Dunstun chestnut

[Skelly]

I just picked up 2 dunstun chestnuts from Walmart. They wanted $20 a piece. I Asked the manager why would I pay $40 for dead trees. I gave him $5 a piece.

I scratched the Cambrium layer and still green although the leaves are gone.

I noticed some circling in the roots so I figure I have some pruning of the roots to do.

My question is should I plant in field and baby or find a bigger pot and leave until winter to plant. I don’t want to keep messing with if it’s going to be an issue.



Thanks

 

[chickenlittle]

I'd plant if you can water as needed. Otherwise pot and plant this fall. Don't overwater.

 

[Skelly]

Cool. That’s what I was thinking.

I wasn’t planning on starting this project till next year but I couldn’t pass them up.

As far as the roots if I can’t straighten during planting it’s better to just prune.

I’ll probably have to sit down tonight and search all the threads for all my info needed.

Thanks

 

[The Fishman]

This is my second year to buy Dunstan chestnuts from Walmart on clearance. I have seven in my driveway right now in fabric shopping bags that I put in milk crates so the wind doesn't knock them over. The milk crates also help with drainage. I broke up the root mass from the pot when I moved them to the shopping bags. The move also involved adding more potting mix so my 3 gallon trees are now in roughly 5 gallon bags. It worked out well last summer and I planted them in December. The fabric shopping bags did a good job of air pruning the roots. The 50 cent shopping bags from Walmart work well. Make sure they are the fabric bags and not the ones made out of a more plastic material.

I found this on Chestnut Hill Outdoors Facebook page the other day and it may help your trees no matter what you decide to do. A shipment of their trees was delayed and they took a pretty good pounding before being delivered to the stores. They suggested this to revitalize the trees.

We are advising customers to water their stressed trees with this solution once a week for 4-6 weeks:
Soak 1 multi B vitamin & 1 tablespoon of Epsom salt overnight in 1 gallon of water. Apply one gallon per tree, once a week with this solution for 4-6 weeks. Don't water them more than once a week with this solution to avoid salt buildup. Water your trees with regular water as needed as well.

 

[Skelly]

Great info. Thanks

 

[yoderjac]

In our area, I'd make sure that you can provide supplemental water as frequently as needed. We have had an unusual amount of rain this spring. I can't imagine it continuing. We are almost in July. So, if you have to go some distance to provide supplemental water, I'd be tempted to put them in some kind of root pruning container for the summer. There are folks that use biodegradable root pruning fabric bags that are pretty inexpensive. These bags are meant to be planted with the tree. The roots are not disturbed this way. Keeping them around the house where you can care for them without fail may be your best bet. You can plant them in the when things go dormant.

One note. I find chestnuts very difficult to graft. The reason is that the primary way the respond to injury is to send up new shoots from the roots. They seem to prefer directing their energy reserves this way rather than pushing a graft. My point in saying this is that if the trees you've just purchased were under enough stress to drop their leaves, they may not push new growth on the central leader even if they recover.

Another thing to consider is that the manager may have received the better end of the deal. My experience with chestnuts is that they are much more sensitive to water chemistry than many other trees. I seem to be able to get away with city water for apples and mulberries but I had all kinds of issues in the first few years of growing chestnuts when I was using city water. I switched to rain water and a very large share of the problems vanished. I don't know when they were delivered to wal-mart but I presume they have been there for quite a while receiving city water. Keep in mind that not all city water is the same, but chestnuts did not like the water chemistry of our city water at all. Yours may be different.

Best of luck! I hope it all works out for you.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[TreeDaddy]

In east texas, I wouldn't dream of planting any tree or shrub later than february without supplemental water source(drip irrigation,etc)

Root pouch/Walmart bags are cheap and will prune roots

Baby them at home and transplant when dormant

bill

 

[Skelly]

Great input thank you.

I collect rain water and I am also on a well. So I don’t have that issue.

They wouldn’t be planted to far from me. Within a 100yds of the house. I do have that luxury.

I think I am going to use the air pruning bag idea just to help the root system for a while. I haven’t pulled them out of the 3 gallon container but I see circleing. I’d rather fix now and get a better chance of survival with better root system.

