8A Chestnut Choices

General Fruit Growing
1

I am sorry to ask when there are so many posts, but I have read so many posts on chestnuts that I am cross eyed.

I think a lot of the info applied to different zones/climates and I just cannot afford to make poor choices.

I am in Northern California, 8A, 4200ft elevation, short season and Mediterranean climate.

What I want is at least 2 but no more than 4 chestnut trees.

First thing obviously is they need to be able to flourish in my location.

Knowing all this, what would be the best choices for me, with flavor and nut quality being most important and hopefully also easy to peel?

Thank you in advance for any guidance.

2

Is your soil alkaline? If it is I’d skip them entirely

3

Acidic. Our land is a coniferous forest.

Husband tested it and we get readings of 5.5 to 6 ph.

4

I really think you’ll be fine with the standard recommendations in those threads (Gideon, shin, yixan large)
Maybe someone who really knows can give you some extra late blooming ones to avoid frosts but that’s it

5

Are those Chinese?

If so, are you claiming that Chinese chestnuts are better tasting than the other types?

6

I’m not claiming anything. I just identify and trust the expertise of those on the forums who have tons of experience and listen almost exclusively to them

Then once I’ve done my own due diligence on all the threads I’ll often PM them with my extensive notes and ask them directly if I have everything right

7

Some of the things I learned is that for Chinese get seedlings, for European grafted is better and, if I remember correctly, Chinese are blight resistant and the Europeans might have some resistance, due to Japanese influence?

Like I said, I’ve read a ton of posts with different opinions and it’s all kind of jumbled in my head so what I’m looking for is what I can grow specifically in my location that is the best nut for eating, not necessarily the biggest nut.

You being a new New York zone five might have a different opinion of the best ones to grow and that’s why I asked if you considered Chinese the best tasting or did you have to choose Chinese because of blight pressure?

It seems like around my location I see more talk of European hybrids, but if Chinese taste better and I can grow it then I’d rather have the best quality for eating enjoyment.

I honestly don’t know if I have any blight pressure in my area or not.

8

I was in Tucson the last two years. I’ve written documents for almost every US climate, 15 in total

I would recommend rereading the threads and actually writing down the relevant things from the best resources, for chestnuts it’s pretty much @castanea

9

First off I have read a ton of posts and a lot of them don’t really apply to my specific location. If there’s one thing I’ve learned on here over the years, it’s location, location, location first!

What I’m asking in my post is what would be the best choices for me in my location If nut quality over nut size are more important. I don’t know if I require blight resistance, varieties or not but in my reading it looked like California might not have blight pressure. If not, that opens up my choices considerably I think.

Because you responded it sounds like you think Chinese varieties would give me the best tasting nut in my specific location? After all you read my post, I think, and then offered suggestions.

If not, I don’t know why you responded, other than to tell me to write down notes about posts not specific to my location and to ask someone else.

10

I know I am replying to myself, but I found this article:

This person got to test out Colossal, American and Chinese chestnuts and preferred Chinese and American over the European variety.

And there’s a recipe there too, for soup.

11

We live in Mid-Missouri zone 6b. We have 4 varieties of Chinese chestnuts, all with great taste, nice sized nuts. The Missouri university testing area is just 12 miles from us, which is where we bought these trees. Bond Orchard, Sleeping Giant, Qing and PQK.
All the trees yield a nice chestnut of good size. Sorry I don’t have a link, as they have a lot of good information. Check at Univ of Mo Ext

12

Thank you!

I just ordered 1 year old Chinese seedlings.

It looks to me like most people think they are the best tasting of the different types.

I know people are attracted to the bigger prettier European nuts because of their shells, but I want whatever taste best and whatever there might be a market for.

And also, we have a huge Asian population here due to the cannabis industry, and I’ve already been told at an Asian market I like to shop at that if I grew Asian products that she might be interested in selling them.

I think they’ll be OK in my location.