Does anyone grow chestnut tree?

I bought two grafted chestnut trees last year. They are all dead. I think they were lack of care because I had been out of country for a half and four months after they were planted. One chestnut is not totally dead and a few suckers came out.
This spring I bought three Chinese chestnut seedlings from starkbros. Actually they are pretty good size little trees. My question: Do they need to be grafted with diffferent varieties?
Or they can pollinate each other?
Since Starkbro just labeled as Chinese chestnut seedling, no one knows which varieties they are.

you should familiarize your self with Chestnut blight. While Chinese chestnuts are resistant they can still be afflicted by it especially while young. Chestnuts not killed outright will regrow from suckers year after year however these too will die before reaching fruiting age. Also I think grafting chestnuts is largely to reduce time to production. If the main tree did not die of blight the suckers are likely only good for grafting on to.

Is blight similar to fire blight? I spray liquid copper to the dormant fruit trees every year. Can liquid copper prevent the chestnut trees from getting blight?
I plan to graft the suckers. My question: do the three Chinese seedlings need to be grafted with different varieties?

The 3 seedlings will be able to pollinate each other. The only time they might not is if they are all brother and sister. Even then, some full siblings do make nuts together. If you planted new grafted trees and no one else was able to water them while you were gone, they may have been water stressed and thrown the graft. This means the graft got less water than the rest of the tree, and with water limited to the rain that fell, the top may have gotten so little that it died. If you had Chinese selections, they have some blight resistance. I don’t have a lot of experience with blight, just what I have read. I am in a blight free area (PEI, Canada)

Don’t the flowers (Chinese variety?)stink horribly? I thought about putting in a few but really don’t want stinky trees.

I started some from seed this spring, they are about a foot tall now. Not sure they will survive here because we have alkaline soil… Figured Id give it a shot tho.

The blights are nothing a like.

I plan to graft all, but leave one branch to see what will happen.

Yes them smell during bloom. Smell reminds me of a brewery. They don’t smell as bad as pear blossoms but they do stink.

Bradford Pears are nasty smelling. That is like all they plant now for street trees it seems. All our ash are dead or dying. I see ash all over the place now when i drive with huge dead spots on them. Anyone in the tree removal business is going to have a lot of work in the years ahead.

WEll, then, enjoy the grafting, it’s fun. What will you choose to graft on them?

You should just let the seedlings grow and see what kind of nuts they produce. If you like them, keep them. If you don’t, graft them. They graft much better when they are older. If you graft when they are smaller you will have a greater chance of graft failures. The flowers have a strong smell but most people I know like the smell.

Because the chestnut trees need cross-polinator, so the seedlings may not be the same. But to ensure the quality of nuts, I will graft them all, but will leave one branch of each to see the quality of nuts from seedlings. If not good, I will cut off the branch.

You guy got good sense of smell. They said the flowering pear is stink. I cannot smell that except I put my nose on the flower.

The seedlings will pollinate each other. There is no need for a graft. If you graft onto small trees and leave a branch that will increase the odds that the grafts will die. There is no reason to graft the seedling trees right now.

I have three seedlings and one sucker. I plan to graft four varieties: Qing, Marigoule, and the other two I am still thinking.
Do you have any good suggestions?

I will need to graft sucker anyway. The seedlings are around 4 feet. I heard grafting will reduce the time of waiting for nuts. I don’t graft this year. Let them grow for one year.

I will try to graft several buds to one tree. So the survival chance is bigger.

Marigoule will not graft well on pure Chinese rootstock. Marigoule is a Japanese x European tree. Qing is well known for having delayed graft union failures. I suggest you not graft anything on your seedlings. The seedlings may have better nut quality than your grafts. Grafting may reduce the time for getting nuts but it may not. If your grafts die, and the odds are good that they will die, that will seriously delay getting any nuts at all. WC or Gideon would be better choices for grafting on the suckers.