picking walnuts early

Question

I have lots of walnuts on my tree for the second year but last year squirrels stripped the tree virtually overnight. Having just seen them again in my tree is there any point in me picking the walnuts still green and definitely not ripe yet. Will they ripen off the tree?

Answer 1

I couldn't find any refernce that said nuts could be picked early. Since harvesting involves shaking the nuts loose from the tree, unripe nuts probably won't drop.

http://homeorchard.ucdavis.edu/8005.pdf