Hamdan
A SKUAST-Kashmir release (2001) for the Kashmir valley: a semi-dwarf tree that bears on both branch tips and sides, with a medium nut and a kernel share of about 54%.
Quick facts
- Crop
- Walnut (Akhrot)
- Type
- Grafted plant
- Season
- All seasons
- Starts bearing
- First bearing in 4–5 years (grafted)
- Expected yield
- High — around 5 kg dry in-shell nut/mature tree by SKUAST-Kashmir's own evaluation figures
- Suitable soil
- Deep, well-drained loam; pH roughly 6.0–7.5; does not tolerate waterlogged or heavy ground
- Disease resistance
- Not specifically documented
- Release
- SKUAST-Kashmir, Shalimar — released 2001
Actual yield depends on sowing time, soil, irrigation, weather, seed quality and crop management.
About this variety
Hamdan is a walnut variety released by SKUAST-Kashmir, Shalimar in 2001, together with Sulaiman, from the All India Coordinated programme on nut crops. The tree is semi-dwarf and bears on both the tips and the sides of branches, so it has more bearing wood than a seedling tree, which bears mostly at the tips. Published figures put the nut at around 14 g and the kernel at about 7.6 g. The kernel share is 54.76% (Sundouri and Sharma 2005, quoted by Sharma and others 2014). SKUAST-Kashmir's own figures give about 5 kg of dry in-shell nuts from a mature tree. Hamdan is a grafted plant, so it comes into bearing sooner than a seedling and its nuts match the parent tree. Its female flowers open before its pollen is shed, so a second variety nearby helps.
Should you pick this variety?
Choose Hamdan if you are planting in the Kashmir valley and want a SKUAST-Kashmir release with a kernel share of 54.76% (Sundouri and Sharma 2005, quoted by Sharma and others 2014). SKUAST-Kashmir's own figures give about 5 kg of dry in-shell nuts a mature tree. Choose Sulaiman instead if you care more about the slightly higher yield and can accept a kernel share of 52.37%. For a frost-prone high orchard in Himachal Pradesh, look at Franquette, not Hamdan. Hamdan opens its female flowers before its pollen is shed, so plan a second variety nearby.
Sowing & cultivation
- Spacing8 × 8 m under traditional planting; closer high-density spacing (6 × 6 m) is used with intensive management
- FertilizerA balanced NPK dose while young, moving to a higher, pre-spring-growth-and-post-harvest-split dose once bearing (see the crop guide for the full schedule)
Pest & disease considerations
Major diseases
Major pests
- Walnut aphid
- Codling moth
Advantages & considerations
Why farmers may choose it
- Bears on both terminal and lateral shoots, unlike seedling trees that bear mainly at the branch tips — a wider bearing surface as the tree matures.
- A semi-dwarf habit that suits closer, more manageable orchard spacing than a vigorous seedling tree.
- Reproduces its own nut size, kernel colour and shelling percentage true-to-type, since it is grafted rather than raised from seed.
Things to consider
- No resistance to walnut blight or other diseases has been documented for Hamdan. Use the same preventive copper sprays as for any walnut.
- It is a Kashmir valley release. We found no recommendation for Himachal Pradesh or Uttarakhand, so ask your horticulture department before planting there.
- Confirm plant supply and trueness to type with SKUAST-Kashmir or a linked nursery before planting at scale.
Suitable regions
Released by SKUAST-Kashmir for the Kashmir valley's established walnut belt; grown commercially across the valley's temperate orchard districts.
- Jammu and Kashmir
Where a true Hamdan plant comes from
Hamdan does not come true from a nut. A nut grows into a seedling that can differ from its parent in size, kernel colour and shell. So a Hamdan plant is made in two steps. First a nursery raises a rootstock from the nut of an ordinary walnut. The Nauni note (Indian Farming, June 2025) suggests medium nuts 3 to 4 cm across from healthy trees, and says the seedling should be 1 to 2 years old, at least 50 cm tall and more than 12 mm thick at the budding point. Then a bud from a Hamdan tree is joined to it. Chip budding done from mid-May to early June gave around 80 to 90% take, against about 50% for patch budding, and the total time from sowing the rootstock to a plant ready to plant out is about 2 years.
Two things are worth asking a nursery. First, which tree did the buds come from, and can you see it? The same note says good mother trees of standard varieties are in short supply, and that the bud must come from the tip of the current season's growth, where female flowers form, not from a rough brown bud that gives only catkins. Second, is the plant budded or a seedling sold under a name? A seedling sold as Hamdan will not carry Hamdan's nuts. Keep the tag and the bill.
Where the planting material comes from
This variety is a grafted plant: the variety on top, joined onto a rootstock below. Seed out of its fruit will not come up as this variety, so it cannot be kept as seed. Buy grafted plants from a registered nursery or a government farm, so the plant is true to the variety and free of disease.
