Seguin - Chestnut Experiment (and request)

[yoderjac]

I have not had much luck with Seguins. I had a disaster buying nuts from Schumacher one year with zero germination. I did buy a few trees from the wildlife group and got some nuts from them. I got ok germination but some disease killed all but one of the seedlings and it killed the parent trees. The wildlife group is not selling them this year.

Another thing I have not have any success with (but others have) is with nutgrafting chestnuts. So, why not take my two big failures and put them together?

I know a few of you have some Seguins that have been growing a few years. My Dunstan trees are finally producing a few nuts that I collected and cold stratified this year. I'd like to try an experiment nutgrafting Seguin scions to chestnuts. I built a misting chamber this year and it seem like a good use since nut grafting requires high humidity control.

So, if you've got seguins that are old enough to collect scions and would like to help, please PM me. I'd be glad to cover any shipping cost. I only have a handful of nuts, so I don't need many.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Shedder]

https://www.facebook.com/groups/272.../519911598506531/?comment_tracking={"tn":"O"}

https://www.facebook.com/groups/272...cIjpcImNocm9ub3NvcnRcIixcImFyZ3NcIjpcIlwifSJ9

They are talking sequins here and at least one guy has some.

 

[yoderjac]

I don't have facebook, but there are a few guys on here that I know have some trees a few years old. Like me, they are probably spending more time out hunting at this time of year than reading the forum.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

I'm sure many folks have been busy hunting and enjoying the holidays rather than reading the forum lately. Now that the holidays are almost over and the new year is starting, I thought I'd bump this back up.

 

[yoderjac]

One last bump for Seguin scions for this experiment. If I get no response, I'll just plant the chestnuts rather than experimenting with nut grafting.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

Well, I got no responses but it look like this experiment will go forward anyway. I was watering my trees in the cold room last night are realized that I had forgotten that one of the seguins I grew from nuts last year, survived the disease that kill all the others. It is tiny but you don't need large scions for nut grafting. I can probably get at least a couple scions from it.

I'm still open for a few more if anyone has them since, if I have any success, all of the trees will be clones, and trees in the chestnut family can't pollinate themselves. I still need to finish the indoor modification for my misting chamber, but once I've don't that I'll graft and post some pics on this thread.

Thanks,

jack

 

[Shedder]

https://www.facebook.com/groups/272120753285618/search/?query=sequin&epa=SEARCH_BOX

"I have a question. Where can I purchase chinese sequin/ chinese chinquapin?
—

looking for recommendations.

per James Nave To make it clear, Chinese seguin is not Chinese chinkapin. Castanea henryi is Chinese chinkapin. But there are no sources of pure seednuts of either species being sold in the US. If you are a resident of Alabama, you may be able to get seguin seed from Auburn University."

Nave knows this stuff and he also runs the site.

 

[yoderjac]

https://www.facebook.com/groups/272120753285618/search/?query=sequin&epa=SEARCH_BOX

"I have a question. Where can I purchase chinese sequin/ chinese chinquapin?
—

looking for recommendations.

per James Nave To make it clear, Chinese seguin is not Chinese chinkapin. Castanea henryi is Chinese chinkapin. But there are no sources of pure seednuts of either species being sold in the US. If you are a resident of Alabama, you may be able to get seguin seed from Auburn University."

Nave knows this stuff and he also runs the site.

Common names are used willy-nilly. So let me be clear. I'm looking castanea seguinii. I've seen them called Segin, Dwarf Asian Chestnut, Chinese Chinquapin, and other names. Thanks for pointing this out. Seguin is the name that has been mostly used on this forum for castanea seguinii. They tend to be dwarfed and produce one nut per bur. The are reported blight resistant and produced nuts in the first year I had them from the Wildlife group. They too called them Seguin and specified the scientific name as castanea seguinii.

I previously got seed from Schumacher who got it from china but it all had mold and I got zero germination. I believe Treedaddy bought them from Schumacher the next year and had success germinating them. I had such a bad experience with Schumacher putting me off and telling me the seeds were just around the corner and didn't deliver them until spring, that I have not ordered from them since.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[TreeDaddy]

Jack,

Give me a year

I have 48 baby seguins in 2 gallon RBIIs in dormancy in the garage.

I started them in may 2018 from seed

I will hook you up with scions and /or nuts at that time


bill

 

[yoderjac]

Jack,

Give me a year

I have 48 baby seguins in 2 gallon RBIIs in dormancy in the garage.

