Chestnut trees going full-tilt this year

[wetdog1911]

Anyone else growing, helping to re-introduce these nearly wiped out trees?

They very nearly went extinct in the early 1900's from a bight brought in from (you guessed it), Chinese Chestnuts, which are naturally resistant to the bight.

Nearly 30 million acres of Chestnuts died, east of the Mississippi. In the early 1950's, ONE large Chestnut tree was found in a grove of dead and dying trees. It shrugged off all efforts to infect it. This is what they started with.

Now, there is a hybrid (Dunston Chestnut), that is highly resistant to the bight, but also produces larger and sweeter nuts than any Chinese or European Chestnuts.

Chestnuts were a major source of mast/fodder for forest animals and rot resistant wood for milling.

Chestnut Hill tree farm is a source and the nice thing is, they deliver a set number of saplings (3 & 7 gallon), to selected Wal Marts across the southeast in March and April. I went with these, because ordering direct would mean seedlings and several more years before bearing any nuts (3-6 years from seed.

Check out Chestnut Hill tree farm in Alachua, Fl for much, much more information on these trees and other nut/fruit producing trees that will attract deer and are pretty to boot.

Rob

 

[Rustyt1953]

As a lad across the pond, I would often play "conkers".

Drill a hole in a horse chestnut, draw a knotted string through it and take turns whacking your opponent's conker until one breaks.

Rinse, lather, repeat until one of you is out of ammo.

 

[misswired]

Bought a double handful of trees from the Arbor Day sale many years ago. None were advertised as chestnut but, I wound up with one. After it started bearing chestnuts some years later I was told by the forestry commission there had never been any chestnut trees for sale. Ok then, guess mine sprouted naturally...... Lucky me!

Every year I'd eat a belly full. One year decided to have roasted chestnuts for a Christmas treat. Digging them out of the storage cabinet full of worms and holes in the nuts; I had to think about this for a minute. Now I know those worms didn't crawl in the house, up the cabinets just to get at those chestnuts.

Realizing the worms were already in those nuts before storage made me wonder how many of those worms I had eaten over the years. Never had a hankering to eat anymore since. Can't help but wonder why my stomach is always hungry

I still get to enjoy the nuts every fall though; think I'll shoot a few off the tree today

 

[wetdog1911]

As a lad across the pond, I would often play "conkers".

Drill a hole in a horse chestnut, draw a knotted string through it and take turns whacking your opponent's conker until one breaks.

Rinse, lather, repeat until one of you is out of ammo.

IDK, I wait till the husks split naturally to expose the nut.

The spines on the husks of mine are for real and will easily draw blood. Sweet Gum husks they are not. Those are a pain, but have never drawn blood.

I only mishandled a chestnut husk once. It was like grabbing a ball of very sharp needles.

Rob

 

[Drm50]

There were some large old stumps right over the hollow farm deer camp.
We noticed green suckers coming off them in spring. They were American chestnuts. Suckers short lived would turn milk white and die. We reported this to state and they sent a guy over to treat stump with something to save it. What ever didn't help that was 20yrs ago and still doing the same thing. The next ridge east of camp is Chestnut Levels. I remember the big dead chestnuts still standing when I was a kid, my dad pointed them out.

One of my friends found dead chestnut still standing. He bought it and payed to have it skidded out. He had it sawed and as I thought was wormy.
Not good for muzzle loader stocks. He lucked out and Amish bought it off him and he cleared a little profit.

 

[ACORN]

My wife's Pap had a chestnut tree of some kind on his property and gave us a bag full one autumn. I sat the bag on the counter and the next day there were a bunch of maggots/worms on the counter. I cleaned them up and moved the bag. Following day more worms. Putting 2+2 together I checked the chestnuts. Full of holes. I tossed the lot of them.
Are commercially harvested chestnuts sprayed or systematically treated to keep from getting the extra protein in you diet?

 

[Skeet 028]

Surprisingly there are quite a few American chestnuts still alive. I know of at least 5 old ones on the Eastern Shore of Md. I usually picked up a bunch every year and planted them in odd patches of woods. I had about 30 or so in my little woods. The bad thing is they may live for 10-12 years and then die. There are two in the woods that are at least 30 years old... planted from seed about 85-87 and hopefully they will continue to live. My father in law(who was a timber cutter from about 1915 till 1939) told me they called them the redwoods of the east. In a forest setting they don't spread like most think. They grow fairly quickly and head for the light. I planted quite a few in the 1995 time frame back in a few hard to get to places in the local woods and when I moved here in 2005 some were spindly but 25 foot trees. When I was guiding waterfowl hunters in the 80s we had rented one farm from a Philadelphia Lawyer(seriously) on the Chester River(right across the river from Eastern Neck Wildlife Refuge) and he had a grove, maybe 200 trees, of American Chestnuts planted he kept mowed and sprayed for bugs. I picked up many nuts for planting/eating on that place. What a place to hunt. I had a toll of geese come right to the decoys at a booby blind of at least 3500 birds. Had a party of pro football players out that day...didn't let 'em shoot as we only needed one goose for a limit. Thought they were gonna throw me in the river. But one of 'em picked up about a hundred chestnuts. American Chestnuts are so much better to eat than those Chinese types

 

[Jessie]

That's good to hear but understand that it is a different chestnut. I guess the old one will never come back, correct?

 

[samuelrp]

Like eating an acorn..........

 

[Cdog]

Some 50 years ago as a kid I'd visit our neighbors chestnut tree.

This thing produced! The were large and delicious.

At the time I never thought about losing them.

I used to love the wild plums that grew along many roads here in N.W. Ga. Probably been 40 years since finding any, but I still look for them!

 

[islamoradamark]

I remember when I was little my mom would make me go downtown New York to go to Macy's. First a bus then the subway long trip , but to go see the man on the corner selling hot roasted chestnuts in the winter made the whole trip special to me they were really good

 

[wetdog1911]

That's good to hear but understand that it is a different chestnut. I guess the old one will never come back, correct?

Not exactly, the one American Chestnut that was found to be resistant to the blight was propagated from seed and also used to make the hybrid Dunston, which actually has a patent on it. It also grows true from seed.

This all started in the early 1950s in NC and, when they had enough stock, moved to Alachua, Fl, where they planted a 500 tree grove.

That took nearly another decade to get to where they could grow enough to actually sell some to the public and re-introduction. Not a fast process.

The whole history of this effort is in Chestnut Hill's "Learning Center" and a fasinating read.

BTW, I've never noticed any worms in chestnuts allowed to open naturally on the ground. Could be they haven't found them yet, but????

You will need 2 at least, they don't self pollinate and need 40' or more between them. I only had room for 2 trees, but bought my neighbor one when his daughter was born. It's at least 125' from my trees, but also loaded with nuts this year. *I* thought it might be too far from my trees, but, happy to say, *I* was wrong.

If you have some room, are east of the Mississippi and are in grow zones 5-8, you could do much worse than helping to re-introduce these native trees.

Rob

 

[misswired]

You will need 2 at least, they don't self pollinate and need 40' or more between them. I only had room for 2 trees, but bought my neighbor one when his daughter was born. It's at least 125' from my trees, but also loaded with nuts this year. *I* thought it might be too far from my trees, but, happy to say, *I* was wrong.

I only have one tree that produces nuts every year....there isn't another tree around to be a pollinator, So.......

It is also a mystery tree, no idea if its chinese, American or horse chestnut.