Chestnut trees coming soon!

[wetdog1911]

Chestnut Hill Nurserys will soon be delivering young Chestnut trees (2-3 years old), to selected Wal Marts, Rural King and some Co-Op stores, east of the Mississippi.

These are grown from seed, not clones and breed easily (you will need 2 as they don't self propagate.

The trees were pretty much wiped out in the 1920s from infected Chinese trees being brought into the country. Estimated 2-3 Billion trees died, along with a huge forest food source and timber source.

I'm going to try some seeds this year that I collected last year and have been in the fridge since Dec. They do need that cold stratification(?) to germinate, like acorns.

Check out Chestnut Hill Nurserys for tons of information on locations, dates, growing and care.

They are really an amazing tree.

Rob

 

[Onomea]

Very cool. Glad to hear it!

 

[les.b]

When I was a kid, my dad showed me a stump on our property that had been a huge chestnut tree, which died in the blight. the stump measured feet across, I wish I had made a notation then, because it is long gone. A local bank was giving away seeds when I was about 10 or 12. I put them in a box with some dirt, and we were moving to a property that I still own. When we moved there, I just planted the whole box!!! Dumb kid. But... there are still two trees growing that produce chestnuts every year!!

Best Regards, Les

 

[delcrossv]

Some good news for a change!

 

[glowe]

In one lower Michigan rural area, where I grew up, there were still a few Chestnut trees in area fields. I suppose far enough away from others to survive into the late 1950s and my father used to pick chestnuts and roast them. I never cared for roasted Chestnuts. The American Chestnut is much like the American Elm, eventually the disease got almost all of them as well. I still see Elms in the Upper Peninsula, but they are dying up here now. A quick synopsis I find interesting about the tree.

More than a century ago, nearly four billion American chestnut trees were growing in the eastern U.S. They were among the largest, tallest, and fastest-growing trees. The wood was rot-resistant, straight-grained, and suitable for furniture, fencing, and building. The nuts fed billions of wildlife, people and their livestock. It was almost a perfect tree, that is, until a blight fungus killed it more than a century ago. The chestnut blight has been called the greatest ecological disaster to strike the world's forests in all of history.

The American chestnut tree survived all adversaries for 40 million years, then disappeared within 40.

Many of us learned the great Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem The Village Blacksmith in school, which begins:

UNDER a spreading chestnut tree
The village smithy stands;
The smith, a mighty man is he,
With large and sinewy hands;
And the muscles of his brawny arms
Are strong as iron bands.

Th Chestnut tree brings back fond memories as a great place to eat lunch in the shade while hoeing beans when I was a child at my grandfather's farm. One lone one stood in the middle of a 40 acre field until the 1960s before it finally died.

 

[Targets Guy]

Beautiful tree. That was the first poem I memorized as a toddler.

 

[BAM-BAM]

The emerald ash borer from eastern Asia has pretty much killed off all the Ash trees in our area...... and 21 other states.

 

[remshooter]

Chestnut Hill Nurserys will soon be delivering young Chestnut trees (2-3 years old), to selected Wal Marts, Rural King and some Co-Op stores, east of the Mississippi.

These are grown from seed, not clones and breed easily (you will need 2 as they don't self propagate.

The trees were pretty much wiped out in the 1920s from infected Chinese trees being brought into the country. Estimated 2-3 Billion trees died, along with a huge forest food source and timber source.

I'm going to try some seeds this year that I collected last year and have been in the fridge since Dec. They do need that cold stratification(?) to germinate, like acorns.

Check out Chestnut Hill Nurserys for tons of information on locations, dates, growing and care.

They are really an amazing tree.

Rob

CHINA... the gift that keeps on giving ,...infections ,..and other things

 

[Rustyt1953]

As a lad I got pretty good at playing "Conkers" using Horse Chestnuts.

The trick was to crack your opponents conker and not your own knuckles.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

The emerald ash borer from eastern Asia has pretty much killed off all the Ash trees in our area...... and 21 other states.

Ohio has lost its Elm, Ash, and Chestnut to foreign blights. I guess we lost our steel mills that way too!

Ivan

 

[DGNY]

Thanks, love those chestnuts! Planted two Chinese chestnut trees in my second house about 50 years ago, don't know if they're still bearing.

Such a treat each autumn for many of us, either locally grown or imported -many of the latter have turned bad, tho.

 

[BigBill]

I need nut trees as well as more apple trees for the animals. We feed the wildlife all winter.

 

[GypsmJim]

About 30 years ago I responded to an ad from the American Chestnut Foundation. They were selling seedlings. As I recall, they were from one of the few blight resistant forests in the US. We planted a dozen (that was the limit) very carefully on our rural mountaintop amid oaks, spruce, pines, maples and Aspens that grew there naturally. We even flagged them so we could track their progress.

The Winter before my son had planted horse chestnut seeds in pots. When we did they transplanting they were put in a known spot and tracked as well.

It all ended in 2 years. The deer ate all of the American Chestnuts, even though some pretty good looking forage was only a foot away. My son's plantings were in a clearing and the next Spring we found that a snowmobile had mowed them all down, red flags and all.

I can't fault the deer, but if you ever want to come on my property with a motorized vehicle, don't ask me why I won't give you permission.

 

[GypsmJim]

As a lad I got pretty good at playing "Conkers" using Horse Chestnuts.

The trick was to crack your opponents conker and not your own knuckles.

