head i had cut the day before. They either have amazing eyesight or smell or both.

  • RedSun (Zone 6, NJ)
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    All this is relative. From what read, the wild ones will get the walnut and pecan at the tree. But they will only get the chestnuts when the nuts drop to the ground. So I'm thinking if I collect the nuts everyday, I should get some nuts.

    We have a couple of mature black walnut trees. Sometimes I saw some nuts on my lawn. But this year, the lawn has been clean.

    So, give up on nut trees?

  • milehighgirl
    9 years ago

    They have an amazing sense of smell. I trap mine with peanut butter. Once I just laid the spoon on the top of the fence for a moment and later they would stop mid-stride and start sniffing around.

    I have been interested in Hazelberts from St. Lawrence. Anyone have experience with Hazelberts vs. squirrels?

    Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.sln.potsdam.ny.us/pgnuts.html

  • alan haigh
    9 years ago

    Hungry squirrels will free chestnuts from the burrs, often knocking the whole thing off trees. I use my trees to lure them and shoot them while their attention is on these nuts. They rarely wait for the nuts to fall to the ground on their own on my property.

    Isolated trees can be baffled from squirrels or you can dig shallow holes under and near the trees and fill with leaves and the squirrels will harvest and store the nuts for you.

    At some point the trees become so productive that there actually is enough for everyone, but this will take about 30 years.

  • jbraun_gw
    9 years ago

    I think the only nut tree that would be safe from squirrels would be one that had a dog tied to it's base. And then only if it's canopy wasn't close to anything else.

  • Sherwood Botsford (z3, Alberta)
    8 years ago

    The dog doesn't work.

    I was on my property for 10 years before I knew I had beaked hazelnuts. The time between being ripe and being harvested is about a nanosecond. I don't mind them taking the spruce cones. That's there share. But I have no idea how nut farmers keep ahead of the squirrels.

    As long as you have squirrels however, you can have some entertainment. Try greasing a bird feeder pole -- one they have learned how to climb. (Metal only.)


  • drew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
    8 years ago

    The only nut I can think of that is super safe from squirrels is a peanut,

  • Suzi AKA DesertDance So CA Zone 9b
    8 years ago

    Macadamias. NOTHING can crack those shells.


  • lucky_p
    8 years ago

    Oops. I see you said walnuts are out. Well, I'll offer this anyway, for anyone else who may not have eliminated them from consideration.

    Black walnuts probably also a safe bet. You'll want to be collecting them as they fall, and removing the husks while they're still green - if you leave 'em to turn black and mushy, nutmeats will be darkened and flavor will be 'off' a bit. I rarely see squirrels carrying off green in-husk walnuts... and they often lie there under the trees all winter, untouched...but it may be because the pecans and walnuts are so much more appealing to them.

    I have one Shellbark selection, 'Gary', that's alleged by the guy who introduced it, to be 'squirrel-proof'. His contention is that the nut husk is so big that if squirrels cut it loose, they can't hold onto it, and it's so thick that they tire of trying to gnaw through it to the nut; unlike many hickories, the husks don't 'pop' off when it hits the ground...you can pry them off fairly easily, to free the nut, but they don't just fall off on their own.

    That said, chestnuts, as others have described, may be the best bet, but even then, the bushy-tailed tree rats can foil your best plans.

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