After 30 long years of research, an ISU professor has successfully bred a new walnut tree that can survive the Midwest’s harsh climate — the Domoto.

Paul Domoto, professor of horticulture, was responsible for this project. Domoto grew up around horticulture. His grandparents and parents were in the wine industry back in California, he said.

“I wanted to be in horticulture because my interest was in what makes a plant tick,” he said. “Being able to do research and teaching were also appealing to me.”

Domoto has been working on this project since he came to Iowa State in the 1970s, he said. He began his research on the walnut tree in 1975.

At the time, a graduate student, Allen Beck, was working on the project, Domoto said.

“He left, and I inherited the project,” he said. “It was in its infancy.”

From 1975 to 1986 Domoto researched the tree at the ISU Research Farm in Gilbert, Iowa. The trees were planted, and he was keeping up with how the trees were surviving the winters.

The tree, which is a Persian Walnut, grew in milder climates before Domoto’s research, he said.

“Persian walnuts grew in California and people here in Iowa were looking for a tree like this that could grow in this area,” Domoto said. “By releasing this tree we have extended the range of this species.”

The tree has been planted at the ISU Research Farm in Gilbert for a number of years. Domoto said he made numerous trips to Gilbert to see how it was doing.

“Students aren’t involved because it’s slow and tedious work,” he said. “The hardest thing about developing this tree is that every nut is going to be slightly different. You could take nuts from the same tree, and they’d be different.

“It’s also a hard crop because it has a separate male and female flower,” Domoto added.

In the mid-1990s Domoto and Iowa State began the patent process.

“We sold the rights on the trees in the mid-1990s when we learned that Stark Bro’s Nurseries and Orchards Co. was ready to trademark it,” he said. “This is when we started the patent process.”

Stark Bro’s Nurseries and Orchards is located in Louisiana, Mo. They have been working with Iowa State and Domoto since the mid-1990s. The company trademarked the tree as Stark Northern Prize but kept Domoto’s name attached.

“In a nutshell our old production manager, Jim Law, brought some trees with him down here after establishing a relationship with Paul Domoto and Iowa State,” said Elmer Kidd, production manager at the nursery. “We became interested in the tree because the Carpathiums, [the name of the species], are wanted more than the black walnut trees and because of the areas that it could grow in,” he said.

These trees are giving the nursery a new market that goes from Iowa into Canada, Kidd said.

“There were Persians that had been planted in this area before, but they wouldn’t winter here because they weren’t hearty enough,” Kidd said. “When Iowa State began to research the winter heartiness we decided to look into it. Now we have a huge market and have been selling it for a couple of years.”

According to the Web site, www.starkbros.com, the tree withstands temperatures of up to -32 degrees Fahrenheit and produces an abundance of tasty nuts after five to six years. It also grows to be 20 inches high, fruits in late September and self pollinates.