Photo: Photo by David J. Stang — CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Survives zone 4 through 9
Harvest calendar
Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.
Mockernut hickory nuts have a genuinely delicious, sweet flavor, but the common name is apt — the shell is extremely thick and hard, and the kernel is quite small relative to the overall size of the nut, so extraction is difficult and the effort-to-reward ratio is poor compared with shagbark or shellbark hickory.
- Hardiness
- Zone 4–9
- Habit
- Tree
- Edible part
- Nut
- Ripens
- Sept–Oct
- Mature size
- Large tree 20–30 m — not containerable
- Light
- Full sun — nut masting needs a sunlit crown
- Soil pH
- 6.0–7.5 (near-neutral; lime-tolerant)
- Environment
- Temperate
- Native range
- Eastern North America, from Massachusetts and southern Ontario south to Florida and west to Texas and eastern Kansas, typically on dry ridges, hills and hillsides though it grows best in rich, well-drained soils.
- Status
- Wild
- Years to fruit
- 6–10 yrs
- Growth speed
- Generally a slow-growing tree, though notably faster while young than once established; reaches about 30 m tall at maturity.
- Spacing
- 1500 cm (591 in) apart — about 225 m² (2422 sq ft) per plant
- Leaf shape
- Pinnately compound, with 7–9 large, obovate to ovate leaflets with serrate margins, densely hairy (tomentose) on the underside — the trait giving the species its name — and strongly aromatic when crushed or bruised.
- Root system
- A strong, deep taproot forms early, as in other hickories, along with aggressive surface roots, making the tree difficult to transplant once past the seedling stage.
- Fruit description
- A large nut, up to 6 cm long, with a very thick, hard shell that makes extraction difficult; the kernel is sweet but small for the size of the nut.
- Propagation
- Propagated from seed, which requires cold stratification and is best sown in a cold frame as soon as ripe, kept moist but not wet if stored. The taproot forms early and strongly, so seed is best sown in deep pots and seedlings transplanted to their permanent position as soon as they can be handled.
- Pollination
- DICHOGAMOUS — needs Type I + Type II cultivars (pecan); hickories benefit from a 2nd tree
The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.
Growing guide
Fertilizing. Succeeds in poorer soils and tolerates drier conditions than many other hickories, though it grows best in a deep, moisture-retentive loam; it does not require routine fertilizing beyond reasonable soil preparation.
How it spreads. A single-trunked, non-suckering tree that spreads only by seed, though it responds well to coppicing if cut.
Growing tips. Shares the genus-wide deep taproot that makes mockernut hickory difficult to transplant except when very young. It is slow to begin bearing — commencing around 20 years old, with peak seed production from 40 to 150 years — though it can grow quite fast while young before slowing. It is long-lived and tolerates poor soils better than most hickories. Carya species hybridize where ranges overlap, and mockernut is known to intergrade with black hickory (C. texana) in parts of the south, which has caused taxonomic confusion between the two.
Grow journal
Sign in to keep a dated log of when you planted, bloomed and harvested this plant.