Growing Chestnuts in West Central Wi

[Lee Haakenson]

Hello everyone. I was wondering if anyone has had sucess growing chestnuts from seed in the WI/MN area? More specifically around west central Wi (menomonie). I was thinking of getting seed from Chestnut Ridge in IL, but they are sold out for the year.

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[yoderjac]

Chestnut ridge is selling nuts from Dunstan chestnut trees. Dunstan is a trademark of Chestnut Hill. Here is a clip from their web site regarding the advertised hardiness:

"USDA Hardiness Zone: 5-9 grown successfully from Maine and New York, west to Illinois and Wisconsin and south to east Texas and Florida. Dunstan Chestnut trees can tolerate temps as low as -20 degrees for established trees. Normal growing altitude is 4,000'. The Dunstan Chestnut requires 250 chill hours for for the chestnuts to ripen."

Hopefully someone with hands-on experience in your area will respond, but at least this is a starting point.

 

[John B]

Just a heads up, you dont have to get the "ones for growing" from chestnut ridge. I grew over 100 trees last year from their "eaters" and they are less than half the price and still in stock. ;)

 

[kabic]

Hello everyone. I was wondering if anyone has had sucess growing chestnuts from seed in the WI/MN area? More specifically around west central Wi (menomonie). I was thinking of getting seed from Chestnut Ridge in IL, but they are sold out for the year.

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First time I tried them, some did survive the first winter in containers that I kept in my garage, but then died the following summer. This year I grew in containers again, but have decided to put in the ground and see how they do. I'm south of Eau Claire, north of Lacrosse .

 

[Big Snow Man]

If I remember right there is a mature chestnut acreage around LaCrosse somewhere. There was a clip on the gentalmen that owns it last your on the news. I think the UW had been collecting nuts from that area to do some work on chestnut hardiness.

 

[CrazyEd]

I planted 3 dunstan's in 2014. I bought them in 2013 from Chestnut hill farms and kept them at home in my garden the first year. They were excellent growers and survived some very harsh winters with little snow pack. This past winter however I lost 2 of 3. In addition to the dunstans, i grew probably 20 american chestnuts from seeds from Indiana Larry? and also an order from Itasca greenhouse. I think of the 30-40 Am chestnuts i grew, i might have one survivor. I also grew some dunstans from seed from Stu, I think I have 4 trees in my garden right now, out of like 20 seeds. I had more bought lost 3-4 nice trees this past winter as well. Cool trees but i think other species are better choices.

I'll also add that I dont think i lost any of my trees to blight (i'm not an expert). I never saw signs of blight. They typically never seemed to wake up coming out of winter.

Planted April of 2014

August 2015

Here are some americans i purchased from Itasca Greenhouse. Of the 35 I planted, 0 survived using a mix of tubes and cages.

 

[kabic]

The never woke up from winter is what happened to half of my first batch. Container planted. Half stored in garage, half stored in garage stairwell that goes to basement...I didn't get keep track of which was which when I put them out on the south side of my house.


Here is picture from Oct of that first year

 

[Tree Spud]

I agree with both statements completely. In zone 4b-3a I think a guy would be much, much farther ahead focusing on apples/crabapples instead of chestnuts. Even winter hardy pears would be a better choice in the colder zones.

Number 2 is exactly what happens to the vast majority of chestnuts planted here. I do have a couple different varieties hanging on..but they aren't growing worth spit and apples/crabs planted at the same time will be producing mast in another year or two. I sincerely doubt any of my chestnuts will ever live enough to make a single bur.

There is a forum member (not sure he ever comes to this forum anymore) who has some Dunstans growing an hour+ north of the Twin Cities. He has lost some to winter kill, but still has some hanging on.

Bottom line - if you want to mess around and try to grow something well outside of their range - go ahead. Just don't expect them to ever produce any quantity of mast and don't be surprised when (I'd say when, not if) a bad winter kills them.

Stu ... What winter pear varieties would you recommend for 4b-3a?

 

[Lee Haakenson]

Thanks for the inputs everyone

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[kabic]

Kabic,

I think yours needed to either be mulched in heavily with bags of leaves to protect them or buried in the ground. My guess is yours got dried out inside and the roots got frozen outside.

Here's what I do. Once their leaves drop and they've hardened off I put 2-3" of mulch on them. Then pull the mulch out once the threat of sub zero temps has passed in the spring.

This year I only have 2, and they are getting planted, and then mulched with leaves, then in the spring I will have to remove the leaves like you said. I will have to fold down the window screen in the spring as well...

I haven't mulched yet, but did get one in the ground, got to do the other this weekend.

