Would like to plant something along edge of a food plot. This is bottom ground deep in a valley and dont think fruit trees would do well. Common to be 5 degrees cooler than ambient with not much winds. Planted some persimmon from MDC 4 years ago but I will probably die before there producing fruit. Was never interested before in Chestnuts because of there early drop date of September but this spot would be a neat place to plant 3 or 4 trees. Would be on North side of field and get good sunlight. Any thoughts?
Chinese chestnuts
- Thread starter BC Buck
- Start date
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
Auburn patented several wildlife Chinese chestnuts. Among them are AU Buck III and IV. AU Buck III is touted to drop from mid-September through mid-October and AU Buck IV is touted to drop from mid-October through mid-November. I would either tub or fence them. While my deer don't seem to seek out chestnuts for browsing, if they are on the edge of a field, deer will take a bite when walking by. The central leaders will get nipped and you will end up with bushes instead of tree. So, I'd protect them.
Auburn licensed their AU Buck patents to the Wildlife Group. I think they are the only source. So, if you are looking for later drop times than typical Chinese chestnuts you might consider these.
Thanks,
Jack
Auburn licensed their AU Buck patents to the Wildlife Group. I think they are the only source. So, if you are looking for later drop times than typical Chinese chestnuts you might consider these.
Thanks,
Jack
Native Hunter
5 year old buck +
You will need to cage them. Deer may or may not browse them, but they will definitely rub them.
Seedling Chinese Chestnuts on my farm drop from Mid September into October. I don't have any of the Wildlife Group trees but may add the AU Buck IV at some point. I've heard different people say that the Wildlife Group grafted chestnuts are hard to get to live.
Seedling Chinese Chestnuts on my farm drop from Mid September into October. I don't have any of the Wildlife Group trees but may add the AU Buck IV at some point. I've heard different people say that the Wildlife Group grafted chestnuts are hard to get to live.
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
That may be the case. I bought two AU buck IIIs and two AU Buck IVs a couple years ago. The were nut grafted trees. There were 1 year old when I go them. I immediately potted them in 3 gal rootbuilder II pots and overwintered them in my unheated garage. I woke them up early and put them under lights. I eventually acclimated them to my deck. I grew them there for the summer. Rather than having a lot of vegetative growth, they had some and then directed energy to producing nuts. I got several nuts from the cross of AU Buck III and IV. I then planted them in the field in the fall after they went dormant.
I did not protect them and they got some browsing. Then the Japanese beetles hit the leaves. They ended up dropping their leaves last summer. I have since protected them, but I won't know until next spring if they just went dormant early because of the stress or they actually died.
I cold stratified the nuts and started them under lights last year. I'm hoping these seedlings do better than the nut grafted trees. I would estimate I got about 1/2 the vegetative growth from the seedlings that I typically get from Dunstan seedlings. Rather than planting them in the fall like I typically do with Dunstans, I overwintered them in my cold room. I have not yet brought them in to wake them up under lights. I probably won't wake them up early because my basement is full of apple seedlings and Allegheny chinquapins. Instead, after our last threat of frost, I'll acclimate them to my deck and grow them out this summer. I plan to plant them next fall.
That is my experience thus far with the AU Buck III and IV.
Thanks,
Jack
Native Hunter
5 year old buck +
Keep us posted. I’ve decided to stay with pears for November dropping and just seedling chestnuts for the time being.
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
Will do. I'm not sure about the long term survival rates of nut grafted trees. However, I was shocked at the fast production. Keep in mind these were under optimal conditions growing in 3 gal RB2s on my deck. In addition to the maturity of the scion used in grafting, the constriction of the root system with these containers can force a tree into earlier fruiting. Nut production in the second growing season is pretty much unheard of.
I'm actually more excited about the AU Buck III x AU Buck IV (and vise versa) than the original trees. I know the parents here because they are wind pollinated and clonal variety chestnuts can not pollinate themselves. They were the only sexually mature chestnuts anywhere close so I know the trees I got the nuts from were the female parent and the other variety was the male. Since chestnuts are truer to seed than many trees, I'm expecting the offspring to have most of the same characteristics but they are seedlings and should be long lived.
Thanks,
Jack
H20fwler
5 year old buck +
You might look into some good DR pears for that area along with bare root Chinese chestnuts and/or hazelnuts. The chestnuts and pears would need to be screened and caged.
Tap
5 year old buck +
Why not plant both Chestnuts AND Pears? I have a hard time believing there aren't a few pear varieties that would survive just about anywhere in Missouri.
I have pears here in Pa that get hammered with frost during flower stage every year and they still produce bumper crops of pears. My Trophy Pears seem to be almost freeze proof.
I like the idea of varied varieties of mast...Chestnuts, pears, crabs, acorns. Offer them a smorgasbord. Also guards against seasonal mast failures of one specie or another, and also guards against total tree loss due to pest or disease. There's nothing more demoralizing that loosing a bunch of single species of trees to a pest just when they are getting nice and are starting to provide the reasons we planted them for.
