Ozark Chinquapin

[letemgrow]

These two are looking great here in Olathe, KS. I tried some at the farm, but as luck would have it, something pulled the tube up this winter. I’ll be looking for the ones planted at the farm with a magnifying glass to see if they can be found.

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[Troubles Trees]

Nice! I planted 100 Allegheny Chinquapins last year, I am in Central NY so Ozark wouldn't do much good here. Like you, I tubed them for the first year, I was surprised at the first years growth. When I planted them they averaged 12-18" in height, but by the end of the first summer most of them were just peeking out of the top of 5 foot tall tree tubes!
I am not very familiar with Ozark, but Allegheny naturally grow more as a bushy tree structure, so I will be removing the tubes this spring when I get around to it. Tubes promote more of a tall lanky overall structure than they grow naturally, but either way they will grow nuts obviously.
Keep us updated bud!

 

[letemgrow]

Really putting on the growth now.

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[letemgrow]

Giving them another try at my farm.

This one is some type of funky hybrid Ozark Chinquapin. It’s potentially crossed with a Chinese Chestnut is my guess. The small seed next to it is an Ozark Chinquapin for reference. The large seeded tree only had one nut per bur.

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[yoderjac]

Cool tree!

 

[tynimiller]

I really want to get ahold of some these. Very cool tree and unique!

 

[letemgrow]

I really want to get ahold of some these. Very cool tree and unique!

I’ll be heading back down there next September/October to collect for the research center to send out chinquapins.

I’ve already been given the clearance to do so by Mr. Thomas.


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[yoderjac]

Other than the native ranges, Ozark Chinquapin and Alleghany Chinquapin are quite similar. We have a lot of ACs growing on our land. I've collected nuts and propagated them to increase the number of trees we have. I find them quite interesting. They get blight sometimes just like American chestnuts, but their response is different. American chestnuts, if not killed by blight, rarely regrow and produce nuts. AC on the other hand responds like it does to fire. It is top-killed and then bounces back from the root system, but it produces nuts in a year or two after bouncing back. They are good native tree to have on the pine farm. They do fairly well in the understory but like edges where they get a bit more light. When pines are thinned and burned, they bounce back and produce nuts quickly.

If you are looking for a rare tree, Ozark would fit that bill. But, if you are looking for most of the same characteristics, look at Alleghany Chinquapin. They are much more available.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[chickenlittle]

I mostly agree with Jack about the American chestnut. American chestnut will continue to stump sprout but they just rarely live long enough to produce nuts before the blight kills the tree again. We have a number of chestnuts in our woods in central PA, maybe a dozen, that I believe continue to grow from the roots. The largest I know are about 4" dbh and reaching for oak canopy. These would be trees left over from when the blight tore through there in the 1920s, still trying to make it. I always flag them so we don't accidently damage them.

 

[letemgrow]

I mostly agree with Jack about the American chestnut. American chestnut will continue to stump sprout but they just rarely live long enough to produce nuts before the blight kills the tree again. We have a number of chestnuts in our woods in central PA, maybe a dozen, that I believe continue to grow from the roots. The largest I know are about 4" dbh and reaching for oak canopy. These would be trees left over from when the blight tore through there in the 1920s, still trying to make it. I always flag them so we don't accidently damage them.

Do you clear out around the trees? I’ve always wondered if they could produce if treated like an apple orchard.


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[yoderjac]

Personally, I think that even though they are related, Chinquapins and chestnuts are fundamentally different. Chinquapins, at least in my area tend to form a bush with many branches and produce nuts when they are only a few years old. Some do take tree form, but all produce nuts at an early age. The American chestnut use to be a dominant tree in the eastern forest. They are like our oak trees in that they don't produce nuts until they are 20 years old or so. I think they are adapted to take that long so they have time to reach forest canopy height. Chinquapins seem to fill a different niche. I find them along roads and field edges and such most often. They seem to fill a void earlier in succession than oaks or chestnuts.

I find that chestnuts respond to injury by producing root suckers. That makes them difficult to graft for me. Not only do you need to get the alignment just right,, they want to put their energy into producing root sprouts rather than pushing the graft. I think they tend to respond to injury from blight this way as well. I think if clearing around an American chestnut would cause it to recover and produce nuts, the ACF would have long ago found this.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[letemgrow]

Personally, I think that even though they are related, Chinquapins and chestnuts are fundamentally different. Chinquapins, at least in my area tend to form a bush with many branches and produce nuts when they are only a few years old. Some do take tree form, but all produce nuts at an early age. The American chestnut use to be a dominant tree in the eastern forest. They are like our oak trees in that they don't produce nuts until they are 20 years old or so. I think they are adapted to take that long so they have time to reach forest canopy height. Chinquapins seem to fill a different niche. I find them along roads and field edges and such most often. They seem to fill a void earlier in succession than oaks or chestnuts.

I find that chestnuts respond to injury by producing root suckers. That makes them difficult to graft for me. Not only do you need to get the alignment just right,, they want to put their energy into producing root sprouts rather than pushing the graft. I think they tend to respond to injury from blight this way as well. I think if clearing around an American chestnut would cause it to recover and produce nuts, the ACF would have long ago found this.

Thanks,

Jack

Sara Fitzsimmons (Penn State) had a pretty cool American Chestnut orchard I believe in PA that they kept cleared around. The American Chestnuts would blight and stump sprout over and over again while producing nuts in between. The “trees” were more like dense bushes but still were producing nuts.

The ACF isn’t going that route (I suspect) cuz it requires repeated maintenance like an apple orchard, but it does work.


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[yoderjac]

Sara Fitzsimmons (Penn State) had a pretty cool American Chestnut orchard I believe in PA that they kept cleared around. The American Chestnuts would blight and stump sprout over and over again while producing nuts in between. The “trees” were more like dense bushes but still were producing nuts.

The ACF isn’t going that route (I suspect) cuz it requires repeated maintenance like an apple orchard, but it does work.


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That is interesting. I think ACF is more interested in trees that did not succumb to the blight so much. The question then becomes the relative value of the approach. For wildlife, apples were low on my list because of the maintenance required. I eventually did add DR apples, but after the first year or two, they won't get any maintenance. I know a lot of guys do orchard style maintenance for apples. I can see that for a few trees for attraction, but I'm trying to work at scale for QDM so maintenance become a big problem. I've found working with native species to be the best bang for the buck. Both persimmons and ACs have been good wildlife trees for me. One non-native that seems to be doing pretty well so far is tigertooh jujube. Time will tell how the Dunstans I planted do in the long run.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[chickenlittle]

I have not tried clearing out around our chestnuts in the woods. I don't expect them to survive long enough to justify removing nearby oaks unless it reduced competition for another timber valueable oak. In terms of priorities, it would be just more thing way down on the to do list that I never get too. I do want to trim out our woods road at some point. If I get around to that, I could clear out more around the couple along that. For an orchard, I have a good start of chinese chestnut orchard in an old field.