Allegheny Chinquapins as Landscape?

[yoderjac]

Well, I had lots more Allegheny Chinquapins grown from seed than I could handle this year. I took the best and brightest and transplanted them from 1 gal to 3 gal RB2s. I find I get much better trees in the field if they have filled 3 gal RB2s. Chestnuts can do that in 1 season, but ACs are much slower growers. I plan to over winter them and give them another growing season before taking them to the farm.

I gave about 20 of the rest that were in 1 gal RB2s to another member who is local. I still had more than I can overwinter. So, I decided to take 14 of them and plant them as landscape in the back yard. They have better conditions here and I can water them as needed so I'm hoping they will survive and do OK when planted from 1 gal RB2s.

I guess time will tell how they do as landscape.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[NorthPotter]

I think they will look good. I have not used these as a landscape specimen but some do develop a nice rounded ornamental shape.

Mine have just about finished opening their burrs. The animals found them a couple weeks ago and are going crazy trying to get them all. They are not even deterred by my nearby presence and actually seem like they are on a mission to get 'em. Mine open a little earlier since they are near the PA/NY line but this year they are slightly late due to the warm weather.

 

[yoderjac]

Yes, my native trees at the farm open in September. I checked one week and they were just starting to open but I didn't have time to collect nuts. When I got down a week later, every nut was gone off every tree I could find. They are scarfed up quickly. Too bad they don't last into our bow season.

 

[H20fwler]

Chinquapin is something that I’ve wanted to try, I have a little concern about blight? Is that an issue at all with them?
I think with the early fall drop they could definitely fill a spot in the food chain and I like the small size nuts.

For landscape trees are the burs just like chestnuts with the thorns?
From what I have read it sounds like wildlife goes after them like chestnuts and hazelnuts.

 

[yoderjac]

Chinquapin is something that I’ve wanted to try, I have a little concern about blight? Is that an issue at all with them?
I think with the early fall drop they could definitely fill a spot in the food chain and I like the small size nuts.

For landscape trees are the burs just like chestnuts with the thorns?
From what I have read it sounds like wildlife goes after them like chestnuts and hazelnuts.

ACs are susceptible to the blight, but they have a different response. The blight top kills them like fire, but they bounce back quickly from the roots and begin producing nuts quickly because of the root system. With chestnuts, the trees die back and then resprout from the roots but never produce nuts. So, I find ACs a good wildlife tree even though they do get blight.

This is why I was so interested in the Seguins. They have similar characteristics but are resistant to blight. I have not had much success with them so far, but ACs grow wild on my farm.

Yes, I did consider the burs from a landscaping perspective. They are pretty tiny and don't last long at the farm. In this location, I don't think they will be a problem. At least I should have an easy to collect nut source in a few years.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[NorthPotter]

Chinquapin is something that I’ve wanted to try, I have a little concern about blight? Is that an issue at all with them?
I think with the early fall drop they could definitely fill a spot in the food chain and I like the small size nuts.

For landscape trees are the burs just like chestnuts with the thorns?
From what I have read it sounds like wildlife goes after them like chestnuts and hazelnuts.

Mine are also susceptible to blight but a much smaller percentage get the blight compared to Americans. Although others had theirs die back to the ground, I have never had one die back completely to the ground. It seems to kill the top half of one or two shoots. Some bushes occasionally get the blight and some have not been susceptible to any blight since I started growing them in the early 90's.

Also, I can assure you that there are wild american chestnuts out there which survive the blight. Some of them produce burrs every year. I can assure you that you can collect those nuts from the survivor trees and grow them. These survivor trees are extremely rare.

It has been my experience that there are multiple species of pumilla (Allegheny Chinkapin) even though modern science places them into one species. I have 2 different southern sources and the southern sourced bushes seem to have a considerably different phenotype compared to Northern sourced bushes/trees. Not surprisingly, specimens I have purchased from southern sources or nuts collected from southern sources have NOT been nearly as successful in my 5A. If you are planting these in your Ohio 6A, I would purchase from a Northern source. There is a vendor in SE Ohio with a good Northern product.

 

[H20fwler]

Good info Jack and NorthPotter, gives me something to think about. I was kind of looking at the ones Empire Chestnut sells. The Seguins are very interesting, where do you get them and how well do they grow further north?

 

[yoderjac]

Good info Jack and NorthPotter, gives me something to think about. I was kind of looking at the ones Empire Chestnut sells. The Seguins are very interesting, where do you get them and how well do they grow further north?

I think some of the Chinese like the varieties Empire sells make good wildlife trees. The characteristics are slightly different but they have not been hyped to the hunting community like Dunstans.

I wish I could encourage you about Seguins more. I've had one heck of a time with them. I still have none in the field. My first try was buying nuts from Schumacher. They had mold when they arrived and none germinated. Next, I bought seedling trees from the Wildlife Group. I planted them in 3 gal RB2s and kept them on my deck the first year. Vegetative growth was slow but they produced a handful of nuts that first year on my deck. I stratified those nuts and germinated them. Germination rate was about the same as chestnuts. The problem was that I got some kind of disease that killed a number of my apple trees. The leaves went limp and they died. The seguins I got from the wildlife group got the same disease and died so I lost my nut source. Most of the seedling seguins got the same disease and died eventually. Only one seedling survived.

So, I'm far from recommending them. They have characteristics I like. I'm hoping the disease was a fluke and they only got it because they were clustered indoors with the apple trees. I understand the Wildlife group had some issues this year and is building their stock and not selling them this year. I plan to try again with them if I can get some. If you hear of a source for either seedlings or nuts (other than Schumacher) let me know.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[H20fwler]

Will do, I'm interested in finding some bare root or potted Seguins .
I have sure had mixed results when starting chestnuts in the winter, they seem so much more susceptible to weird things happening to them like bugs/root rot/disease and things. I've had some do great and others where whole batches crapped out...for me I'm not willing to put that kind of time and attention into them anymore that they probably need. I'm more of a direct seeder in spring with nuts from our farm now, it is always nice to spot a chestnut tree poking up through the grass or weeds that I had kind of forgotten about...some are over six feet tall now planted that way. I have noticed my "wild" ones do seem to grow slower than my planted caged ones that didn't have to compete as hard from day one to survive.

 

[yoderjac]

Yes, I've had mixed results with chestnuts as well. The first year they did great and I thought it was easy. In subsequent years, I learned a lot and my success rates improved. It is sometimes feast or famine. This year I had so many ACs that did well that I gave away 20 and planted 14 in the yard. I don't see anything wrong with direct seeding. Trees do grow as fast, at least in the early years, but I don't know if they eventually catch up or not.

I've grown so many chestnuts over the years, that I'm now on to other trees.

 

[TreeDaddy]

i love ACs because they seem to thrive at my place

........so do hogs,fire ants,woolly crouton,and army worms......

bill