The English walnut tree that I had band saw-milled for stock blanks a couple years ago was a fairly large tree that never produced many nuts. Most of the nuts it did produce fell off and rotted well before they got ripe. The nuts that got ripe were small.
Then I bought several more English walnut trees that were about 6 ft. tall when I planted them. I planted one about 75 feet away from the large tree that never produced many nuts. Once the new tree began flowering, they cross pollinated each other and we had lots of nice big English walnuts. The squirrels were happy too.
The other two trees, I planted in the field near my new house while I was building it. They did real well for several years, and began producing nuts. Then we got a particularly brutal winter with lots of below zero temperatures. Those trees just didn't understand that we are in a time of Global Warming and got winter killed along with several young fruit trees. A guy a couple miles from me lost about six English walnut trees that were even larger than mine that same winter. It is good to plant them where they will be somewhat sheltered from arctic northwest winds if you live in a cold region. Or you could try to find a Carpathian cultivar, which are supposed to be more winter tolerant.
