Rhora's Nut Farm & Nursery

General information

FROM RHORA’S NUT FARM AND NURSERY

Charles Rhora, was born in Wainfleet, Ontario and grew up on a farm here. He has always shown an interest in growing trees that were beneficial for food production, beneficial to the land and to the people.

My original establishment of my orchards consisted of approximately 40 percent grafted trees and the remaining 60 percent of seedlings. It was my opinion that was the correct ratio for testing the viability of commercial planting of trees. After several years, we had a "test winter" in which the lowest temperatures reached minus 35 degrees F.(this is without wind chill or dew point taken into consideration) and remained this way for more than 1 week. There was a very limited amount of snow for protection from the frost penetrating the earth. It was my estimate that there was between 3 - 5 feet of frost in the ground. In the spring, I noticed that all of the grafted trees had winter damage consisting of die back of 2 - 3 feet or as the season advanced to complete die back even the rootstock. My seedling orchards were only minimal die back (few inches on lateral branches) and new growth was much above normal growth. Nut production was near normal on the seedlings, and no production on the grated trees, My decision was then complete, no more grafted trees at this time. To concentrate on the seedling expansion.

The devotion toward seedlings have shown that by growing seedlings of varieties,, . some named or numbered cultivars, these will produce from seed, seedlings that are as good or even better than a grafted tree. It has shown that up to 70 to 80 percent of the seedlings will do this. This experiment now into the 5th generation in some cases, that these seedlings produce at a very early age, size and shape of the shell to have the uniformity for cracking mechanically. These seedlings show that they may be grown in more northern areas due to these being on their own roots. This extends the growing areas by up to 2 climatic zones.

Three examples of early production are the Korean pine (other edible nut pines) which has produced cones of filled nuts by 7 years of age. (It is stated by experts up to 25 years for production). Hazelnuts (filberts) 3 years production. Turkey tree hazel in 8 years. (again stated 15 years for production). These were all from seed.

My catalog is the list of the of varieties, named or numbered, which as explained above has shown that seedlings of those selected should give you the same results we have. All of the seedlings are available. Please note that some varieties are limited in quantity.

Note: See History (continued) for seed clarification.

See What's New for further updates.

I am a member of ISHS (International Society for Horticultural Science), various nut associations, silverculture, etc.