Dunstan Chestnuts worth it?

[huntall]

I hope they are worth it. I planted 5 and looking forward to see how they do!

 

[CrazyEd]

I'll experiment with Dunstans this year and wait for the results next spring. I'm thinking in the future the only chestnuts I may try are American. At least they should be hardier

I've planted quite a few Americans the past 2 years. some from Itasca, some I started from seed from Indiana Larry. a mix of cages and tubes at the farm. even held a half dozen back at home in a mix of roottrappers and root makers. all are dead to my knowledge. my dad did keep 3 from Itasca and planted at his house and they survived. tough tree to figure out.

 

[CrazyEd]

I'm gonna have to try some of this watersorb. Where you get your Ed?

I bought from Watersorb.com

 

[wildfire]

My Dunstans had die back to snow line. Growth this year has been great. Worst year for weather.

 

[Steve Bartylla]

Here's what I keep coming back to every time I start considering buying them. On realtree's nursery site, it says in 10 years they can produce 10-25 lbs. Now, you know the numbers they are using are in ideal conditions and they are talking top end range. So, if I plant 10 of them, in 10 years, I'd be extremely lucky to produce 100 lbs of chestnuts. Now, $300 isn't a bank breaker, but, for the time and $300, I can do a lot of stuff that will produce a heck of a lot more than 100lbs of food, and I won't have to wait 10 years to see those levels.

That said, I'm extremely tempted to grow a bunch from seed and likely will start on that within the next few years...$20 for a lbs of seed I can see being worth it, just to add another attractant, even if it will never be enough to make a big nutritional difference.

Just my thoughts/how I work things through in my twisted little mind.

 

[Steve Bartylla]

Thanks for the tips, NH...particularly regarding the tree rats.

Stu, that's the same reason I'll no doubt eventually start some from seeds. Just give them one more thing they can't get somewhere else.

 

[CrazyEd]

Here's a few shots of my 3 Dunstan Chestnuts today. Come a long way in 2 weeks. They are very well leafed out now. Again these were bought as seedlings from chestnut hill farms in 2012. I put them in 7 gallon roottrapper bags for the first year, they were kept in my garden at home and I spoiled them with plenty of water and composted manure. They were spring planted in 2013. Here they are a little over a year later (2nd year on the farm, 3 year old tree).

Looks like we did have a little tip die back but not much. Tree's look great in my opinion. The fact they survived this past winter means they should be good to go!

 

[CrazyEd]

 

[j-bird]

I going to sit tight for now on purchasing any as I have to get with Steve on my property evaluation and see what he has to say. I have been busy with getting my boy graduated and all from High School some my timing with Steve has been pushed back. No point in planting trees to find out I put them in the wrong spot! There is always next year.

 

[OHIOShedder]

Some Rural Kings in IN have them marked down to $24 per tree. The trees are small IMO. I know of stores north of you, not sure if any are in your area.

 

[nwmn]

Just transferred my dunstans that I had started in the basement this winter into 7 gallons. I noticed that they had started to look a little pale and didn't carry that healthy green sheen it once had. IS that a sign of the roots outgrowing the old root trappers? I have bur oaks as well, with one or two of them looking nice and dark green with new growth being a rich dark red, which I assume is what I want, whereas the rest are looking a little pale as well. Will be transferring them into the 7 gallons once I get the time to do so. Could they possibly be nutrient deprived from maxing out the peat moss capacity in the smaller rootmaker bags?

Here are the dunstans. I think they've done well so far and hopefully can continue to thrive. We just need the sun to finally appear!

 

[nwmn]

I would say they were pretty filled out, the entire rootball contained the potting soil so I assume it was full. I'll check out the fish emulsion. Thanks!

 

[nwmn]

Not to be stupid, but which type of product was it? I'm finding a couple different ones, would hate to buy one that won't help.