Video summary
Abby Johnson discusses her innovative project aimed at establishing edible Korean and Siberian pine nut trees in the North Central United States, a region where these species are not native. The initiative began several years ago when the farm planted an initial batch of trees that grew slowly and suffered from some mortality before gaining renewed attention. Recognizing the long-term commitment required for tree crops to become productive, Abby's team sought methods to improve survival rates during the critical establishment phase. Their approach involved a family effort where her husband drove project ideas while their five children participated in farm tasks, fostering pride and engagement among them as they worked together to convert fields into forested areas.
To address the challenges of establishing non-native trees, the researchers tested various techniques including soil inoculation with both commercial products and local microbes collected from existing healthy Korean pine stands. They also implemented protective shelters around individual saplings to shield them from harsh sun and wind exposure while ensuring consistent irrigation to eliminate water stress as a variable for tree death. As a control group, they planted firs known to thrive in the area's sandy soil with good drainage, which achieved a 90% survival rate compared to slightly lower rates for the pine species. This comparative method allowed them to isolate specific factors affecting growth and mortality without blaming general site conditions that were favorable for other tree types.
The assessment phase revealed some surprising results regarding commercial inoculants; while local soil microbes provided a modest boost, the purchased commercial product actually reduced survival rates in Korean pines when used without shelter. Additionally, logistical hurdles such as acquiring trees from Canada led to extended transit times and temperature fluctuations that negatively impacted root health before planting. Abby noted that future efforts might involve growing seedlings locally or using pots to better preserve root mass during transplanting. Despite these challenges, the project highlighted significant potential for U.S. nurseries to produce pine nut stock directly, avoiding border delays and ensuring trees arrive in optimal condition for immediate field establishment.
Ultimately, the video concludes with an encouraging message that it is never too late to start planting, as Korean and Siberian pines can take 10 to 20 years before producing harvestable nuts. Abby emphasizes that these cold-hardy trees are well-suited for frost pockets on slopes where other specialty crops like peaches would fail due to freezing temperatures caused by thermal inversion. By combining scientific research supported by sustainable agriculture grants with practical farming lessons, the Johnson family demonstrates how patience and experimentation can lead to new agricultural possibilities even in regions previously considered unsuitable for such exotic nut production.
Read the full video transcript
Welcome everybody to Farming Matters,
the storytelling series where we get to
hear from innovative farmers and
ranchers about the work they're doing on
their farm. Um, today we're going to
hear from Abby Johnson about
establishing pine nut trees. Um, Abby
had a SIR grant. All of our guests do. S
stands for sustainable agriculture
research and education. and we're a
national program that provides grants
and outreach materials around
innovations in the sustainable a world.
Our mission is to advance sustainable
innovations to the whole of American
agriculture. Um and today we're going to
do that by hearing from Abby. Abby,
welcome.
>> Well, thank you again for having me and
to talk about our project. Um this was a
fun one that we've been I guess thinking
about for a while. um some history going
back about seven eight years ago. We
planted a few dozen um Korean pine trees
and we kind of forgot about them in a
little bit of a way. Um they grow so
slow. Um a lot of them died and you know
just not what much is going on. And then
we came back um looking at them again
it's like actually now now they're
starting to grow a little bit. maybe
this is something that we should look at
some more. And it kind of inspired this
project to think about different ways
that we could help um through that
establishment phase when you're planting
a pine nut. Is there things that you can
do to improve survival to really help
them get going? um when we're planting
trees,
it's a it's a commitment and it's a long
long-term horizon before we're really
getting crop off of them. So, again, the
sooner, the faster, the better we can
get them going. Um that was kind of our
thought process for this project.
Here we go. So I first I just have to
always say as a farmer uh it's never
just me. It is my family. My husband is
the ideas guy. He is the driving force
behind a lot of our projects and um
keeps me on track with doing things. And
then we're always looking for different
ways we can engage and have the kids
help out. Um we have five kids ages
seven to 16 and so they're really
getting to be an age where they can
engage and help out on the farm and also
really take a lot of pride in growing
some great food.