The kids just don't know how to have fun these days. I never heard the term conkers, but if you beat your opponent your chestnut became a "1 Kinger". Each successive won battle and the number went up. I distinctly remember personally having a 30 kinger.

But, you might say we cheated - but so did everybody else. We used last year's chestnuts (they got really hard), plus we dipped them in varnish to harden them even more.

Ah, the good old days.

 

[Rustyt1953]

The Brits call it "conkers".

Yanks call it "kingers".

 

[lihpster]

Had some of those as a kid that were store bought and made from some type of plastic. Harder than hell. Didn't break, just ricocheted off and came back to hit you. Hard. When they did break they threw pieces of plastic like shrapnel. Dangerous. Fun, but dangerous. I think the lawn darts were safer.

 

[Peak53]

So, are these new chestnuts vaccinated against the blight? I hope so. What a recovery this could be. Unfortunately, there are no hardwoods in my neck of the woods. We have all the lodgepole me and mother nature can burn in this lifetime. But, I would love to see the original hardwoods recover if they can.

 

[Rustyt1953]

We called 'em Super Knockers.

 

[jrm53]

I set out two chinese chestnuts a few years ago and they are bearing good I used to eat them but now the deer eat them like candy and clean them all up. Jeff

 

[lihpster]

We called 'em Super Knockers.

That's the ones. Mine were green. I always wanted my brother's since he got the red.

 

[terry_tr6]

here in Fla they were sold as clackers (klackers?) eventually got banned due to injuries(and the noise being super annoying)

 

[vt_shooter]

It's amazing how many destructive organisms of one type or another from China have wreacked havoc here.

 

[dmar]

It's amazing how many destructive organisms of one type or another from China have wreacked havoc here.

How about those stink bugs...! Zebra mussels. Kudzu. Those flying fish things. Consumer electronics with surveillance devices built in. The list goes on...

 

[Peak53]

The Real Thing

We need this. Late 19th Century. Courtesy USDA at What it Takes to Bring Back the Near Mythical American Chestnut Trees | USDA This is NOT a Chinese Chestnut

 

[Kevin G]

The grandfather of a college friend from Pennsylvania built a hunting camp from Chestnut when the blight went through. It was a log cabin, the entire interior, flooring, walls, doors, cabinets, built-in beds were all made of Chestnut, it was beautiful.

 

[wetdog1911]

So, are these new chestnuts vaccinated against the blight? I hope so. What a recovery this could be. Unfortunately, there are no hardwoods in my neck of the woods. We have all the lodgepole me and mother nature can burn in this lifetime. But, I would love to see the original hardwoods recover if they can.

No, they aren't vaccinated, but, it's a long story. VERY short version, in the very early 50s a healthy American Chestnut tree was found in a grove of dead/dying chestnuts by a nut collector. He tried infecting it for several years with no effect on the tree. He then sent grafts/cuttings to Dr. Robert Dunston of NC, a respected breeder who worked with it for over 10 years breeding it to resistant Chinese varieties and back on the resistant American (they take 3-5 years to flower), till he got the large, tasty nut that was closest to the American nut. Then planted a grove of these (500 trees), for seed production. All this took until the mid 80's or so and moved to Alachua, Fl where Chestnut Hill is located. I used to live in Alachua county in N Central Fl and it's beautiful. The tree is so unique, they actually got a patent on it. You really need to read the history @Chestnut Hill Nursery as I'm trying to cram over 40 years effort into a few lines. LOL But, anyway the Dunston chestnut was born.

Most people recc 5' grow tubes to protect them from deer, or horses if they are 'in the wild'. The young trees seem to be quite tasty to critters till they get about that size.

By the way, they also have other fruit/nut trees that are wildlife attractors. There is a wealth of information on their web site.

Rob

 

[wetdog1911]

It's amazing how many destructive organisms of one type or another from China have wreacked havoc here.

Well, it WAS ~1910, and we brought them in. The NY Botanical Society IIRC. But, I know what you mean.

Rob

 

[TIMETRIPPER]

I come across the occasional American Chestnut tree while hunting the ridges here in south central Pa. They are always small threes, less than 6" diameter. Often they are torn up by bears going after the nuts. It is my understanding that most of these trees are regrowth from old stumps, not seedlings, and usually die out from the blight or other causes within a few years.
The old timers relate that in the spring, the ridges looked like they were covered with snow, due the the blossoming chestnuts.
There is a research nursery in Adams county Pa that has been working on breeding blight resistant strains. Home — Adams County Nursery
There is hope. I should get a few for up at the cabin.

John

 

[Gamecock]

Notes from a naturalist (me):

Kudzu is from Japan.

American chestnut, C. dentata, will grow from seed, and survive long enough to mature and produce fruit. The blight usually gets them before they get very big, usually not more than 25'.

Horse chestnut is so called because of its appearance; it is not even in the same family.

There have been ongoing efforts to cross breed Chinese and American chestnuts, as the Chinese is resistant to the blight.

Chestnut wood is extremely durable.

There are two chestnuts at my golf course. They are prolific in fruit production. Being 20-25' high, I don't expect them to survive much longer.

Castanea dentata (American Chestnut, Chestnut) | North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox

'Due to its susceptibility to blight, this tree is not recommended for use in the home landscape. Other varieties that do not have these issues can be chosen for use as shade trees.'

 

[Salty RI]

We have a farm near me that is cross breeding the American chestnut with the Asian chestnut, I don't know how it is working out.

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