MY chestnut died!

[ts_13]

I have/had a large chinese chestnut (about 18ft, coke can dia). It produced roughly 30 burs last year. I went to the farm yesterday and it was dead! Its trying to sprout up from the roots but the top is stone cold dead. All of my other chestnuts are fine. This was one of 25 chestnuts. It was a rootmaker tree, anyone else see this? It was very healthy (so i thought).

 

[yoderjac]

My largest trees are not that diameter yet and I have not had catkins. I've had a few smaller trees die. One was in a tree tube and was about 7' tall. It was growing great. A bear can through and tore the tube off of it and a few others as well as tearing up a blind. The tree was green into fall and even greened up the following spring. It seemed to be fine but the following year, it died. I had not retubed it. I don't know if it was result of injury sustained early from the bear or something else. It was a Dunstan.
Thanks,

Jack

 

[ts_13]

This one was spotless..... I dont get it.... It had 30+ burs last year, great start to a good tree. I guess this fall I will select one sucker and let it re grow. but DANG! It was one of my best.

I just cannot figure out what happened.

 

[yoderjac]

One thing I'd check are the roots. Sometimes sudden death occurs when voles or some other critter munches through roots.

 

[ts_13]

Its re sprouting. Would it do that if vermin were involved?

T

 

[yoderjac]

Yes. It really depends on what happened. If something eats through major roots, suddenly the tree becomes unbalanced where the root system can't support top growth. Sometimes top growth will die. Many trees, especially chestnuts respond to injury by putting up new shoots. That is one reason why chestnuts are not easy to graft. They would rather put up a new shoot than push the graft.

I'm not saying the vermin is the answer here, just one possibility.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Native Hunter]

I've had a Chinese chestnut tree slightly smaller than yours to die and come back 3 times now. When it gets up about 14 feet high it dies. I have many other big chestnut trees nearby, and no issues whatsoever with them. I have no idea what is going on with this tree.

 

[yoderjac]

Another thought could be blight. Chinese chestnuts are naturally resistant to blight but not immune. In my area, Allegheny Chinquapins (related to the American chestnut) get blight regularly. Unlike the American chestnut, the blight does not interfere much with wildlife value. They begin producing nuts very quickly. When hit with blight, they die back and then resprout from the root system and start producing nuts again in a year or so. Did you check it for signs of blight?

Thanks,

Jack

 

[ts_13]

Humm! I did not.... I will definitely check next time I am up there. I know one of my others had it, but scabbed over and is ok now. Maybe that was it.