I got some pure American Chestnut seeds from the American Chestnut Foundation back in April. They arrived starting to sprout and were all up by end of April. Planted in 4x12 tubes. These are not blight resistant and come from an area where blight has not affected native populaions yet.
The small native Chinquapin grows in my area as they range in the coastal plain whereas the American is a mountain and piedmont native in Virginia.
I am giving it a try as an interesting addition to my landscape that may get some size before the blight gets it.
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In this area it’s fairly common to find AC sprouts from the roots of long gone trees. They’ll sometimes grow to a relatively decent size before the blight takes them. Occasionally to a size to bloom and produce nuts. Although usually they canker and die before they’re big enough for that.
I have a few Chinquapins growing here and hopefully they do well and produce nuts soon… They’re closely related to AC and the same blight negatively impacts them as well.
Good luck with your seedlings! And good luck to the various efforts to breed (or genetically modify) AC to gain blight resistance!
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