 

[homegrownbucks]

I have dunstan and some cold hardy Chinese in west central wi that are looking good so far. No nut production as of yet, 2 years old and probly 3-5 feet tall. I also have a handful of badgerset hybrids that I know can produce in Vernon county that I am optimistic for, but they were just started from nuts this spring so we will see.

 

[cavey]

Hello everyone. I was wondering if anyone has had sucess growing chestnuts from seed in the WI/MN area? More specifically around west central Wi (menomonie). I was thinking of getting seed from Chestnut Ridge in IL, but they are sold out for the year.

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Lee,
I have both, American and Chinese trees planted just west of Menomonie in the clay hills west of town... The American's have not done anything and I have a few Chinese chestnuts that are producing. That's not saying you wont have better luck - when I planted them I didnt protect them from the deer at first and they got pounded, all that being said and years ago.. I have some 9' chinese chestnuts and the american ones are struggling just to stay alive.

I second the following:
"I agree with both statements completely. In zone 4b-3a I think a guy would be much, much farther ahead focusing on apples/crabapples instead of chestnuts. Even winter hardy pears would be a better choice in the colder zones"

Ive been focusing on soft mast like apple trees now. Its fun to try other plantings so give a few of the chestnuts a try I just wouldnt go over board with your plantings. Apple trees and water are top on my list for improvements right now.

 

[Jayber]

Just a heads up, you dont have to get the "ones for growing" from chestnut ridge. I grew over 100 trees last year from their "eaters" and they are less than half the price and still in stock. ;)

Just ordered 3# as the 'growers' sold by the # were all sold out. Hoping they produce!

 

[Jayber]

Hello everyone. I was wondering if anyone has had sucess growing chestnuts from seed in the WI/MN area? More specifically around west central Wi (menomonie). I was thinking of getting seed from Chestnut Ridge in IL, but they are sold out for the year.

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Lee,

I just ordered (non-growers) from C.R. per John B's insight.

I'm attempting to raise Dunstans in an area ~1 hour north of you. Too early to tell at this juncture............I purchased (2) Dunstan trees last Spring that I now have in bin located in my garage, trying to baby them through the winter. I had some issues with the clay soil in my area holding too much moisture. I'll be working to improve things next Spring.

I heard that if you can get them through 2-3 seasons your opportunity of success improves quite a bit. We shall see. The trees weren't cheap, which is why I've purchased nuts to stratify for back-ups.

 

[CedarSwamp]

Any update from anyone on here regarding hardiness of different chestnut varieties?

I don’t expect any to survive in my area or produce mask but I’m going to experiment anyways. I saw online that badgersett looked fairly hardy, but most of what I can find on them is from around 2015 so not sure if you can even buy those anymore.

I’m also experimenting with Meader Persimmon which I expect to not produce either, but I have so many apple trees that I’m looking for other things to experiment with....

 

[Wintomatic]

I planted 100 Chestnut whips from Badgersett farm 6 years ago. Caged them all. 90% survival rate, most fatalities from pocket gophers. The following spring in the middle of May they were all budded out ready to leaf and Then there was a freak hard frost...26*. Almost all of them died. About a dozen finally grew leaves from the ground level, but I ended up with 4 survivors. Which all got killed by pocket gophers!
They did survive the winter though ( about 20 miles north of Alexandria, MN). I tried to contact Badgetsett several times about it but they never responded back to me.
6 years later and over 1,000 pocket gophers trapped, this is the first year we have only gotten about 15 of them so far (usually over 100 by now). It’s amazing how much of a population can form after 30 years in CRP brome grass. About 50 acres of brome grass was plowed under. When I started I couldn’t walk 4’ in any direction without being on another giant pocket gopher mound.

 

[OakSeeds]

I have a suggestion for you folks in the north who seem to lose chestnut trees during the winter. I have known several farmers who placed straw bales around a well house in order to prevent freezing. A simple experiment might be in order; place 4-5 straw bales around the chestnut tree to retard freezing the roots of young trees that are not deeply rooted. I have no idea if it would sufficiently protect the tree; however, it would be a relatively inexpensive experiment to try and identify a way to grow (surviving) chestnut trees in more northern climates. Good luck to anyone who might give it a shot!

 

[homegrownbucks]

No signs of life on our bigger trees yet this spring, getting a little nervous. I’ve had no luck contacting badersett in the last couple years, looks like they are semi active on Facebook but I don’t go in there much. I do have some chinkapins popping up in our nursery so hopefully something will produce, if the bigger trees do wake up I think we could have a few nuts this year.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I cant recall the name right now but there is a place over by Viroqua that grows chestnuts.

 

[homegrownbucks]

I cant recall the name right now but there is a place over by Viroqua that grows chestnuts.

Probably forestag, pretty sure they got their original seed from badgerset. Took a tour there a few years back, pretty cool place