New to Chestnuts

[Goldentriangle]

I plan on growing my first chestnuts next year with Wayne's help. I noticed these two trees growing 2 blocks from my house in my neighbors hobby orchard. I have been given permission to all the nuts that I want. I am not sure of the variety and neither is my neighbor. Are these Chinese chestnuts? The heavily producing tree is maybe 20 ft tall tops.


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[wbpdeer]

What a great situation to have. When those drop can be in lock step or one tree can go first and the other one drop later. I will leave it to more experienced folks to determine if there are any American characteristics present. A very convenient setting for collection: a mowed year and no travel time.

Best time to collect is as early in the day as possible. Depending on how many you need, you may be able to collect on Saturday mornings. When burs begin to turn color and the seams begin to split, watch for a heavy rain or strong winds. That will load the ground up and makes collecting extremely simple.

Each bur can have a single, two or three chestnuts inside it. Weevils (little white grubs) a part of the process - they bore small holes in the chestnut. Float testing is in your future.

Five gallon and two gallon buckets are what I use to hold the chestnuts. I have a nut wizard now but for a long time I used leather gloves.

Advice: Go out of your way to keep the home owner happy. Offer them part of all collections. They may enjoy eating them or sharing them with friends. Be tight lipped about where you are collecting - you will have competition soon if not careful.

If the limbs of the tree are low enough, you can shake them to drop the burs barely hanging onto the limbs. Squirrels are you enemy - they will work on what you want to collect.

Congratulations on your opportunity. :) I will be glad to share with you what I have learned. If it helps people and the whitetail deer I am for it. Check your game laws about whether piling them in front of a game camera or a hunting situation is allowed.

Collection opportunities: eat them, grow in containers, direct seed them, use them as attraction for deer, share with friends. Personally, I am a grower in containers and I ship them to people that want to grow or direct seed.

Growing Opp: I hope the trees drop at different times for you. If you want trees for hunting purposes - you keep those chestnuts separated. LD to mean stands for late dropper. Mixed your plantings on your farm to provide better hunting opportunities. I am a bow hunter. Get buckets off different colors to collect on the front end in an organized fashion. I have 20 late droppers that will be mixed in on my farm. I think it will increase the hunting advantage for me by at least 3 weeks.

 

[Goldentriangle]

Hard to believe this has been only four houses away all this time and I am just now noticing! I caught the tree bug from you guys on the Qdma forum about 6 months ago. It is amazing the trees that I notice now that I know what I'm looking at.


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[wbpdeer]

You have your chestnut trees located. Find you some sawtooth and you will be in good shape.

Allegheny Chinkapin would be nice too. That is more of an understory tree or feathered edge.

Do you know how to float test a chestnut? I soak mine overnight to hydrate them when I collect them. I cold stratify in the fridge so that lowers the moisture. After they have been in the fridge 80 to 90 days I pull them and soak them about 4 hours. Then in the growing media they go.

Big overview explanation. I am excited for you - collecting is fun. :D

I work off TV trays in my TV Room as well as the floor.

Now that you have burs on the tree you are watching - wind and rain and time. I like collecting early in the day, especially if deer have a crack at what is on the ground.

 

[Neahawg]

Looks like a good wildlife tree, curious to see what size the chestnuts are from that tree.

 

[Goldentriangle]

Thanks Wayne I am sure I will be picking your brain. Neahawg, not sure about the size of the nuts yet but the burs are a little bit larger than a golfball right now.


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[yoderjac]

It is great to have someone else getting into growing trees from seed. Wayne is a great resource when it comes to growing chestnuts. We are all learning from each other as we go. I started with chestnuts and have added more different kinds of trees each year. I move over a number of chestnut threads from (as Wayne would say) the other site. They are a great starting point. Feel free to ask specific questions as you go and share some pics as things unfold!

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Weasel]

How old do you guys think the tree pictured above is?

 

[wbpdeer]

I will venture a guess - around 20 years old. A guess is a guess. So I went first - guess the target is on me.

Old enough - our friend is going to collect many chestnuts beneath it! :)

 

[yoderjac]

As I recall, Massy on the "other site" posted pictures of 10 year old trees that were significantly smaller than that one. Keep in mind that tree growth rates vary with climate, nutrients, and water. Trees in folks yards often grow faster and produce sooner because they get good light and water and fertilizer from lawn maintenance.

Thanks,

jack

 

[WTNUT]

How long will chestnuts store in fridge and still germinate?


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[Goldentriangle]

I stopped by and talked to the owner. We walked his small orchard and he showed me he has six different chesnut trees of varying sizes. They all have a bunch of burs on them. I will ask him how old the grees are next time because i'm sure he planted them. Can't believe these have been sitting here right under my nose!

