ok you tree guys, do I have to take the outer husk off of walnut's, to plant to grow a tree, if so what or how does one do it , a guy gave me a bucket of them, to try an grow a few trees, what is your best advice

I'm not an expert. I roughly cleaned the husk off with a pressure washer. I then bagged them and put them in the fridge for the winter to stratesfy them, and planted the sprouted walnuts in the spring.

sprout down or up

I planted sprouts down. It worked for me, but I can't promise that it's the proper way.

Put them in the ground.
They are easy.
Squirrel and chipmunk are the enemy.
Don't plant them where you truck parks.

Black walnuts? They grow like weeds here in my yard. Squirrels bury them and they grow come spring. Then we mow them off. lol

I have planted them with/with out the husk with equal success. To remove the husk for trap dye, I just step on them and the husk will come right off. I use gallon size food cans filled with potting soil, and you need to cover with chicken wire or the like for a lid to keep the tree rats out. Poke a few holes in the bottom edge of the can for drainage., place in a sunny spot.
Very satisfying to plant the seedlings and watch them grow.

I was going to say, hire a few squirrels. There are black walnuts and butternuts volunteering all over my property.

The husks make good trap dye too.

Yes they do, but is a good idea to put the hulls in some kind of fine mesh bag. First time used black walnut many years ago. Traps came out with little chunks of hull. Which got in my wax pot and left traps with rough spots. Wasn't a really big issue but made wax come off quicker where rought spots were.
MTCW

Mac

plant half , save half , in a month when the squirrels have cleaned up the majority of what the tree has dropped , toss a walnut you saved in a box trap , and you have lunch and fewer squirrels digging up the ones you plant.

How do squirrels plant them? Thats what mother nature intended. Point being they sure grow well that way.

I had squirrels fill a camper with walnuts once. I went to go deer hunting and one side of the camper, every drawer and cupboard was full of walnuts with the green hull.

The other side of the camper, every drawer and cupboard, was full of bare walnuts with no hulls.

I'm talking Rumpke roll around trash bins full of walnuts when I cleaned them out.

One whole side of the camper with hauls, the whole other side of the camper without. They must sort and separate them when storing them in a log like situation.

P.S. - The ones I grew in gallon pots lasted a year easy enough... probably 70% germination... but I lost them learning that they don't last in gallon pots for two years.
P.S.S. - They say floating them improves your sprouting numbers.
P.S.S.S. - I always wondered if that acidic hull didn't have something to do with needing to break down the nut to grow but thats just me trying to apply logic.