come on up! when you can’t go any further north in Maine, you’re here! i tell people all the time that we literally live at the end of the road. we go from z3 up here to zone 6 along the central coast to the south so our climates are very different. I’ve been searching for years for a pure or American hybrid that’s hardy here. z5 is the closest I’ve got. im a member of a few of the bigger chestnut restoration organizations. I’ve read many nurseries say the Chinese is z4 hardy. we couldn’t even grow hybrid hazels here until about 15 yrs. ago as until then there weren’t any hardy to z3 other than our native beaked we have here. someday id like to go see that old tree. its been on my bucket list for a long time. i bet if i could get any American chestnut to survive our winters that it wouldn’t get the blight as this area never had chestnuts originally. someday someone will breed a z4 hardy one then i will plant a bunch of them. keep a eye out for such a tree for me.
They say that the Chestnut Crab tastes nutty… personally i would rather eat one of these than a chestnut anyways… i never really liked them.
Early folks made log cabins and railroads made ties out of them… they were prized for timber more than eating then.
unless you were a native American that relied on those calories to survive winter. they were easy to keep for long periods of time. I’ve only tried chestnut once and that was from a Korean chestnut tree. i didn’t know any better and ate it raw. not a good experience. im familiar with beechnut which we used to forage when i was a kid. like a miniature chestnut. sadly, bark disease wiped the mature trees out around here about 20 yrs ago. were also a preferred for hot burning firewood.
i put one i last spring from fedco. had 3 flowers on it when i got it. i pinched them off. maybe next year.
I bought from them. All the biggest sizes at 40% more in price. 3-4’. Here are images from today. I heeled in my bare roots for the 5 day wait until I can plant in SWVA.
Some of those look like they should not have been dug for another 15 days or so. But, if you don’t let the roots dry out, and get them planted or heeled in or kept in moist packing materials until ready to plant…they’ll probably live.
Curious if yours are grafted? My peaches, and plums and cherries would have had to have been grafted under a microscope with lasers.
The Pears and Apples i received were either root cuttings or seedlings… zero sign of any grafts.
I have all of mine planted in my nature area… i dont trust any of them enough to even label them. Perhaps something good will come from a seedling but i do not trust that anything i got in my order is true to name at all.
mine arrived as if they were put in a freezer after the roots were washed and dried then shipped dry root.
There was a packet in the bottom of dry gel that said to add a gallon of water and dip the roots in before i planted.
They have 60 years of experience… so i cant really question that.
If you have numerous ones that don’t live for you,
after that you might question.
Some trees are forgiving though.
But high humidity storage and plastic
packaging may have gotten them to you in good condition.
Still, I think my comment on keeping the roots damp is the best advice.
Agree with your advise.
I set them out in a kiddie pool and watered them in within an hour of receiving them. The kiddie pool has drain holes. We use it as a raised bed, it has barn floor scraping for soil. it’s raised asparagus I started from seed, strawberries, tomatoes and now fruit trees for year 4, though I will transplant them into there final rows when I see them start to break dormancy. I’ve gotten good use out of that silly kiddie pool on a pallet.
But I only set out the fruit tree in the kiddie pool because we haven’t had much in the way of rain so the ground is hard and dry. It’s much easier to dig when the ground is moist.
Actually, I’d get started planting them out BEFORE they break dormancy next spring (preferrably sooner actually). In Kentucky, I’d be planting now if I had the planting spots selected…but I understand the farther north, the more hesitant one should be about fall
plantings (due mostly to heaving from freezing/thawing, but also poor drainage in some planting spots).
Good luck.
I may end up giving them a growing season in the kiddie pool. They are easy to babysit there and could stand to use a little more extra attention. IDK… I’ll play it by ear though.
Thanks for the reply.
How did these trees turn out for you guys? Survival rate?
Mine were all lies. I think my peaches were birch. The rest looked like seedlings… i could not find any sign of a graft unless they did it under a microscope.
Think I’ll steer clear. Thanks!