Thanks all

 

[j-bird]

I get the smaller 3 gallon size ones and I plant right away...even now and then I water once or twice a week as needed. I use a 5 gallon bucket with a few drip holes in it to try to get the water to seep instead of just run off. I have had pretty good luck beyond that.

 

[yoderjac]

Great input thank you.

I collect rain water and I am also on a well. So I don’t have that issue.

They wouldn’t be planted to far from me. Within a 100yds of the house. I do have that luxury.

I think I am going to use the air pruning bag idea just to help the root system for a while. I haven’t pulled them out of the 3 gallon container but I see circleing. I’d rather fix now and get a better chance of survival with better root system.

Thanks all

I'd consider this. Root pruning takes time, and a tree experiences stress each time the root ball is disturbed. That is why bare root trees are planted dormant and the old saying is the first year they sleep, the second they creep and finally in the third they leap. It takes those roots a long time reestablish. You will need to disturb the root ball to deal with any circling or j-hooking roots. If you don't the tree may do fine in the short run, but root constriction can cause issues over the long haul. It is better to take the short term hit.

I'm not sure you will get that much benefit from a root pruning perspective in 1/2 of a growing season after disturbing the root ball. They will prevent future circling and j-hooking but I doubt you with get enough roots air pruned to cause much upstream branching. The only reason I suggested root pruning is if you can't provide supplemental water when needed in the field and having them close by allowed you to do that.

If you do go with a root pruning container, I'd really consider making sure you are using biodegradable bags so you can drop the whole bag in the ground this fall without disturbing the root ball again.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Skelly]

I'd consider this. Root pruning takes time, and a tree experiences stress each time the root ball is disturbed. That is why bare root trees are planted dormant and the old saying is the first year they sleep, the second they creep and finally in the third they leap. It takes those roots a long time reestablish. You will need to disturb the root ball to deal with any circling or j-hooking roots. If you don't the tree may do fine in the short run, but root constriction can cause issues over the long haul. It is better to take the short term hit.

I'm not sure you will get that much benefit from a root pruning perspective in 1/2 of a growing season after disturbing the root ball. They will prevent future circling and j-hooking but I doubt you with get enough roots air pruned to cause much upstream branching. The only reason I suggested root pruning is if you can't provide supplemental water when needed in the field and having them close by allowed you to do that.

If you do go with a root pruning container, I'd really consider making sure you are using biodegradable bags so you can drop the whole bag in the ground this fall without disturbing the root ball again.

Thanks,

Jack

Good thoughts. Thanks

 

[Skelly]

Interesting happenings.

When I purchased the 2 trees that had leafed out and most leaves had turned brown.

At the house I just added some extra soil due to exposed roots at the top.

I’ve watered them a few times but hats it until I plant tomorrow.

As you can see in the photos they are exploding with new growth. I just think that’s kind of odd. Why wouldn’t they have pushed out all these leaves this spring. All I did was water 2x

 

[yoderjac]

A tree is looking for balance. If it gets more top growth than the root system can support it focuses on root development and may not push all the buds. The reverse is true as well. If you cut down a tree you get multiple sprouts from the root system. This is an attempt to produce as many leaves as possible to collect solar energy to support the large root system.

My guess is that there was poor care at wally-world and they were watered when folks felt like it using city water. They were probably stressed and dropped their leaves. When you started providing care, rather than go into dormancy, they are pushing leaf buds that were not previously pushed due to the root system limitation.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Skelly]

Yep I believe your right.

 

[Skelly]

I planted the chestnuts today.

I’ve got them planted in what would be called filtered sunlight for portion of the day. I didnt want to stress any more then needed with blasting brand new growth with 95 degrees for the next few weeks. I plan on removing all of the junk trees in that area this winter so moving forward on should be full sun for 6-8 hours.

I was really surprised with root system. Only found one additional circling root. I just dug an extra trench to pull them straight. I was happy to see a good root system with a lot of feeder roots. I used all the suggested techniques. Cage screen weed mat etc.

I really appreciate this site. I’d be lost without all the input and suggestions I read on here.

Thanks all