 

[yoderjac]

Typically we collect them in the fall and begin the cold stratification process in the fridge and after 60 to 90 days plant them under lights. Cold stratification requires moisture and cold. If you have too much moisture you have more change of mold. If you don't have enough, it slows the cold stratification process and if the amount of moisture drops too low, cold stratification stops completely. IndianSam on the other site reported that he has stored chestnut in ziplock bags hydrated but without adding moisture holding medium in the bag. He has kept them in suspended animation for over a year and still had good germination rates. Keep in mind that if you don't have sufficient moisture, the won't stratify during the suspended animation so 60 - 90 days before you intend to plant them, add the moisture holding medium to the bag. I like to use long-fiber sphagnum for this purpose.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

I stopped by and talked to the owner. We walked his small orchard and he showed me he has six different chesnut trees of varying sizes. They all have a bunch of burs on them. I will ask him how old the grees are next time because i'm sure he planted them. Can't believe these have been sitting here right under my nose!

You should also ask him if he knows what kind they are. They are likely Chinese or some hybrid like Dunstan, but if it is an orchard they may be a specific variety. That might tell you what to expect from them.

Thanks,

jack

 

[Goldentriangle]

Thanks Jack, I'm really looking forward to getting this process going. I will be also working with some fruit trees. I started with pears this year but I plan on planting a bunch of persimmons from seed and I have also located some type of wild pear with the small brown pears that drop late. Can't wait to get this project going, now I just need to locate some dco acorns.


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[yoderjac]

Thanks Jack, I'm really looking forward to getting this process going. I will be also working with some fruit trees. I started with pears this year but I plan on planting a bunch of persimmons from seed and I have also located some type of wild pear with the small brown pears that drop late. Can't wait to get this project going, now I just need to locate some dco acorns.


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I got a couple pears started from seed this year as well. I have so many native persimmon trees growing wild on the farm, instead of planting, I graft them. I did start a bunch from seed a couple years ago for a specific project. They seemed to work out pretty well.I'm just starting to play with a few apples. This year I tried both Hazelnuts and Dwarf Chinquapin Oaks (DCO). Both were difficult to get started but are growing like gangbusters now.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[wbpdeer]

How long will chestnuts store in fridge and still germinate?


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Commercial seed/nut sources do carry chestnuts and seeds longer than one year. I don't do that because I have limited experience. Jack's post above cities one of the more accomplished American Chestnut suppliers that carries Americans over a year without difficulty.

Chestnuts are about moisture. Too much moisture plus some heat and mold will create havoc. Too little moisture and they seem to never germinate.
I learned that when they stall and act as if they will never germinate to soak them for about 6 hours and then put them back into the growing media.

I hope this response gives you some ideas. Wide range of germination seems to be the rule on Chinese Chestnuts based upon my experience. Cold stratification improves the germination rate the closer we get to 90 days than 60 days in the fridge.

 

[yoderjac]

Wayne,

Interesting. I knew commercial growers kept nuts over a year for consumption but I didn't know they did that for nuts sold for germination. I guess that is something folks might need to ask. I know when I've placed orders from the commercial sources I've used, I've always had to wait for them to collect and process them each season. Perhaps that was just coincidence that they had sold all their nuts from the previous year.

Thanks,

jack

 

[wbpdeer]

Jack,
https://sheffields.com/seeds/Castanea/dentata

Sheffield Seed Company is an example. The address above deals with "American Chestnuts" and the crop year was 2015. They have about 7 pounds for sale now.

This example backs up what the man from you mentioned that carries his over with luck on germination.

I personally want collecting time close to purchase time.

 

[yoderjac]

Jack,
https://sheffields.com/seeds/Castanea/dentata

Sheffield Seed Company is an example. The address above deals with "American Chestnuts" and the crop year was 2015. They have about 7 pounds for sale now.

This example backs up what the man from you mentioned that carries his over with luck on germination.

I personally want collecting time close to purchase time.

Sheffields is not an orchard that collects and sells chestnuts for germination. They are a seed broker that buys seed from many sources and resells them. I bought Sequins from them that thy got from china. I ordered them in the fall and didn't get any until very late spring. Those I've tried to cold stratify so far have completely failed to germinate. I got zero percent. I doubt I'll ever order from Sheffield again. As I recall I sent you some of them. Did you have any luck germinating them?

After my dealings with Sheffield, I think they were willing to resell anything they can get their hands on and deal with the consequences later. The nuts I got from them had mold when they arrived.

Do you know any chestnut orchard that sells nuts commercially that keeps them for over a year before selling them for germination? I'm sure it is possible but I have not run into it.

Thanks,

Jack