There are always a few areas of the country that have good production of chestnuts, but that does not reduce prices anywhere else. Chinese nut prices in Maryland groceries will not change prices outside that metro area at all. And even in Maryland, you will get better prices for better quality Chinese nuts. The bulk of Chinese nuts sold in grocery stores on the east coast are mediocre. Most are small, many have weevils and some are dried out. Much of the acreage coming into production is growing Dunstan seedling trees which typically do not produce first quality nuts. When quality Chinese nuts, like these Black Satin nuts, hit markets, they will command premium prices, so prices will be going up.
A friend gave me a Chestnut tree & it had a few nut two years ago & a few last year. The tree about fifteen feet tall & covered this year. How do you eat these nut, raw, boiled & roasted???
This is the third thread I have posted on & no one has answer me or I never received a notice. Anyone out there eat chestnuts???
I got a couple chestnut roasters this year to cook over fireplace or firepit outside.
i got one of the more expensive ones off Amazon (Rome brand) had its rivets/screws melted in fire. I got replacement screws/nut but i like the vintage brass roaster i got off ebay (some are flat pan shaped and some are deep and have a lid). Just score an X into the chestnut with a knife be4 so it doesnât explode while roasting (or a cheap specialty tool like i got this one but might be better ones (Amazon.com). Then soak in water for 1hour so easier to peel i read.
I think i read you can preboil them be4 roasting so you are almost like searing it a bit on the fire after boiling, like a SousVide steak. I might have tried that once last year so i donât burn them by keeping them on fire too long (also my nephew liked to hold the roaster over the fire vs just eating them directly after boiling). Can also use Oven.
When done whatever roasting/boiling steps you choose to do, peel and eat.
Ciao Nicola, sei riuscito a reperire in Italia le varietĂ Gillet, Bergantz e Szego? io non produco castagne e non le vendo,colleziono privatamente pochi alberi per consumo familiare. Non so come contattarti e non so se sei anche su facebook.
Most a year ago I asked for the identification of the species of chestnut (C. crenata Korean). This year, two-year-old hybrids of this species bore fruit. One of them bloomed 3 times, the chestnuts ripened twice, and the third did not have time to ripen. The first hedgehog was blown down by a storm 7-10 days before ripening in August. The chestnuts were large, but light in relation to their size. The second fruit ripened on October 10 and weighed an average of 26 g. I hope this tree will bear fruit after the frosts. I am from southeastern Poland, Europe
Those âGilletâ chestnuts remind me of the Italian âMarroniâ chestnuts, only they look much bigger. Is the flavor the same type of flavor, how about the texture?
@GiovanniDoe recently gifted me a couple pounds of home grown chestnuts and both my wife and daughter really liked them. It has me thinking about growing some myself.
I have one spot at a rental where I could plant them, if I remove an ornamental tree. There would be enough space for 3 trees, spaced about 12 feet apart. Iâd probably want to keep them relatively small- no 80 foot giants.
Mostly full sun, with a bit of mid-late afternoon shade from the building. The site is solidly Zone 7a as it is only ~1 mile from the ocean and was 7a even before the last zone update, so I donât think hardiness is of particular concern. The season is fairly long- first frost is generally around Nov 1st, though we havenât had one yet and the 10 day forecast looks good.
I looked at some of the nurseries listed earlier and it seems most donât have much choice/inventory or have stopped selling trees. One site which did have a ton of choice is Burnt Ridge.
Given the above, I have a couple questions:
Is 12 foot spacing and 3 trees enough?
Which ones would yield the best nuts and still grow well in my climate? With a slight bias for the ones which Burnt Ridge has large specimens of in inventoryâŚ
From my initial reading, I am thinking about the following, though I can be easily swayed:
Marigoule (they have a âlarge layeredâ one, which seems like a good idea)
Gillet (sounds like this one originally came from @castanea )
Belle Epine or Tanzawa
I thought about Bouche De Betizac, but it says âpollen sterileâ, and with only 3 trees, that felt a bit risky.