So just to um center where I'm at, I'm
in the northeast portion of the lower
peninsula.
We sit about five miles off of Lake
Hiron um and about six miles from Roger
City.
So, this is a Korean pine tree, and this
is one of the ones that we had planted
um about seven years ago, and it's just
now kind of getting going where it's
actually putting on, I would say, a
decent amount of growth each year. Um,
but the Korean pine is one of several
species that have um
a commercially
sized nut where it makes it it's viable
to be able to crack it, to be able to
sell it. Um, most pine nuts, I believe,
are edible. Um, but Korean pine nuts are
one of the ones that um is sought after
for for its food properties. Um the
other species that we looked at in this
project has a similar size net is the
Siberian pine and those are both species
that are native to um Russia uh northern
China that area of the world.
So really cold hearty so we don't have
to worry about the cold killing them.
So in our project um we were looking at
different ways that we could help with
the establishment of these trees. So um
just generally from our experience and
from our research they take a long time
to get going. And one of the ideas
behind that on why it might be is
because they are not native to our
region. the soil microbes, funguses,
those microisi
that that tree needs don't exist. So
perhaps by introducing different
inoculants into the soil that will help
speed establishment and improve
survival. Um so we tested a commercial
inoculent that's available from a
nursery um that we purchase trees from.
And then we also tested um like we
called it a local inoculent. So, taking
soil from around those Korean pine trees
that we had planted when they were
growing, we figured, well, there's
communities here that obviously are
getting along with these trees now.
Let's see if we add a little bit of that
in if that's going to help those trees
grow faster,
survive better.
And so, the other picture is just my
husband digging ever so many holes as we
convert field into forest.
Having dug a lot of holes in in fields
myself, I I feel his pain there.
>> We we love digging holes by hand though.
We feel like we can make a better hole
for our tree um by hand.
Um and so then the other thing that we
had come across when we looked at
different establishment techniques is
perhaps putting a shelter around that
tree um protecting it from high exposure
to the sun and also um from wind. So
that was the other ideas with putting a
little shelter around that tree um is
that perhaps that will help improve
survival.
The other thing we did when we planted
these trees to kind of put them all on
equal footing is they all were
irrigated. Um, so we were able to
monitor the soil moisture and go ahead
and water all those trees if they needed
it. So that took that out of the
equation as far as potential reasons for
death.
And then we also wanted to compare the
the pine nut trees to something that we
knew were going to grow really good. Um
and so we used um fur trees because we
knew they grew very well on our site.
And um we were able to put those in the
same planting area as the um pine nuts.
So that way if we were seeing high
levels of death among those um fur
trees, we could say, well, there was
something that we had done because this
is not typical that we would expect um
for a planting from fur trees.
After we planted the trees, um we
measured the caliper, so the diameter of
the tree and then the height. And so
this gave us a baseline to start from
and then we measured it subsequently um
at year um one and two.
And here my daughter is doing some more
measuring. And additionally in this
planting we did some rotational grazing,
keeping the sheep off the trees but kind
of doing some improvements of the soil
cycling some nutrients. Eventually,
we're hoping the the roots are out there
in the middle between the trees.
So, then we were into the assessment
phase. Um,
we measured height, we measured
diameter, we measured are you alive or
dead? And that was pretty easy um to
see.
Not something we want to see, but we we
did have results.
not surprising to us. Um the fur trees
we had a 90% survival so they did well.
This was well within what we would
expect um for our plantings. With other
plantings we had done and then the
Korean pine and the Siberian pine um we
had reduced survival. So with the Korean
pine it was 88% and the Siberian 75%. So
these still are not great numbers when
you're planting trees. Um, so then we
but not too far off from what we had
previously experienced with just our
limited planting.
