
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, July 25, 1993                   TAG: 9307290488
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: John Arbogast
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

READERS SHARE WAYS TO CRACK WALNUTS

From reader in Bristol: "Since I was a small girl, my sister and I cracked many black walnuts. We were given a solid flat iron - the ones used to iron clothes - and a hammer. Sit on a chair, log of wood, stool, or whatever you have so your feet are flat on the floor, ground, etc. "Some kind of large cloth to cover your lap and upper legs. This can be thick to cushion the blow so you don't get bruised upper legs. "Put the iron upside down - the handle between your knees; take a hulled black walnut and hold it end up/down on the iron; strike the walnut only hard enough to split the nut. If the meat doesn't come out the first time, take each hald and proceed to crack it the same way. If no meat is on the split side, it can be turned on the flat side and again use thye hammer to crack the walnut. Use a nut pick to remove the meat which doesn't fall out. I have spent hours at a time cracking them this way, and it doesn't take long to get a quantity cracked."

From D.M. in Vinton: "My daddy is in Missouri and he hulls the walnuts in the gutter part of the blacktop driveway to get the hulls off (not dried hulls); then he puts them in a five-gallon bucket, fills it with water, and washes them; he has a mixer blade that fits his power drill that has been grounded. They can be swished around with anything. Then he lets them dry; he has wire cages with one that fits on the top to keep the squirrels out; he cracks his walnuts green and has great luck.

"If they get too dry, he soaks them a few hours in water. You can see a squirrel get one from a tree and eat it, or bury it in the ground where I think there is moisture; the squirrels are not dummies. You also have real walnut stain, so wear rubber gloves and be careful of your clothes when hulling them."

Thanks to all the readers who submitted methods they have used to crack black walnuts.

Q: I have a lawn of zoysiagrass about 10 years old. Last year, during the summer the top of the grass started turning brown but yet the bottom of the grass is green. Of course, during the winter, it's all brown. Do you have any idea what is causing this brown top (similar to sprouting or seeding)? My yard looks brown, not green. I have been fertilizing and watering but nothing helps. Can you help me? J.H., Dublin.

A: Those symptoms of top brown and bottom green on zoysiagrass do not fit any usual turf disease, pest, or thatch problem pattern at all, since any of those problems would be expected to produce symptoms in the whole grass blade. Mowing with a dull mower blade can cause brown tips on grass blades, a situation that is more noticeable in the summer heat. However, for all I know, you may have your mower blade sharpened after each 10 hours of use. So, to get some help, call your local Cooperative Extension Office. You are served by the Pulaski County Office, 143 Third Street N.W., Pulaski, telephone (703) 980-7761.

Send short questions about your lawn, garden, plants, or insects to Dear John, c/o the Roanoke Times & World News, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke, Virginia 24010-2491. We need your mail, but this column can't reply to all letters. Those of wide appeal will be answered each week. Personal replies cannot be given. Please don't send stamped envelopes, samples, or pictures.

Blossom-end rot

Several gardeners have called during the first weeks of tomato production to ask about the bottom end of their tomatoes turning brown and becoming somewhat sunken. This is blossom-end rot, a nondisease problem affecting the first tomato fruits to come in.

This situation is caused by a lack of calcium in those developing fruits, brought about by the plant's inability to supply enough calcium to both a rapidly growing young tomato plant (vine) and these fruit; the problem is encouraged by moisture stresses on the plants or swings between too much and not enough moisture.

So, provide an even moisture supply and go easy on the nitrogen fertilizer for the tomato plants to avoid this problem. Take a soil text this fall from the area where tomatoes are to grow next year to check on the level of calcium as well as the other nutrients and pH.

John Arbogast is the agriculture extension agent for Roanoke.

by CNB