Mockernut Hickory

Size, growth and what to expect

The first mockernut crop takes around 25 years, and most of the nuts come from trees between 40 and 125 years old. Growth is slow, about a foot a year on an average site, the figure our growth estimator uses for a slow tree. It reaches 60 to 80 feet with a trunk 18 to 24 inches through, and the crown spreads 40 to 60 feet. It is long-lived, and trees can still bear nuts at 200 years old. It can live up to 300 years, and one has been ring-counted to 202. Only a tiny share of trees is ever dated this way, so older ones may exist.

Some seed comes every year, with heavy crops in mast years. The fruits run 1 to 3½ inches across, with a husk that splits in four and a thick shell that is hard to crack. The wood is mostly white except for a small heartwood, which is why it is also called white hickory. Lateral roots stay small until the second year and spread to twice the crown's width by the fifth, so the top looks idle while the root builds.

It grows wild from New England south to the Florida Panhandle and west to eastern Oklahoma and Texas, mostly on ridgetops and slopes in poor soils that dry out for long spells.

How to grow Mockernut Hickory

Mockernut hickory grows in full sun or light shade in any well-drained soil, from a dry sandy ridge to a rich slope. It does best on deep fertile ground, tolerates drought once its root is down and dislikes a wet spot. It grows tall and wide, so plant it 30 feet from the house and off the drive. Set trees 40 to 60 feet apart.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant a dormant sapling from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole deep enough for the taproot to hang straight and wide enough for the rest. Set the flare at grade, put the native soil back in, and keep mulch off the trunk. Stake it only if it leans. Sow nuts in fall an inch deep under hardware cloth, or squirrels dig them up. For spring, soak them two to four days, then hold them damp in the refrigerator for 90 to 150 days. They come up in late spring and put the first year into the root.

Water every week or two the first summer when rain is short. Deer browse hickory seedlings hard enough to kill them and rabbits gnaw the bark, so tube or cage the tree for three years. Keep the mulch thin at the stem so voles do not nest there. Prune only to keep one leader, in the dormant season; a hickory cut hard throws water sprouts.

Growth is slow. The first nuts come at about 25 years and then a good crop every two or three years; a tree still bears at 200. Male and female flowers share a tree but often open at different times, so plant two or set it near other hickories. Drought invites the hickory bark beetle, and a tree that turns red in midsummer has it; twig girdlers can kill the tops of young trees and nut weevils take a share of the crop.