chickenlittle
5 year old buck +
I have a small sloped area at the end of a field that I am turning into a small chestnut orchard. My plan has been to plant seedlings at relatively tight spacing and thin later on to 30 ft or so spacing. We laid out two 300ft rolls of 3ft wide lumite ground cloth and will plant about every 6 ft. I bought seed from Empire Chestnut last fall, 1lb wildlife hybrid, 1lb chinese, and 1/4 lb allegheny chinkapin. I also planted some hazelnut seedling in this planting too.
I also got some american hybrids from a chestnut researcher that I planned to plant in an thinned oak forest. She gave me a general lineage of the seeds. On one side, there was an American x Chinese cross followed by 2 back crosses to American. On the other side there was a cross of an American to a Euro-Jap hybrid and then 2 back crosses to American. We'll see how they do.
I did not realize the chinkapins germinated in the fall. We tried putting them out in a protected cold-frame late in the fall but never saw any growth in the spring.
The hybrids and chinese started germinating in the spring in the fridge. I started the earliest germinating nuts in rootmaker 18s and 1 quart rootmaker 2s. I'm not sure if I watered too much, too little, or both. My success rate was not great, less than 50%. got 15 or 20 trees planted from those started in doors.
Then some got planted out directly with a tin can for protection. The can was not enough as we lost all of those. Regrouped by putting cheap mesh tubes around or inside the can. Got maybe a dozen trees from this method. The photo is an example of this direct planting method. I got maybe another dozen trees started from this method.
We had a number of chinese or hybrid chestnuts around the house at the farm. The squirrels planted a few more from those. I found three along the edge of the field and released them last year. Those are still young trees but had many burrs on this year. A couple trees that are 25 years old or so near the barn produce a good size chinese nut. Those started dropping in mid September. I picked up about 15 lbs of nuts from them over a couple days for eating and seeding.
We have a number of American chestnuts in our woods that are still stump sprouting. We need to mark them as my brother so my brother avoids them when cutting firewood. We just found another a few weeks ago that is about about 5"DBH. We found another chestnut down in the woods below the barn that is about 3" DBH. While it could be an American, it could be a squirrel planted Chinese.
For some other seed, I've been visiting 3 mature Chinese trees in a park near my home in NY. Two started dropping about 9/28 and are mostly done dropping. The 3rd tree started dropping around 10/3. I collected 3 or 4 lbs from each tree. I'll plant some and eat some.
I have way more chestnuts than I have room to plant. After stratifying in the fridge, I'll start the earliest germinating seeds inside and start direct seeding at the beginning of May.
I also got some american hybrids from a chestnut researcher that I planned to plant in an thinned oak forest. She gave me a general lineage of the seeds. On one side, there was an American x Chinese cross followed by 2 back crosses to American. On the other side there was a cross of an American to a Euro-Jap hybrid and then 2 back crosses to American. We'll see how they do.
I did not realize the chinkapins germinated in the fall. We tried putting them out in a protected cold-frame late in the fall but never saw any growth in the spring.
The hybrids and chinese started germinating in the spring in the fridge. I started the earliest germinating nuts in rootmaker 18s and 1 quart rootmaker 2s. I'm not sure if I watered too much, too little, or both. My success rate was not great, less than 50%. got 15 or 20 trees planted from those started in doors.
Then some got planted out directly with a tin can for protection. The can was not enough as we lost all of those. Regrouped by putting cheap mesh tubes around or inside the can. Got maybe a dozen trees from this method. The photo is an example of this direct planting method. I got maybe another dozen trees started from this method.
We had a number of chinese or hybrid chestnuts around the house at the farm. The squirrels planted a few more from those. I found three along the edge of the field and released them last year. Those are still young trees but had many burrs on this year. A couple trees that are 25 years old or so near the barn produce a good size chinese nut. Those started dropping in mid September. I picked up about 15 lbs of nuts from them over a couple days for eating and seeding.
We have a number of American chestnuts in our woods that are still stump sprouting. We need to mark them as my brother so my brother avoids them when cutting firewood. We just found another a few weeks ago that is about about 5"DBH. We found another chestnut down in the woods below the barn that is about 3" DBH. While it could be an American, it could be a squirrel planted Chinese.
For some other seed, I've been visiting 3 mature Chinese trees in a park near my home in NY. Two started dropping about 9/28 and are mostly done dropping. The 3rd tree started dropping around 10/3. I collected 3 or 4 lbs from each tree. I'll plant some and eat some.
I have way more chestnuts than I have room to plant. After stratifying in the fridge, I'll start the earliest germinating seeds inside and start direct seeding at the beginning of May.
