Dunstan/Chinese Chestnut cross pollination question.

[nateb440]

I either read somewhere or heard someone tell me that dunstan chestnuts and Chinese chestnuts don’t cross pollinate and if mixed the nut yield would suffer. Is this true? Or can I mix dunstans with Chinese cn? Thanks for the advice.

 

[yoderjac]

Any member of the chestnut family can pollinate any other. The only issue with pollination is that a chestnut can't pollinate itself. That means if you buy a specific variety, you must plant more than one variety unless you have native trees nearby from the chestnut family. Chestnuts are primarily wind pollinated not insect pollinated. This means they need to be planted in proximity. Two chestnuts 100 yards apart are functionally sexually isolated. Some orchards use the strategy of planting chestnuts closer than they should be when mature to improve early nut production. They then cull tress as they mature to allow each to get sufficient resources.

Keep in mind that "Dunstan" was originally a named variety that was a cross between American and Chinese. However, it was also registered as a trade name and now seed grown trees are sold under the brand name "Dunstan". Unless you purchased grafted trees they are likely seed grown and can pollinate each other.

For wildlife purposes, I'd have no concerns about mixing Chinese and Dunstan plantings. The male parent may affect the characteristics of the nuts. This may be an issue for a orchard selling nuts for human consumption, but I don't see any issues with it for wildlife purposes.

There are a few characteristics I do like about dunstans. But they are not head and shoulders better than Chinese for wildlife. If you specifically want the characteristics of dunstans and plan to use the trees as a nut source for growing more, then you might want to keep the Chinese outside pollination range.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[nateb440]

Excellent. Thanks Jack!