Been a while since I've posted anything on this site. But something unexpected happened that I would like to share.
I ordered chinese chestnuts seeds from route 9 and received them in early November. I was able to plant them in groups of 3 on Nov 14. At the time I thought I had planted them in straight lines. 2 weeks ago I had chestnut and pear seedlings I wanted to plant in the same place and in the same lines. I noticed one the sites where I planted a set of chestnut seeds was out of line with the rest of the trees. I grabbed a shovel and not being to careful, dug up the 3 seeds. After a shovel full of dirt I started to move the dirt around with the shovel to locate the seeds. I started to notice some green in the dirt. At first I figured it was just some grass that was mixed up in the dirt. Then when I did locate the seeds 2 of them already had 1-2" taproots and 1 already started growing the upward growth. In the process I halfway dis-located one of the tap roots. I was really shocked that the seeds had already started growing the taproots and really surprised that 1 had already growing the trunk. I thought that the seeds needed months of cold stratification before anything happened. This was November and early December in east Texas. That time of year we get a range of temps between 30-85 F. Mostly its in the 60's and 70's. I was really starting to question the whole cold stratification process. Could somebody please explain to me why I had growing chestnut sees in such a short amount of time? I didn't think about taking pics until the end but I got a good pic of 1 seed with a taproot.
I ordered chinese chestnuts seeds from route 9 and received them in early November. I was able to plant them in groups of 3 on Nov 14. At the time I thought I had planted them in straight lines. 2 weeks ago I had chestnut and pear seedlings I wanted to plant in the same place and in the same lines. I noticed one the sites where I planted a set of chestnut seeds was out of line with the rest of the trees. I grabbed a shovel and not being to careful, dug up the 3 seeds. After a shovel full of dirt I started to move the dirt around with the shovel to locate the seeds. I started to notice some green in the dirt. At first I figured it was just some grass that was mixed up in the dirt. Then when I did locate the seeds 2 of them already had 1-2" taproots and 1 already started growing the upward growth. In the process I halfway dis-located one of the tap roots. I was really shocked that the seeds had already started growing the taproots and really surprised that 1 had already growing the trunk. I thought that the seeds needed months of cold stratification before anything happened. This was November and early December in east Texas. That time of year we get a range of temps between 30-85 F. Mostly its in the 60's and 70's. I was really starting to question the whole cold stratification process. Could somebody please explain to me why I had growing chestnut sees in such a short amount of time? I didn't think about taking pics until the end but I got a good pic of 1 seed with a taproot.
