Chestnuts in colder climates

[bornagain62511]

Does anyone have chestnuts growing in places where you normally have temperatures as low as -20F or colder?? How old are the trees and how well do they produce nuts? Do you see any winter kill? I'm in Southwest Wisconsin driftless area and we usually have lows of -20 or colder every winter and I'm wondering how chestnuts will do around here. I've planted several hundred that I grew from seed from Chestnut Ridge of Pike County (Illinois). They are "Dunstan" chestnuts. Anyone with experience growing chestnuts in northern climate I'd be interested to hear what you have to say.
thanks

 

[silver_yummies]

I tried a few years ago. Grew then all from seed, tubed them and looked great/healthy in the fall. They didn’t survive that winter. 80 or so died and not one of them survived. Not worth the effort or chance in WI. I planted them in western WI drift less area.

 

[Hoytvectrix]

Maybe it depends on the variety? I live in the Twin Cities and there are a few 50 foot chestnut trees on a golf course I occasionally play. They are loaded with empty burrs every fall but I think are too far apart from each other for fertilization and creation of the chestnuts.

 

[Barndog56]

Waushara county here and I've got 1 Dunstan doing well out of 6, and a couple Chinese left out of 25. Some completely die over winter, others die back to ground level then re-sprout. I don't expect any to make it long term.

 

[bornagain62511]

thanks for the replies so far. I'd appreciate if anyone else could add their experiences.

Maybe it depends on the variety? I live in the Twin Cities and there are a few 50 foot chestnut trees on a golf course I occasionally play. They are loaded with empty burrs every fall but I think are too far apart from each other for fertilization and creation of the chestnuts.

I wonder if it's possible squirrels or coon are getting the nuts before you have a chance to see them? Good to hear they are doing so well that far north.

 

[trampledbyturtles]

I'm in 4b, can expect to hit -30 every other year. Have 5 chinese chestnuts. They die back to the ground every year.

 

[rocksnstumps]

Not much luck with chinese chestnut in 4b also at land.

However have seen some big chestnut at the Arboretum in Madison. Zone 5 there and a bit more protected and pampered so it's possible but expect WI is a bit out of the normal range. I have posted some pics of those trees before on here.

 

[Teeder]

I'm in 5b and my dunstans look terrible, though I did get nuts this past season. Lots of die back and the trees are more like multi-stemmed bushes.

 

[bornagain62511]

Thanks for all the replies and sharing your experiences

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

There is a stand of American Chestnuts around West Salem Wi. that are over a hundred years old. I know that the blight had finally caught up with them about 10-15 years ago but it sounded like some of them were hanging on.


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[S.T.Fanatic]

I tried a few years ago. Grew then all from seed, tubed them and looked great/healthy in the fall. They didn’t survive that winter. 80 or so died and not one of them survived. Not worth the effort or chance in WI. I planted them in western WI drift less area.

There is a stand of American Chestnuts around West Salem Wi. that are over a hundred years old. I know that the blight had finally caught up with them about 10-15 years ago but it sounded like some of them were hanging on.


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[S.T.Fanatic]

I tried a few years ago. Grew then all from seed, tubed them and looked great/healthy in the fall. They didn’t survive that winter. 80 or so died and not one of them survived. Not worth the effort or chance in WI. I planted them in western WI drift less area.

There is a stand of American Chestnuts around West Salem Wi. that are over a hundred years old. I know that the blight had finally caught up with them about 10-15 years ago but it sounded like a good amount of them were hanging on. The blight is what is killing them though not the climate.


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[Barndog56]

While it won't help you this year as they're sold out, Mark Shepard has a forest ag company near Madison that breeds chestnuts. The trees are left to fend for themselves and the ones that grow best are selected for breeding. He's got several YouTube videos talking about them and other good stuff.

Mark Shepard

Mark Shepard is the CEO of Forest Agriculture Enterprises LLC, founder of Restoration Agriculture Development LLC and award-winning author of the book, Restoration Agriculture: Real-World Permaculture for Farmers. Mark has also been a farmer member of the Organic Valley cooperative, the worlds...

www.forestag.com

 

[b116757]

I have no first hand experience with these.

Chinese Chestnut – Mossbarger Seedlings – Sold Out | Red Fern Farm

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

Just watched the video in the link about establishing chestnuts. Very worthwhile watch on a boring Sunday evening. Do yourself a favor, if nothing else FF it to about 1:25 min in and watch the portion on herbicide. Informative and something new to try if not doing it already.


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[Troubles Trees]

Native American Chestnuts grew north into the southern part of Maine naturally and are similar latitude to Wisconsin but that is the northern edge of the natural range. If it were me I would plant a couple Chinese and a couple Dunstan but not invest too heavily until you know. A good alternative is Allegheny Chinquapin's (Castanea pumila), they hold up to my winters here in NY and had my first catkin 4 years after planting.

I do live in the colder region in NY and have both Dunstan and Chinese planted, they are only a few years old but did well and most have survived so far. We had 3 weeks of 20-30 below temps in late January if that helps.

 

[homegrownbucks]

Mark Shepard is in sw Wisconsin and has a grove of complex hybrids growing and producing there. My guess is that dunstan won’t do very well in that area, I’ve tried a little farther n of lacrosse without success. Winter dieback most years and resprouting from the roots is typical.

 

[Hoytvectrix]

The chestnuts that I have seen in the Twin Cities were on Les Bolstad golf course (The University of Minnesota golf course). They are over 50 feet tall and produce thousands of nutless burrs each year (I believe because they are not getting pollenated). Could the university be doing something to keep them alive?

 

[bornagain62511]

Native Chestnuts grew north into the southern part of Maine naturally and are similar latitude to Wisconsin but that is the northern edge of the natural range. If it were me I would plant a couple Chinese and a couple Dunstan but not invest too heavily until you know. A good alternative is Allegheny Chinquapin's (Castanea pumila), they hold up to my winters here in NY and had my first catkin 4 years after planting.

I do live in the colder region in NY and have both Dunstan and Chinese planted, they are only a few years old but did well and most have survived so far. We had 3 weeks of 20-30 below temps in late January if that helps.

Troubles Trees, so do you mean that during the winter of 2020-2021 you had Dustan chestnuts that were several years old and growing in natural settings in -20 to -30 during January of 2021 and they survived well and leafed out normally in spring/summer 2021 with little to no winterkill?
thanks!

 

[rocksnstumps]

Mark Shepard is in sw Wisconsin and has a grove of complex hybrids growing and producing there.

Shephard is in Viola, WI which is pretty much the same as the NE tip of Iowa weatherwise. He does have the advantage of being on former ag land so his soil was more fertile to start with compared to some hunting properties that one wants to plop in some food plots or plantings where soils or conditions are more challenging. If things were good enough for crops, it would have been planted at one time or another. In my area the aerial photos from 1938 show similar fields as today. No new great discovered ag spots since then.

Where I'm going with this is if you want to be on the edge of a plant's native range it helps a bunch to have good soil.

Btw I have purchased hybrid hazelnuts from Shephard and they have done better than a different batch from Vermont. Jury is still out on others from upper NY.

Further edit, the big trees in Madison WI are American Chestnut.