I wouldn’t bother planting them. Chinese chestnuts I buy from Prairie Grove are almost as big, peels perfectly, and are so sweet that I snack on them raw. They should be hardy in zone 5.
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Do you have the name varieties that you bought from them.
Tony
They sell mixed lots of culinary nuts based on size so they’re probably from random seedlings trees. But the quality is consistently very good so they probably only harvest from high quality trees.
Route 9 Coop is still selling tree seeds nuts by the pound. They’re also not named but should be from a mix from the best named parents. Select Chinese and Japanese Seed Chestnuts – Route 9 Cooperative
BTW-don’t be tempted by the small nuts offered by Route 9 this year. They were disappointing compared to past years though at least they peeled okay after further aging.
Or you can buy named parents varieties from Buzz at Perfect Circle Farm
But as mentioned above by Zendog we may see cloned Chinese chestnuts in the next few years. That’s particularly important since you’re on the northern edge of Chinese chestnut cultivation where grafts don’t do well. It might be worth waiting for them to become available. A Qing on its own roots could yield 200 lbs of big tasty nuts on a relatively small plant, which would be amazing.
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The seeds I sent you last winter peeled very well and had good flavor. Hopefully you got them to grow. They were Chinese type nuts.
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They grew to about 7 inches each. I placed a chicken wire ring around them and filled them with bark mulch for winter protection. Next year they will be on their own. Thanks again.
Tony
Tony did you start them in containers or in ground? If in containers what size? I saved a couple dozen from upick at rt9 for next year
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I planted them in ground about 2 inches deep in May. It took a while for them to sprout though.
Tony
I just ordered and received chestnuts from VirginiaChestnuts.com (i kinda wanted the Italian ‘Snip’ brand chestnut-cutter to try out and they had a combo deal with 2lb/5lb nuts along with it instead of paying the same price [minus shipping] for just the cutter on Amazon).
Holiday special - 2 pounds of fresh chestnuts, with cutter – Virginia Chestnuts
Here is an article about them:
The Return of the American Chestnut at Virginia Chestnuts | Visit Virginia Travel Guide Guide
I wonder what type they are (says they come from Virginia). They are definitely a bit smaller than the giant chestnuts I see at Whole Foods (Italian? or Asian?). The Snips brand tool seems to fit the smaller VirginiaChestnuts perfectly, although its a tight fit for the larger WholeFoods ones (but still mostly kinda works).
Is there any heavy duty chestnut cutter/scorers? I was wondering why I don’t see at least any vintage ones made completely out of heavier metal on ebay.
The common metal one that you see on Amazon served its purpose for a year, but it recently broke when i was pressing it under pressure, and I could see the weld points were barely visible and not meant to last long. aka this style:
Btw I do have a chestnut knife, but found it a bit worrying with the knife slipping down the slides of the chestnut shell under pressure a few times. I’d rather just have an eezy-peezy handheld device to press instead IMO.
Question after reading the article… :
“Then, in 1983, TACF was founded, after botanist Robert T. Dunstan found a way to bring back the iconic tree. By means of a backcross breeding program, the organization began reintroducing the species to its native-habitat. “We used Chinese chestnut trees that were naturally resistant to the blight and crossed them with American chestnuts,” explains Laws. “Then, we backcrossed those trees to the American species. Each generation was then inoculated with the blight fungus, and only those trees with the highest resistance were used to breed further generations.” The process continued over seven generations, until an American chestnut tree retaining no Chinese characteristics beyond blight-resistance was produced. Using that stock, to date, the organization has established more than 680 planting locations on a total of 1,883 acres of public and private land.”
So are there some hybrids after back-crossing, which have mostly American size/flavor characteristics with only blight disease resistance leftover from the original Chinese chestnut cross? Curious if they got pretend 99% close to an original American Chestnut after backcrossing many times.
We are using kitchen scissors now to slit chestnuts, it’s so far the best method we have found, if you use a strong decent pair. Scissors that don’t break easily, that are strong, with enough torque, and that are sharp.
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Hybrids yes. Trees that are reliably resistant to both blight and ink disease? No
A planting of chestnut trees was set up by TACF members just east of Florence Alabama. Of the trees which are reliably resistant to both chestnut blight and ink root disease, only one is thriving and it looks more like an umbrella than a forest tree. Even though some trees exist in other plantings that are better form with excellent resistance, reliably resistant and productive trees have not yet been bred. I have seed nuts stratifying from several of the trees in this planting but don’t really expect anything exceptional.
GMO methods have been used to move the oxalic acid oxidase gene from wheat into chestnut. It gives reliably good resistance to chestnut blight but at a biological cost of growing slower and less adaptable than pure American Chestnut. Efforts now are focused on using the oxalic acid oxidase gene linked to a wound initiator so it will only be expressed when the tree is wounded.
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I got 17 of 20 dunstans grown from seed this summer. dont know if they will be hardy here but im going to give them a try. they are in 12in pots in the backyard covered in snow so they should overwinter just fine. i also planted 5 Chinese chestnut 2 years ago . voles got 2. the orchard up the hill is z4b, right on the edge of 5a so maybe they will make it. this area isn’t in the chestnuts original range and doesn’t have wild red oak so the blight shouldn’t be present here. might have a shot if they can hack the cold.
Red oak can get chestnut blight? Our red oaks are dying of oak wilt. I don’t know of anyone else who is trying to grow chestnuts around here. I assume much of the free arborist mulch available around here contains oak wilt. Should I not use it on my chestnut trees?
i read somewhere on here, someone mentioned red oaks can carry the blight but aren’t affected by it?
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I just googled it, and sumac and hickory also can spread chestnut blight. I had figured my chestnuts were safe with none other around, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.
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i have neither here.
Regarding early and early-to-mid season hybrid chestnuts for Zone 4b Minneapolis:
I currently have a Colossal seedling as my “early harvester” to go with an Okei (pollinator) layered clone and Bisalta #3 grafted.
But I was thinking of getting clones of a Precoce Migoule, Marsol, or Silverleaf. I was hoping for an early harvest with improved characteristics over Colossal since Colossal isn’t exactly a recent cultivar. Just wondering if anyone has comments on these varieties?
I’d try to get them layered instead of grafted (if possible) because grafts don’t always survive when a polar vortex of arctic air swings down in winter.
BTW, despite note being in the native range, Minneapolis definitely has Chestnut Blight. We’ve seen pictures posted in our gardening groups.
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I am looking to buy chestnut seeds to grow. My intention is for wildlife but also enjoy eating. I know grafting is the only sure way to ge the type of chestnut you want. My question is does it matter what kind of chestnut you plant just to get a seedling? Anybody selling chestnut seeds to plant? I live in NY and I don’t want to purchase chestnuts from a grocery store! TYIA
For NY, you’ll want to grow Chinese chesnut as they have good blight resistance. For wildlife, seed source may not matter much, but for fresh eating, you’re more likely to get good trees with tasty large nuts if you plant seeds from good parent trees.
Plenty of places online sell chestnut seed from good mother trees. One that I’ve purchased from is Perfect Circle Farm. perfect circle farm
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Awesoem rip! I know prob doesn’t grow true to seed but if I buy Chinese from that farm I have a good chance to produce a good tree that produces good chestnuts
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