What nuts are grown or could grow in Vancouver/Fraser Valley/Islands

I am focused on permaculture and I am planting as much edible food as possible.

?What are the nuts that will grow in local zones?

If anyone has any nut tree's they need help harvesting this fall let me know.

I want to plant a million nut tree's so if anyone has any seedlings or nuts please share and I will gift them to our community.

Thank you

 

I passed a few hazelnut farms in the fraser valley on my way out of town a few weeks ago, seems they will do ok. Fort Langley through Seabird Island ...

 

Hazelnuts are the only nut crop produced commercially in BC, but other nuts like walnuts and sweet chestnuts can be grown in the milder southern parts of BC

http://www.al.gov.bc.ca/aboutind/products/plant/filberts.htm

 

Araucaria araucana and Pinus pinea would also be worth considering, though there is a very long wait between planting and commercially viable crops (~ 40 years).

 

I am curious about the nut production of Araucaria araucana in this region. I don't own one and have never looked closely at the big old females around here or Seattle. Does anyone have experience with the nuts around here? I am going to scout around town this weekend looking for big trees.

 

If there are several male and female trees in close proximity, they should produce plenty of seeds when they are mature. In typical urban areas, poor pollination due to wide spacing between trees is the major barrier to seed production.

 

Yes, filled nuts are produced here. A planting in an Anacortes, WA park was even said to be attracting people looking to consume them by a witness during a visit made there some years ago.

 

I've seen people collecting acorns...do they count? How about beans. They are nutrious and probably don't require the kind of time a mature tree requires to be productive

 

Good, because Ron B is expecting someone to come up with larger trees than what's been posted in the Three Vancouver Monkey Puzzle Trees thread. Over to you, Eric.

 

Heartnuts, walnuts (persian and black), chestnuts (spanish, chinese, hybrid), butternuts, buartnuts, gingko, araucaria, hardy pecan, trazels, beech, oak, yellowhorn (xanthoceras sorbifolia), pines (Italian and Korean...pinon as well)...These all grow well on the coast: I can vouch for the hardiness of all of of them, and the productivity of some (others are too young to bear, and may or may not...I'm experimenting in some cases). Bear in mind that the seedlings will be variable, and will ultimately be most useful as rootstock for select varieties. Walnuts are easy from seed, as are chestnuts: you'll find them in Asian grocers in season, and sometimes at supermarkets as well. Plant immediately, and you'll find fair numbers germinating in the spring. Gellatly nut farm (now a park) in the Okanagan (Summerland, I think) is worth considering: you can pick nuts by the bucket in season for a fee, from one of the finest mixed nut orchards around.