When should a black walnut be pruned?
Prune it dormant or in late summer, and stay off it from late February through April — walnut bleeds so heavily in spring that sap runs from the wound before the cut is finished. The bleeding does not kill the tree, but it soaks everything below and it is the reason a casual spring cleanup on a walnut turns into a complaint about the patio furniture.
Reading black walnut before you cut
Small brown spots appearing on the underside of the leaflets in late July, followed by August defoliation, is walnut anthracnose — ugly, routine in wet Indiana summers, and not fatal. Genuine decline is branch flagging and dieback that starts in the top and outer crown, repeats the next season, and leaves gaps that never refill in spring.
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