I started them in may 2018 from seed

I will hook you up with scions and /or nuts at that time


bill

I'm going to take a small scion or two from the one I started last year that survived. It is tiny but I think 1/8" is enough for nut grafting. I was hoping to find someone with established trees to collect a few. I doubt I'll have any success with this, but it is fun to try. It is a good excuse to set up my misting chamber for indoor use. I hope to get started this weekend.

Thanks,

jack

 

[yoderjac]

I just found someone with older trees offering up some scions, so it looks like I'm all set.

 

[yoderjac]

I received my scions today and I'm hoping to get started with nut grafting soon. In preparation, I rewatched the Carl Mayfield video again on nut grafting chestnuts (

.) In the past, I couldn't really find the kind of knife he describes. I figured a regular xacto knife would be fine (maybe it is). So today, I decided to make one. I started with this chisel point xacto: http://www.xacto.com/products/cutting-solutions/blades/detail/X217. I simple took it to my grinder and made it a bit narrower and ground down the other side to make it double bevel instead of a chisel point. I then used the sharpening stones I use for my grafting knives to sharpen it to a fine edge.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

Well, it has begun. This afternoon I worked on the misting chamber: http://www.habitat-talk.com/index.p...s-from-green-cuttings-building-a-mister.9311/
Tonight I took out my Dunstans. I had 6 of them in cold stratification since mid-October. None had root radicles starting yet but I could tell they were close. Of the 6, one was moldy and not useable. One was so-so. It may or may not have germinated, and the other 4 were in very nice shape. I found the left handed grafting knife, used in my right hand, was great for cutting off the tail of the nut. The xacto blade that I modified seemed to work great. I found that the grafting jig made to use the left handed grafting knife in my right hand cutting away from myself worked pretty well with the small diameter but hard Seguin scions. http://www.habitat-talk.com/index.php?threads/grafting-jig.10440/

I put all 5 in sphagnum in plastic bags and hung them as shown in the Mayfield video above. Here is what one looked like before going into the bag.

I don't know if Seguin on Dunstan are compatible and my nut grafting success has not been good in the past. I will let them sit for a month and then check them for roots and swelling buds. If it works, I'll plant them in a rootmaker 18 express tray and put it in the misting chamber.

The nut grafting process went much smoother than in previous years. I decided to extend the project. I have a dozen more germinated Dunstan nuts on the way. I'll nut graft those as soon as they arrive.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[IkemanTx]

This is a really cool project. Following along.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[yoderjac]

Well, I had a lot of scions left over after grafting the nuts from my Dunstan trees, so I decided to expand the project. I ordered a dozen germinated Dunstan nuts off ebay. Who know what you're really getting when you buy this way, but I figured I'd give it a shot. The nuts arrived today. They included an extra one for a total of 13 and all had root radicles. If these are actually nuts from Dunstan trees, they are the runts of the litter. There is a lot of variety in Dunstan nut size so they could be Dunstans but they sure are tiny.

This is problematic because the scions I have left are pretty large. I nut grafted all 13 nuts tonight, but I'm not expecting much from these. In some cases, the nuts even cracked slightly because of the size of the scions. You never know, so I didn't junk them, but I don't have high hopes for this batch.

I'll be fortunate if any of these take, but especially if I get any from this second batch.

 

[yoderjac]

Here they all are in the first stage after grafting:

Thanks,

Jack

 

[TreeDaddy]

.......looks like a scene from a sci fy movie........^^^^^^

bill

 

[yoderjac]

.......looks like a scene from a sci fy movie........^^^^^^

bill

Beware the pods!

Not directly related to the nut grafting experiment, but the kind gentleman who sent me the seguin scions also sent me 4 seguin nuts and 4 that and 4 Chinese from trees that drop later for him. They did not have root radicles so I put them in damp sphagnum and in the fridge with I got them. I checked them today and one of the Chinese had the first signs of a radicle so I figured they were all close enough so I planted them in 18s.

Thanks,

jack

 

[yoderjac]

Well, the nut grafts are not looking too good. I did not expect much. They say it is very hard to graft Seguins to any other chestnut. We still have 10 more days until the first grafts are a month old. I'm not seeing any bud swell on any yet. I have at least one that is putting up top growth from the nut, which of course will be Dunstan if I let it grow, but no seguin success. I decided to give them more light to see if that helps. So, today I attached bamboo to the lights and hung them from the bamboo:

On a positive note for Seguins, 3 of the 4 nuts I planted have produced top growth. Only one of the 4 Chinese chestnuts have done so:

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

Just an updated picture of the seedlings. Note that they have been rearranged. The seguins are in the back row. No new germination.

Thanks,

Jack