The University of Missouri’s Center for Agroforestry (UMCA) (New Franklin, MO) maintains a repository of many of the pre-dominant cultivars used by growers in the eastern and midwestern United States. This grafted cultivar collection was assembled by Dr. Ken Hunt between 1996 and 2005, and it consisted of 65 cultivars that underwent long-term evaluation for suitability to Missouri growing conditions into the 2010s. Grafted cultivars bear earlier, provide more uniform ripening, predictable nut quality, larger nut size and produce more consistent yields. The term cultivar refers to a specific cultivated variety of a species that has undergone multiple years of evaluation and replication in multiple environments. Throughout the trial, seed and scion from preferred selections were made available to pioneer growers throughout the Midwest for trialing. Wide dissemination of seedling stock from this collection has provided the robust on-farm infrastructure for the breeding of improved, recombinant individuals well-adapted to regions outside of mid-Missouri.