chestnut help

j-bird

Moderator
So I have a plot where I planted 4 3 gallon dunstan chestnuts a few years back. Slowly but surely they have all died but one. They will get 8+ feet tall...one even just started to produce nuts...and then they decline quickly and die. I was told that one did due to root rot. So I am wondering if the soil in that immediate area is holding too much water. The soil here is generally a sand loam with very little clay at all. You can even make a good mud ball in most cases.

So as a result I have 1 left. But my nearest other chestnuts are roughly a 1/4 to 1/2 mile south and are much younger (maybe only a few feet tall). I am considering planting a could chinese in the plot in question... The only reason I tried the dunstan was to try to stay more native if possible, but I just want deer food in the end. I like the idea of mast trees as a food source I don't have to baby sit once I'm to old to be dicking with food plots. This same plot I have sawtooth that seem to be doing very well, so it's not like it's a swamp. But there is an area real close that will puddle for a day or so after a good rain.

Am I wasting my time with the chinese? Will the chinese pollinate the dunstan?
 
I have had terrible luck with dunstans and I've "assumed" it's because I have a lot of clay, plus it's colder here than they may like. Mine die back alot and end up looking more like a multi-stemmed bush.
I do believe the Chinese will pollinate them.
 
Don't worry about Chinese and Dunstans together. Dunstans are really just a large nut Chinese chestnut. True, they initially crossed some surviving American specimens with large nut Chinese varieties. With those and subsequent crosses focused on selecting for large nuts, there isn't enough American left in what is sold as a Dunstan chestnut to worry about.
 
1. No pollination problem between the two - like chickenlittle said.

2. Chestnuts won't tolerate wet feet, and the soil needs to be acidic. Generally soil that grows typical oaks well will grow chestnuts well.

3. Dunstans are more fussy than Chinese. There is a good chance that Chinese will work for you.
 
Let's start with a definition of "Dunstan". It was the patented variety name of a cross, but it is also a trade name used by Chestnut Hill. The patented Dunstan chestnut has to be grafted. They are genetically identical and can not pollinate each other. You probably don't have these.

I believe Chestnut Hill grows seedlings from the nuts of the patented Dunstan variety and sells them under the name Dunstan. (They have done a great job of marketing to the hunting community). This is most likely what you have. Anything in the chestnut family seems to be able to pollinate any other chestnut except for itself (or a clone of itself). I believe I've had Allegheny Chinquapins pollinate some of my "offspring of Dunstan".

OK, the reason I'm differentiating is this. The patented Dunstan did not seem to be susceptible to the blight (the reason for the cross). I've grown hundreds of chestnuts of chestnuts from the nuts from the original Dunstan variety. Most have never shown any signs of blight, but a few have. Remember, there has to be some other variety to provide 50% of the genetics for the patented Dunstan to produce nuts. I doubt that Chestnut Hill is bagging and hand pollinating. They are generally wind pollinated so they could have an idea of what other chestnuts are close enough to pollinate them. Regardless, every time you have sexual reproduction, even between the same two parents, there is variability in the offspring.

Your are right, that chestnuts don't like wet feet (American, Chinese, or crosses). I do have heavy clay and there is an infiltration difference between the native clay and the promix medium I'm using in my Rootmaker containers. So, I have to take care that I slope the soil so that ground water does not drain into my planting holes.

I can think of a few reasons:

1) If the trees were container grown in non-root pruning containers and you did not remove media and manually prune any circling or j-hooking roots, as trees age, the roots can constrict themselves and stress the tree. It would probably take longer to kill the trees if it was the only issue, but it could stress them making them and make them more susceptible to other things.

2) Wet feet, as you suggest could be causing problems.

3) You could loose a few to blight.

4) Something else that is not obvious. Voles or something could be feasting on the roots under ground.


You are not at all wasting time with Chinese. Take care when selecting planting locations so they don't get swamped with ground water when you get a heavy rain. The only reason I chose Dunstan was because I was because they had some characteristics I liked and I was growing them myself from nuts so the cost per tree was small unlike buying them already started. If you are looking for specific varieties to try, you might consider some of the Auburn wildlife varieties. They were not available when I was growing mine, but they have some with more hunting friendly drop times. I believe the Wildlife Group is the retailer. They are not cheap, but if you are only buying a few, that is not a big issue.

Best of luck,

Jack
 
I’m going to try about 10 of the late dropping AU Buck 3’s and 4’ this next year and I may very well mix in some other named verities of Chinese chestnut also. From what I’ve read the Dunstans are really just Chinese chestnuts with a slight amount of American genetics mixed in for marketing reasons I have no interest in planting them when there are better Chinese selections available.
 
1. No pollination problem between the two - like chickenlittle said.

2. Chestnuts won't tolerate wet feet, and the soil needs to be acidic. Generally soil that grows typical oaks well will grow chestnuts well.

3. Dunstans are more fussy than Chinese. There is a good chance that Chinese will work for you.

All good points

My best results in east texas were achieved on north and east facing sandy loam slopes

bill
 
I’m going to try about 10 of the late dropping AU Buck 3’s and 4’ this next year and I may very well mix in some other named verities of Chinese chestnut also. From what I’ve read the Dunstans are really just Chinese chestnuts with a slight amount of American genetics mixed in for marketing reasons I have no interest in planting them when there are better Chinese selections available.

I don't think there are "better" Chinese chestnuts in general. There are just different Chinese chestnuts with somewhat different characteristics. The chestnuts with the characteristics that are best suited to your application are the best ones for you.
 
I posted this in my land tour thread as well, but I also thought I would share here.

This is what I found of the tree that died. I thought I would share some pictures....

Here you see the root rot pretty clearly. You can also see the "club" type feature with the root that I saw in the last one as well and I wonder if this is from it being a container plant. The dirt...that is a 12 to 18" deep hole the tree came from and the soil from it to show that I don't have a clay problem...
chestnut root rot.jpg

This is some lichen or the like I have on this tree and the last one had it as well, yet my other trees do not...
chestnut lichen.jpg

So as such...I am pretty sure I am done with messing with Dunstan Chestnuts....I will give the chinese ones a shot and see how they respond.
 
Remember Billy Bob Thornton character in Bad News Bears?

Describes my affair with chestnut trees

You can love chestnut trees, but they dont always love you back......"kinda like German chicks"

bill
 
So, one of my "dunstans" produced this year. The tree is more like 6 whippy sticks about 10-12 feet tall. Any of which that have burs are hanging to the ground. Most likely going to cut them all out eventually. I do have a pure American that's about 35 ft tall and beautiful. Hoping to someday have it pollinated with the blight resistant gmo chestnut.
 

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