Payne

BRIEF:
From a lost USDA orchard in Georgia, where it was the largest-nutted tree on the site. Medium-large nuts at mid-season on a very productive tree.

DETAILED:
Payne began as tree 3-3 in the USDA orchard at Byron, Georgia — the largest-nutted tree in that planting. It carries the name of Dr. Jerry Payne, who looked after those trees until he retired in 1994. The orchard itself no longer exists. It was pushed over years ago, which makes the material that came out of it worth preserving.

Michael Nave uses Payne to make a point that matters to us more than most. Grafted Payne trees tend to bear medium nuts, noticeably smaller than the original tree ever did. Growers see the grafts and underrate the variety. But the original tree holds the genetics for very large nuts, and it is the original tree that matters when you are planting seedlings rather than grafts.

Our Payne trees are seedlings. What they inherit is the genetics of that Georgia tree, not the limitations of a graft union.

The tree is very productive, and the nuts drop mid-season with good quality. Byron 4-2, the other great tree in that orchard, was called Shandong — and our H-14 came from its seed. We grow descendants of both.

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