Walnut Harvest in Georgia: How to Build a Reliable Mechanized Workflow

According to Georgia's Scientific-Research Center of Agriculture (SRCA), walnut grows across the country as single trees in gardens and plots and as avenues along main roads. Georgian researchers report high productivity in mountain areas of East and West Georgia at 500 to 900 m, while SRCA finds sites above 1,200 to 1,500 m less desirable because cold damages the wood. Young shoots are very sensitive to late spring frost, and commercial orchards avoid very humid climates, where walnut falls ill easily.

Chandler is the main variety of Georgia's commercial orchards, but SRCA recommends it for relatively warm regions: it has low winter hardiness, can be hurt by early autumn frost and is susceptible to bacteriosis and anthracnose, though it flowers late and suffers less from spring frost. Even so, spring frosts hit intensive Chandler orchards in 2020 (EastFruit). A 2014 to 2016 trial at Jighaura rated Fernette, Howard and Lara the best of six introduced varieties; SRCA recommends Howard, but Lara and Fernette only for limited planting.

Commercial orchards are mainly planted with grafted trees; SRCA names seedlings of common or black walnut and selected rootstocks such as Paradox, Vlach and VX211 as the main rootstocks. Spacing varies: one Kakheti estate planted in 2015 uses 7 × 6 m, while extension articles give 10 × 10 to 8 × 8 m, or 6 × 6 and 6 × 5 m for Chandler. At Jighaura, lateral-bearing varieties on walnut seedling rootstock began cropping in year 3 or 4, against SRCA's general 6 to 8 years for walnut.

SRCA names bacteriosis (Xanthomonas arboricola pv. juglandis), which appears in rainy, humid springs, as a dangerous walnut disease, and says Botryosphaeria must also be controlled to save the crop. Chandler, the main commercial variety, is susceptible to bacteriosis and anthracnose, and a Kakheti grower reports powdery mildew and anthracnose as problems after rain (FreshPlaza, 2025). Frequent spring rain, frost, poor drainage and a shallow water table all increase disease damage.

SRCA also lists codling moth, erineum and spider mites and aphids as walnut pests, and extension articles add fall webworm in some years. EPPO's database shows no record of the walnut husk fly (Rhagoletis completa) for Georgia as of October 2026, which does not prove its absence. The brown marmorated stink bug, recorded since 2016, was first noted in eastern Georgia on Chandler walnut seedlings, but a 2020 to 2021 survey in Kakheti found only single specimens; the sources reviewed report no damage to Georgian walnut crops.

SRCA calls walnut very demanding of water: its large canopy transpires a lot, and rain or irrigation must make up for it. One large Kakheti estate irrigates by drip from its own reservoirs, with filtration and pH monitoring. A 2026 Georgian extension article advises a central leader with 6 to 10 branches in sparse tiers. ID DAVID and Mañez Lozano machines for manure spreading, weed control, spraying and pruning are sold in Georgia by OVE Europe.

Georgian walnut harvesting runs on two tracks. On family farms, most walnuts are harvested by hand or with simple tools, according to a 2021 Georgian study, and extension articles describe knocking the nuts down from the branches. One of Georgia's largest Chandler estates, in Kakheti, harvests by machine: it shakes the trees, lines up the fallen nuts and collects them with machines, and says nets are not an option because its trees are too tall and its fields too large (FreshPlaza, 2025).

At SRCA's sites, Howard and Lara ripen from the last ten days of September to early October and Franquette in early October at Jighaura, while the late variety Chandler ripens in the second ten days of October at Alvani, in Akhmeta. Georgia's 2025 aflatoxin rules for export walnuts say harvest should start as soon as the nuts mature and the crop must leave the orchard without delay; they also advise catching shaken nuts on frames or tarpaulins. Where nuts fall to the ground, prompt mechanized pickup shortens their time there.

Timely collection is a known bottleneck: in September 2026 the chairman of a Georgian nut producers' association named harvesting and storing the crop before processing as the main problem, with September to October the hardest period. Flory harvesting machinery is already operating in Georgia and is available through OVE Europe. A Flory walnut line runs from the VR700 Shaker, 34 Series Sweeper and 860 Harvester to the 1500 Conveyor Cart, ST14 Shuttle and 4840 Field Elevator, which move the nuts on to the trucks.

Georgian extension advice is to hull any nuts still in their husks, wash them in clean water and dry them in the sun for 10 to 12 days on average or in a dryer for no more than 2 days, with air at 43 °C or below, to at most 12% moisture in shell. The export regulation caps moisture at 12.0% for dried in-shell walnuts and 5.0% for kernels; its 2025 annex calls for quick hulling and drying, storage at no more than 70% relative humidity and, from 2028, a water activity of 0.70 or less.

Large estates dry and grade by machine. In 2020, a Kakheti plant dried nuts to a target of 9 to 10% moisture at the dryer outlet, sized them into six grades from 30 to 38+ mm, mostly 36 to 38 mm, and processed 8 t of in-shell nuts an hour on a line run by five people. A 2021 Georgian study found sorting still mostly manual and thick-shelled local walnuts processed only by hand. Jessee, whose processing lines OVE Europe supplies, builds hulling, drying, sizing and cracking equipment for walnuts.

For general information only. Information may become outdated and does not replace site-specific professional advice. Consult a qualified agronomist and confirm equipment suitability with OVE before acting.