chestnut yield this year

[Persimman]

Here's my chestnut trees and the yields this year. Maybe others are interested in realistic expectations. This year we had a bad drought and many of the burrs stayed small very late. Trees are planted in clay on a fescue hill with limestone ledges, zone 7a. 6 hrs daily sun. Near my house which is how I can gather them every day. Generally the Dunstans dropped 10-14 days later than the straight Chinese, but you can see how this year was. Can't find all my notes, but in 2021 all three together did over 50 lbs. 2023 was zero cuz of late freeze. Daily totals don't tell the whole story, cuz the burrs are ripening and opening, and actual drop time is very much influenced by wind. So 3 calm days and then a thunderstorm gives a sudden yield boost. But I still like looking at the numbers.
Tree 1 CHO Dunstan spring 2012, with cattle damage the first 2 years
Tree 2 EFN Chinese spring 2012.
Tree 3 CHO Dunstan spring 2016. INCREDIBLE grower, with significant wind damage this year. excellent crop in 2021.
This year:

	tree 1	tree 2	tree 3	subtotal
09/17/24	combined	combined	combined	3.0
09/18/24	2	combined	combined	22.0
09/19/24	2.5	11.7	10.2	24.4
09/20/24	3.1	3.3	7.7	14.1
09/21/24	2.3	2.6	5.4	10.4
09/22/24	15.5	10.1	9.5	35.1
09/23/24
09/27/24	14.5	6.5	13.5	34.5
10/02/24	6.2	1.1	2.8	10.0
10/06/24	1.1	0.3	0.6	2.0
totals	47.5	35.6	49.7	156

Kept a few for myself and easily sold the rest for $5/pound. I haven't checked my trees in the woods since July. Hopefully their yield is going to the deer and not squirrels or bears.

 

[fingers]

This is really interesting data, thanks. Wonder what additional % drop the nut while the bur is still attached and get gobbled up overnight...for me, I suspect that's alot of the total.

Any estimate of age or trunk diameter for those trees?

 

[Persimman]

This is really interesting data, thanks. Wonder what additional % drop the nut while the bur is still attached and get gobbled up overnight...for me, I suspect that's alot of the total.

Any estimate of age or trunk diameter for those trees?

I'd say usually 90% of them drop free of the bur. But this year it was maybe 50%. If I would wait the bur would continue to dry and finish opening while on the ground, but since I was trying to get them daily I'd pry it apart and dump the nuts out. Took a lot of time! I need to invent a chestnut pickerupper. A lot of these late small burs only have one very large nut. It's an unusual year.
There wasn't much predation. No squirrels or deer, and not many coons or skunks. I only saw 3 times where nuts had been chewed up. 'course it would be different in the woods, which is...why I planted some in the woods. So I think these numbers are 99% of the real total. My biggest problem was the neighbor's range chickens getting in and rooting through the mulch. They eat the grubs, but also cover up the nuts. Frustrating.
For tree age just add 1 year to the planting dates. Like, 13 years and 9 years.

Pic from Sep 19.