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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Andean Walnut
« on: September 17, 2023, 07:21:10 PM »
I bought one kilo of seed. It turns out that is equivalent to only 35 seeds. I sacrificed two of them today for research purposes. I dissected them by hitting them with a hammer.
The woody endocarp measures mostly 4-6mm thick, yet tapers to as little as 2mm near the pointed end. It is up to 9-10mm thick at the opposite end.
The seed coat itself is also fairly thick, measuring 0.5 - 1mm. Also the seed seems to be an unusual shape with different chambers.
I'm thinking this is part of the reason why the species is endangered. It's hard for me to see how this could be commercially viable. Using a hammer, the seed was very difficult to extract without breaking into many small pieces. Even small fragments were difficult to extract from their chamber. Perhaps there is some specially designed tool specific to this species. Development of such a tool could help with conservation, since the species is mostly exploited locally for timber, and it doesn't sound like there are too many people planting trees, because they are one of the slower-growing timber species of the most commonly cultivated timber species of eastern Peru.
The seeds were delicious. Perhaps slightly better than the commercial walnut.
I started using the bench grinder on some seeds, but realized it was too tedious, so abandoned that idea. I only grinded 6 seeds (enough for two pots) so I will get to use these six as an experiment to see how they compare with the others, which I will not be sanding/grinding. For whatever reason it dulled the stone on my bench grinder, which is now smooth instead of a rough surface.
I've also decided to do the three day soak for all seeds as recommended by the Chanchamayo forestry publication I downloaded.
Of the six seeds I grinded, I took off maybe only a couple millimeters of endocarp on each seed. I'm not expecting much difference in germination times to be honest. I figure given ample organic matter, the endocarps and seed coats will undergo their process of decomposition at relatively the same rate.
Since the seed coats themselves are so thick, I suppose it's possible to separate the seeds from the endocarp and plant them without any endocarp, but I really don't have the knowledge to know how to separate the seed. Like I said, the shape of the seed looks a little weird and I don't see how I would extract it without breaking it in the process.
The woody endocarp measures mostly 4-6mm thick, yet tapers to as little as 2mm near the pointed end. It is up to 9-10mm thick at the opposite end.
The seed coat itself is also fairly thick, measuring 0.5 - 1mm. Also the seed seems to be an unusual shape with different chambers.
I'm thinking this is part of the reason why the species is endangered. It's hard for me to see how this could be commercially viable. Using a hammer, the seed was very difficult to extract without breaking into many small pieces. Even small fragments were difficult to extract from their chamber. Perhaps there is some specially designed tool specific to this species. Development of such a tool could help with conservation, since the species is mostly exploited locally for timber, and it doesn't sound like there are too many people planting trees, because they are one of the slower-growing timber species of the most commonly cultivated timber species of eastern Peru.
The seeds were delicious. Perhaps slightly better than the commercial walnut.
I started using the bench grinder on some seeds, but realized it was too tedious, so abandoned that idea. I only grinded 6 seeds (enough for two pots) so I will get to use these six as an experiment to see how they compare with the others, which I will not be sanding/grinding. For whatever reason it dulled the stone on my bench grinder, which is now smooth instead of a rough surface.
I've also decided to do the three day soak for all seeds as recommended by the Chanchamayo forestry publication I downloaded.
Of the six seeds I grinded, I took off maybe only a couple millimeters of endocarp on each seed. I'm not expecting much difference in germination times to be honest. I figure given ample organic matter, the endocarps and seed coats will undergo their process of decomposition at relatively the same rate.
Since the seed coats themselves are so thick, I suppose it's possible to separate the seeds from the endocarp and plant them without any endocarp, but I really don't have the knowledge to know how to separate the seed. Like I said, the shape of the seed looks a little weird and I don't see how I would extract it without breaking it in the process.
