California walnut variety designed with growers in mind

The California Walnut Board (CWB) and University of California, Davis (UC Davis) announced the release of a new walnut variety named the “UC Wolfskill” that was designed with growers in mind.

The new walnut variety will provide growers a way to harvest earlier and improve the harvest efficiency of California’s walnut industry. 

This research was funded by the CWB through annual funding of the UC Davis walnut breeding program and proceeds from a $2 million endowment set aside for the program.

“Variety and rootstock breeding is a long-term effort and the walnut industry recognized early on that a stable source of support would be vital to the program’s success,” said CWB Research Director Joe Grant. “Our goal is to be a valued supporter to our grower and handler community by providing funding research on walnut production that improve crop health and yields, ultimately benefitting growers.”

UC Wolfskill was bred by University of California, Davis researchers in 2003 from a cross of Chandler with the earlier harvest Solano walnut. UC Wolfskill can be harvested 12 to 14 days earlier than Chandler and provides consistently light to extra light color. 

“The release of UC Wolfskill gives California walnut growers like me a new, early maturing variety which shows greater resistance to walnut blight coupled with potentially superior kernel quality from a vigorous, high yielding cultivar,” said third generation walnut grower, Davin Norene. “The CWB-funded Walnut Improvement Program is vital to California growers in maintaining our competitive advantage of producing the safest, highest quality walnuts on the world market.”

The new UC Wolfskill walnut has yield, quality, and light color like the Chandler, which is a late harvesting walnut and the state’s leading variety. UC Wolfskill combines the color and shell traits of Chandler with the earlier harvest date and kernel fill of Solano.

“The California walnut industry needs earlier harvesting walnut varieties to provide efficient use of harvesting, drying, and processing equipment,” said breeder Chuck Leslie, with the UC Davis Walnut Improvement Program.

UC Wolfskill is currently available to California nurseries for propagation in California and sales to growers throughout the United States. Nurseries interested in propagating and selling this cultivar may obtain a license from UC Davis InnovationAccess. To obtain a license, please contact Denise Meade at InnovationAccess by phone at (530) 754-8674 or by email at dlmeade@ucdavis.edu.