Is this a common Walnut and should it be futher along by now?

[Quercus Robert]

Nit picking a little here, but it is not defoliation - that would be losing existing leaves. It does have some small dead twigs in the crown periphery, probably caused by a less than perfect rhizosphere - compaction from vehicles, the tank under the crown possibilty of spillage/leakage etc. Again though, not really dieback in my opinion, that would be progressive dead twigs working their way further into the crown/larger diameter branches over time.

This is just typical dead twigs, from typical less than ideal soil conditions, caused typical human activity close to trees - happens anywhere trees and people co-exist...

 

Nit-pick away! Each species is unique and my experience extends as far as general knowledge and climbing them to get food.

 

I agree that it is not die-back having seen the newer photo (photo 5 in the OP looked bad).

 

Questions:

 

1. What do you make of the hanging branch in the newer photo?

2. In terms of rhizospheric health, how important is this to tree health overall? Obviously all of nature works in a general symbiosis, so would you recommend sampling the soil around the roots for microbes, hyphae etc?

[Mick Dempsey]

You're new to this aren't you?

The tree is fine.

[Quercus Robert]

Tbh, it's not an improvement, walnuts leaf out very late. It catches a lot of people out.

 

I have several one- and two-year-olds in pots (I had collected nuts and left them outside in a basket - the radicles sprouted in late November so I put them into soil), and they seem to grow leaves in a haphazard, inconsistent way - and later than everything else.

[Quercus Robert]

You're new to this aren't you?

 

Yes. Thank you for noticing. Can somebody tell me where the toilet is?

[Mick Dempsey]

Behind the hedge for number 1s, Macdonalds for number 2s