In establishing this orchard, we grafted Faith, Gardner, and Lakota during the years 2005-2007 onto Colby seedling rootstock trees that had originally been planted back in the fall of 2002. Below is a chart of this year's average yields.
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Cultivar Lbs/tree Std.Dev.
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Faith 8.16 1.24
Gardner 10.03 2.00
Lakota 20.01 3.18
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The trees in this trial are still young, averaging a little less than 4 inches in trunk diameter. The Lakota trees actually over-produced for their age resulting in less-than-stellar kernel quality. The 10 lbs. per tree yield produced by Gardner seemed just about right for this size tree. Both Faith and Gardner produced excellent quality nuts.
On a total land area basis, the double-row planting plan has 27 trees per acre. Per acre yield for 2013 ranged from a low of 220 lbs/ac for Faith to a high of 540 lbs/ac for Lakota.
