Thanks.
Their contact information completely no-longer works.
I now have a few Badgersett chestnuts I planted for seed.
Dax
@castanea or anyone else that could help.
I have 4 chestnut trees( Precoce Migoule, Bergantz, Bouche de Betizac, and Szego). I planted this a couple years ago and I am sure I did research and just forgot by now, but will there be any problems with Szego pollinating the European hybrids? I read that Chinese varieties can cause internal kernel breakdown in the Europeans hybrids. My Szego is still small enough to move, but I am not sure I could get it far enough away in my yard to not pollinate the others.
Thanks for anyones help. This thread has been a great source of information.
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There should be no problems. The only thing Michigan State ever showed with their very limited study is that one specific Chinese tree caused internal kernel breakdown in some nuts from Colossal. And we already knew that Colossal is susceptible to internal kernel breakdown on the west coast anyway, even when pollenized by pure European trees.
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Thanks so much for your help! My Precoce Migoule actually died this past winter, so I need to replace it. I was not sure if I should reorder the Prococe Migoule or replace with Gillet? I am in zone 6 Ohio. I need another pollinator I believe.
Also is there any issue with planting potted trees in the fall or should I wait for bare root trees in the spring? Burnt Ridge has both trees in stock now.
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I want to plant 2 chestnuts next spring. As I live at northeast and we don’t have a long grow season, what would be a pair of good ones for me?
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Potted trees can generally be planted any time with a caveat that they do not have large root systems and will need to be watered during any dry spells for at least a year. I planted several potted pecan trees a few weeks ago. There have been zero problems with doing so.
Side trivia, there are some species that orient geomagnetically such as Jojoba. If a potted Jojoba plant is set out with a different orientation that what it grew from seed, it will refuse to grow for several months.
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What cold hardiness zone?
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Gillet is very long season tree. Not good for zone 6. Why do you not want Chinese trees?
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zone 6a ( but on the safe side, I will consider it as 5b).
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I was originally going off of MSU’s recommendations and some of yours(Bergantz and Szego). Michigan state seemed like they were mostly recommending the European hybrids and I was worried about the internal kernel breakdown, if that’s a nonissue than I am more than happy to mix in Chinese. Do you have any recommendations? Also, I hope Bergantz and Szego aren’t long season varieties as well. This did not even occur to me.
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After doing more research it seems that Bergantz and Szego are mid/late season. The harvest dates I’m seeing are for the PNW, not sure how those would translate to my zone. For the PNW it says Bergantz is late October and Szego is mid-late October. Boy is that going to be cutting it close. Will they continue to mature if there’s a frost? I might be grafting over these. That was a complete oversight on my behalf.
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You probably would be better off with seedling trees than with grafted trees. Red Fern Farm in Iowa has some very good cold hardy seedlings -
http://www.redfernfarm.com/index.php/product-category/chestnuts/
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Szego in Iowa drops nuts the last week of September. Where are you located?
Not any more- no grafted trees at all and a new name as well.
https://store.route9cooperative.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=1856
The site link below appears to be the only source with a good selection of some of the varieties recommended here. But they seem like a very small operation with no ordering via internet. I will try to find out today if their inventory list is up to date. If it is I will order a Szego and Jenny and give them a spin in Z6 southern NY. Chestnuts were native here and grow very well in my climate.
I have a grafted Revival chestnut that is 20 years old and a couple other varieties from Nolan River.
Alan,
I as well tried to go the Empire Chesnuts route as I am in Ohio and wanted to give them the business. It seems that growing seedlings is common, but I have limited space and prefered to go with something grafted so I knew what I was getting.
I bought my 4 trees 3 years ago from Washington Chesnuts. The site you want from them is http://www.buyfreshchestnuts.com , which is the same company.
They had great customer service and answered any questions I had promptly. The trees I received from them were maybe 12" tall. I did inquire to see if they could ship Precoce Migoule this fall and they said they only spring ship, but that variety for next year will be 5-6’ tall!
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I am in zone 6a, North East Ohio. I googled our frost dates and it seems to range from oct11-31. It seems to be closer to Halloween as of recently though. Not sure if that trend will keep up. The end of September would be great!
With that being said, should I reorder Precoce Migoule for a pollinator, or would you recommend something else?
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Yes, Empire quit selling grafted trees. Washington Chestnuts does have the best selection in the US certainly for those in the west, but they don’t have many pure Chinese trees. Stark Brostehrs in Missouri does sell some grafted trees -
Precoce Migoule and the other European trees will eventually get blight and die. Also the nut quality is forgettable. Just get almost any pure Chinese tree and you will have lots of pollen. Get seedlings from Red Fern Farm in Iowa or grafted trees from Stark Brothers.
Yes, I do grow Bouche de Betizac also. Here’s an older photo of BdB nuts -
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Hi everybody,
I am in search of chestnut hybrids scionwood. I mailed many nurseries from USA (Burnt Ridge Nursery, Empire Chestnut, Forrest Keeling and Rolling River) but none of them can ship to EU (only Empire Chestnut looks vaguely promising). Here, in Europe, I think it’s impossible to get hands on any worthy varietes you mention across chestnut threads like Szego, Jenny, Emalyn’s Purple, and so on. I don’t really know how Chinese crosses will behave in south-eastern Polish climate but I know that Castanea sativa nuts are nice and sweet every year. Can you guys help me with finding aforementioned hybrids?
This year’s yielding - burs (September 15’th) from a local old chestnut tree.
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