Andrew sent me 5 Chinese and hybrid chestnut seeds this Spring. I planted them 15 feet apart. I planted them 2 inches deep and they all sprouted about 6 weeks later . So it is not hard to germinate them. I hoped 15 feet apart is good enough for spacing.
I have been wondering about the origin of âGilletâ as well, I am wondering if maybe âFelix Gilletâ might have imported it from France or from somewhere else in Europe, he did like to import unusually nice varieties of things from Europe. mainly from France, he sold those things at his nursery. Some of those things were later named âGilletâ.
Just curious which chestnuts you or others would recommend for NY zone 5b area. Any particular tasty and/or giant ones youâd recommend? I see Buzz at Perfect Circle has a bunch of maybe more rare/unique seeds for sale:
One more question. Should I be considering âdwarfâ chestnuts to better fit in the space?
@GiovanniDoe suggested Perfect Circle Farm in VT, and I see that they has a dwarf ones listed, âFisher T1 dwarfish Chineseâ and âAL Szego Dwarf sor R1T1â. I also saw âDwarf Koreanâ listed on Morse, though it is out of stock.
For that matter, am I better off going with seedlings, or grafted trees? Given that we are talking about only 3, cost isnât a big factor.
For me, Korean crenats are the tastiest of all chestnut species. They are usually difficult to peel from the inner skin, but grafted trees should not have this defect. If you plant seedlings of this species, you need to have twice as many as you need so that you can later choose the best ones. Of my approximately 120 fruiting Korean crenat seedlings this year, about 30 trees had to be thrown out because of various defects, the rest are acceptable. The trees are now 5 years old from sowing the seeds and 4 years after planting in the field. Of the 120 trees, only one had strong growth, the rest are smaller than other species.
From what I have seen in pictures, dwarf trees have smaller nuts than regular trees. Iâve seen pictures of 'Little Giantâs nuts and they are said to be small but nice flavor. I ease of peeling has nothing to do with nut or tree size, but rather is determined mainly from genetics.
Dwarf trees do not always produce small nuts. Sometimes quite large ones can be obtained from sowing. The average weight of 25 g is quite a good result that was achieved this year.
When I was there for the pic, I took a more careful look and I think there would be about 14â between each tree (the ornamental red-leaf plum getting cut down), leaving 4â from the hedges and sidewalk and 12â from the house.
So, I guess the biggest question is if I should normal sized chestnuts and prune the heck out of them to keep them at 12-15â tall, or try to find something more dwarfing. From what Iâve read, you want something pretty vigorous initially, in order to get reasonable production. Ideally, something that grows quick for a few years, then settles down to putting most of its energy into making nuts.
Each year I prune back a few mulberries with a chainsaw to keep them in line and they produce well. Can I do the same with chestnuts? Note the electrical wires in the pic (right over spot #1)- Iâd want to keep them short of the wires.
On the positive, the site is pretty good from a sun perspective- no shade from anything but the building, which is to the West of where they would be planted.
@GiovanniDoe sent me a writeup from Castaneta, which had a link from Red Fern Farm:
It seems that Chinese are favored in the East due to disease resistance and for Chinese, seedlings do better than grafted. So, Iâm tentatively thinking about two Orrin seedlings and one Kuhling or Sadie Hunter.
This page says that Orrin âproductive ornamental tree for small spacesâ, which gives me hope that it can be kept relatively small.
Ive seen pictures from Japan where chestnut trees in orchards are heavily pruned and maintained at a lower height to effectively thin the crop for increased nut size
Generally speaking, seedlings from Route 9 is probably the best option. Theyâre fairly inexpensive and have good genetics⌠PCF sells Little Giant and Al Szego Dwarf seeds, but most of the seedlings will not inherit the small size.
You could grow one seedling tree and then graft 2 or 3 varieties to pollinate. But Iâm not sure any chestnut tree makes sense for a rental unit, you pretty much have to collect there everyday during nutfall to beat the squirrels and weevils, plus the super spiny burrs would be hazardous for a front yard tree and the renters may not appreciate the smelly flowers and spiny burrs.
Prairie Grove is still selling chestnuts from this year. Theyâre delicious after curing at room temperature for about a week and then stored like carrots.