But then it was it was nice to be able
to dig in and see if we had any
difference between our treatments.
Um, so on the left hand side of the
graph, um, these are the Korean pines
and more to the right side is the
Siberian pines. So our first bar is
those trees that did not receive any
inoculent. So these were the ones that
didn't get our local inoculent or the
commercial inoculent. Um and then we see
the second bar is the local inoculent.
And then these last two bars are the
ones that received the commercial
inoculent. And the difference between
those two bars was shelter versus no
shelter. So, we're seeing with the
commercial inoculent
and no shelter, we had the lowest
survival with the Korean pines. The
shelter gave us a little boost
definitely with survival
with that one. But then when we looked
at the Siberian pines, we saw reduced
survival with both the treatments with
that commercial inoculent.
So, this was this was surprising to us
because we didn't really anticipate that
result. Um, and that's what makes
science fun, I guess, is you can look at
it and actually have something to say,
well, okay, well,
actually the commercial inoculent, at
least in this case, doesn't look to be
doing anything to increase our survival.
If anything significantly, we're saying,
well, this is a decrease in survival.
So um
so some of the biggest hurdles we or
lessons we learned when we could
so the biggest hurdles for us for the
pine nuts was tree acquisition.
So there's not really people in the
United States selling pine nut trees.
It's very difficult to find nurseries
producing those. Um, and one of the
things we experienced with our orders
from Canada is they kind of caught up at
the border. And so this putting trees in
a situation where they, you know,
they're going to have temperature
swings. They're spending an extended
amount of time in a box. I mean, over a
week sitting in transit is a long time
for a tree. Um, in hindsight, looking
back, it's like, well, if you can pick
up those trees direct from the nursery,
that's probably a better situation. and
it might have had some influence on our
overall survival. Um definitely we were
seeing that the commercial inoculent
reduced our survival but overall perhaps
we would have had a better survival had
we picked up directly from the um
nursery.
And that leads me to my last point of
just there I think there's potential
for tree
nurseries here in the United States to
to provide tree nut or pine nuts trees
to people who are interested in
establishing them.
So, this is my kind of experiments I'm
doing right now this winter is seeing if
I can grow some pine nuts and then
seeing if I have better luck with my own
that don't experience that travel. Um,
getting those established out in the
field.
>> Um, the pine nuts definitely take a long
time before they produce. Um, what I
hear is in that 10, 15, 20 year range
before you're really getting pine nuts.
So now is the time to plant them cuz I
didn't plant them 15 years ago. So
>> it's the next best time.
>> Yep, that's right.
>> Oh, this is really neat, Abby. Thank you
for walking us through and so neat to
see the pictures of the the seedlings
here on this last slide.
>> Yeah, those little baby ones.
Before you stop sharing, um, this
picture, these photos made me wonder
about grafting. Is that an option for
these kind of trees?
>> I have read that grafting is an option
for um, the pine nuts. They would
actually graft well onto white pine
trees. What I have read is that um, it's
done more on an ornamental side of
things. I haven't really seen anybody do
grafting for commercial purposes.
>> In theory, I would think that would they
would produce quicker just much like
another grafted any other grafted tree
because you're taking mature wood and
you're putting it on on the different
roottock. Um,
very interesting. Um, can you tell us
also while we're on the slides here, um,
how like how old are the seedlings that
we're looking at here?
>> Those I started
those are about a month old right now.
>> Okay.
>> So, the one all the way to the right is
about a month old.
They were um, we put them in to stratify
this summer. So, I put them in kind of
some moist Pete moss and into the back
of the refrigerator until um
last month. I pulled them out and trying
to give them a little head start before
they would go out into the world.
>> Yeah. Are Tell me, are you imagining
transplanting them this spring or give
them a full year in the pots?