How it compares with other varieties
Every Walnut (Akhrot) variety with a page on this site, side by side. The row for this page is highlighted.
| Variety | Best for | Starts bearing | Yield | States |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CITH Walnut-6 | Farmers who want a large-nut ICAR-CITH selection and will first confirm its release status and plant supply | First bearing in 4–5 years (grafted) | No yield-per-tree figure found; large nut (about 24 g) | Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand |
| CITH Walnut-8 | Kashmir valley farmers aiming at the graded kernel trade, where size and light colour set the price | First bearing in 4–5 years (grafted) | Good, with an emphasis on large nut and kernel size | Jammu and Kashmir |
| Eureka | Himachal Pradesh farmers who can see healthy Eureka trees in nearby orchards and want to match a local record | First bearing in 4–5 years (grafted) | Good under Himachal Pradesh conditions | Himachal Pradesh |
| Franquette | Frost-prone higher orchards in Himachal Pradesh, where late leafing protects the crop | First bearing in 4–5 years (grafted); late-leafing/flowering | Good, internationally proven, though no India-specific yield figure is confirmed here | Himachal Pradesh |
| Hamdanthis page | Kashmir valley farmers who want a proven local grafted walnut with a good kernel share | First bearing in 4–5 years (grafted) | High — around 5 kg dry in-shell nut/mature tree by SKUAST-Kashmir's own evaluation figures | Jammu and Kashmir |
| Parbat (JWSP-06) | Farmers in the Jammu region's hills who want a recent SKUAST-Jammu release with a published yield and kernel figure | First bearing in 4–5 years (grafted) | 90 kg of nuts a tree and a 53.28% kernel share in SKUAST-Jammu's release list; tree age not stated | Jammu and Kashmir |
| Sulaiman | Kashmir valley farmers who care more about in-shell nut yield than the last point of kernel share | First bearing in 4–5 years (grafted) | High — around 5–6 kg dry in-shell nut/mature tree by SKUAST-Kashmir's own evaluation figures | Jammu and Kashmir |
Tools for this crop
The numbers you need next: how much seed to buy, whether the lot germinates, what the fertilizer bill looks like and what Walnut (Akhrot) is selling for.
- Seed Rate CalculatorHow much seed your Walnut (Akhrot) plot needs, corrected for the germination of the lot you bought.
- Seed Variety FinderFilter every Walnut (Akhrot) variety on this site by state, season, duration and soil.
- Fertilizer CalculatorTurn the NPK recommendation for Walnut (Akhrot) into bags of urea, DAP and MOP for your field size.
- Crop Profit CalculatorPut your seed, labour and input costs against the yield you expect from this variety.
- Mandi Price CheckerToday's Walnut (Akhrot) rate in your nearest mandi, before you fix a price with a trader.
Subsidy and government support
Schemes that help with the cost of Walnut (Akhrot) seed or planting material. Rules and the application route are on each scheme page.
Frequently asked questions
How is Hamdan different from an ordinary seedling walnut tree?
Hamdan is a grafted, named SKUAST-Kashmir selection: it bears in 4–5 years instead of the 10–12 years a seedling tree takes, reproduces its own nut quality true-to-type, and bears on both terminal and lateral shoots rather than mainly at the branch tips the way many seedling trees do.
Hamdan or Sulaiman: which should I plant?
Both came out of SKUAST-Kashmir in 2001. Hamdan has the better kernel share: 54.76% against 52.37% for Sulaiman (Sundouri and Sharma 2005, quoted by Sharma and others 2014). Sulaiman is reported slightly higher in yield, about 5 to 6 kg a tree against about 5 kg for Hamdan. If you sell kernels, Hamdan is the safer pick. If you sell in-shell nuts by weight, Sulaiman's yield edge may matter more. In kernel per tree the two come out close (see the Sulaiman page).
Do I need a second walnut variety next to Hamdan?
Walnut carries male and female flowers on the same tree, so one grafted variety can bear on its own. But Hamdan is protogynous: the female flowers open before its own pollen is shed. An ICAR-CITH study of cultivars found Franquette and Opex Caulchry protandrous (pollen first), and Hamdan, Sulaiman, Tutle, Nugget and Cheinova protogynous. A pollen-first variety whose bloom overlaps may help nut set. This pairing is our reading of those flowering types, not a SKUAST-Kashmir recommendation, so ask the nursery or your KVK.
How is a Hamdan plant made, and how long before I can plant it?
Not from a nut: a nut grows into a seedling that differs from its parent. Nurseries bud a Hamdan bud onto a seedling rootstock of ordinary walnut. A Dr YS Parmar University (Nauni) note in Indian Farming (June 2025) names chip budding. Its best results come from mid-May to early June, with a success rate of around 80 to 90% against about 50% for patch budding. It puts the time from sowing the rootstock to a plant ready to plant out at about 2 years. Ask the nursery which tree its buds came from.
What yield can I expect from one Hamdan tree?
SKUAST-Kashmir's own evaluation figures put it at about 5 kg of dry in-shell nuts per mature tree. At 8 × 8 m that is about 156 trees a hectare, so roughly 780 kg a hectare at full bearing; that is our arithmetic, not a published figure. Young trees give far less, and walnut blight, frost and poor pollination can cut it more. The walnut guide gives a wider 5 to 8 kg range for grafted trees in general.
Can I plant Hamdan in Himachal Pradesh or Uttarakhand?
Hamdan is listed for Jammu and Kashmir. We found no published recommendation for Himachal Pradesh or Uttarakhand. Walnut as a crop grows at 900 to 3,500 m, but the Nauni note says commercial planting above 2,500 m is not safe because late spring frost can destroy the flowers. For Himachal, Franquette and Eureka have a long local record. Ask your state horticulture department or KVK before you buy Hamdan plants for another state.
Sourced from: MORPHOLOGICAL DESCRIPTION OF WALNUT REFERENCE VARIETIES — A PRE-REQUISITE FOR DUS TESTING — ResearchGate, New Walnut Varieties Released-II — Indian Journal of Horticulture, Dhiman, Rohiwala and Dev, Chip budding techniques for walnut — Indian Farming 75(6), June 2025 (Dr YS Parmar University, Nauni), Sharma and others, Exploiting genetic diversity of walnut from Jammu region for export related traits — Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences 84(9), 2014 (quotes Sundouri and Sharma 2005), Morphological study of walnut cultivars at ICAR-CITH Srinagar — Indian Journal of Horticulture (flowering types; seen as a search extract). editorial policy.