>> I guess we'll have to see what they look
like on how they do. Um how quickly that
stem hardens off to where I would
>> think that I could remove them. Um,
Eaves Lee, there was one thing when we
planted the trees or the trees that we
received, um, the tops were good size,
like they were healthy, good-sized
trees, but the root systems were very
small. And so, I'm I'm wondering if
perhaps they don't transplant well. Just
they're not keeping a good root mass
with them when you're moving them out,
you know, digging them out and and
transplanting them.
>> Yeah. So, potted might have to be the
way to cotted might be a better option.
Yeah.
>> Um, one question I have is just how long
have you been planting trees and and why
are you excited about trees?
>> So, we've been I've been planting trees
now for about 15 years. So, my husband
has been very passionate about trees.
That was kind of his first love. Um, and
so we've been planting trees together on
our farm since we've we moved here. And
I think it's just a kind of a a hopeful
activity. You know, you're planting
trees and it's not not for you or you
know, it is for you, but at the same
time, you're hopeful that this is
something that's going to stay for a
long time. Um, that's kind of what we we
started with the chestnut trees and and
planting those in hopes that it's
something that our children will enjoy
and be able to to be able to work with.
>> Neat. Oh, that's great. Um, maybe on a
related note, uh, you know, you know
that the the furs do well on your
property, so you use them as kind of a
>> almost a control, I guess you would say.
Um, how did you get started um doing
onfarmm research? You've had a couple of
different SER grants over the years and
it seems like you really like this
approach.
>> Yeah, I I enjoy science and research
questions as does my husband. Um he's
actually does a lot of research with
fishes and so from my background um just
just having up coming up with these
different ideas and that we can we can
test it out. We can kind of answer these
questions especially with the help from
sir um it kind of reduces that risk um
to be able to to try new things and and
get do something different on your farm.
So,
>> how tall do Korean pine and Siberian
pine get?
>> I am not certain on their maximum
height. I think they're much like the
white pine in that they can, you know,
get to be I'm not even sure how tall the
white pine can get to be 100 foot tall.
Anyways, they they can be very tall.
probably more dictated by just the soil
capacity to support their t their
height.
>> And so for folks that are raising
commercial pine nuts, how do are they
keeping those trees shorter so that they
can harvest those or how does that work?
>> Um my understanding is the majority of
um pineets from Korean or Siberian pine
happen in naturally occurring forests in
the region. you know, in Siberia,
northern China. Um, and they they go out
and they gather cones or they actually
climb trees to harvest those cones.
>> What sort of a um
place within your farm did you plant
these? So, are they, you know, are you
hoping they'll also provide a windbreak
or are they on slopes or flat ground?
Tell us about how you decided where to
put these within your operation. Yeah,
for us we placed our a lot of our soils
are lomy sand, so we have fairly fairly
sandy soils um with good drainage, which
is stuff they like. They they don't like
to have wet roots. Um you know, they
they're not going to sit well in clay is
from my understanding. Um, and so we
chose to put them though in a place
where it was more likely to be a frost
pocket
because
they are highly tolerant of cold
conditions. I believe they have they are
tolerant to down to zone two or three
where they they can survive without
issue.
>> But a lot of the other specialty trees
I'm growing on our farm are not as well
suited. you know, I'm not I wouldn't
want to put a peach tree down in an area
that is going to that's going to hold
that that cold air. Um, we've done quite
a bit of monitoring on our farm for
temperatures. So, we put temperature
loggers different places and we can see
that, you know, on you have ther on
thermal inversion nights, we can have a
difference of up to 10° from the top of
our hills to the bottom. And so picking
those spots that are are cooler um that
are not as well suited for other trees,
that's where we've kind of chosen to put
them.
>> Honestly, all of this was really
interesting. Abby, thank you for sharing
what you guys got up to, what worked,
and what didn't. Um that's how science
moves forward, and I think you guys have
a lot of good lessons to share with
everybody out there who's trying to say,
can I do pine nuts? I don't know. Um
thanks.
>> I think it's worth trying.