How to care for Chestnut trees

General Fruit Growing
#42

Thank you!
I’ve parroted this nonsense myself, I will do my best to be on my guard.

I know the “science” gets twisted, I’ve got three agricultural articles or books admitting that viruses are still a theory or not infectious, so I know people make claims and just keep going without evidence.
Like the very discovery of the virus was tobacco mosaic “virus” -insect damage in maritime climates with no controls in the study and no virus demonstrated let alone proven or isolated!

Yes! England’s Orchard is awesome, I forgot about them.

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#43

This spring I planted four Chestnut seedlings, two Chinese, and two Colossal, and as someone advised me, the two Colossal Chestnuts have already died. So, I still have my two Chinese trees. Should they both make it to maturity, are two trees enough? Someone here seemed to think that three would be better for polinization, and that with just two they might not bloom at the same time.

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#44

I only have two Chinese and they have no pollination problem.

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#45

You can find potted chinese chestnut at just about any local nursery. If you don’t have space for more, just graft different varieties onto them later.

#46

I was drawn to this thread with the sudden newsflash that I should actually be doing something, anything at all, to care for my chestnut trees! I probably have put the least amount of effort into chestnuts, both in care and in terms of knowledge acquisition, especially on a per tree basis. I have meager harvests here as yet, so not bragging, mind. Anyway, here are my rambling responses:

All seedlings here. Many mill run chinese, plus Bouche, CT Early (supposedly a chinkapin cross), some Qing, and a few random ones.

I planted 2 ‘collosal’ seedlings 15 years ago and I agree they are crap.

Dunno about the ‘Dunstan’ business but they have always struck me as a lot of hype. Ive read they’re poorly adapted to my region, but i know people who are jazzed as hell about em.

I have a nice healthy Bouche de Betizac seedling here @castanea. I know its jap x euro but was under the impression it had some blight resistance. Its doing great here, my biggest most vigorous by far except it has yet to flower with a 6” diameter trunk and easily 20 ft tall. I have chinese seedlings that have flowered since they were index finger diameter.

There are a some american chestnut on my property. Theres one about 10-12” in diameter. I understand thats about the size they tend to blight. Some in far flung places seem to last a good while. There are remnants of some pretty big (for here) chestnuts in my woods (which is now filling in with white oak) so i know its good chestnut land.

I believe its in the book “Mycelium Running”, but I saw some brief description of using a poultice made from chaga “mushroom” (sclerotium) to successfully heal blight lesions. The idea is a riff on the notion of competitive exclusion. I have no idea if/how/how well it works, but it SOUNDS clever. I believe the idea was at least in part that the chaga perhaps is cultured as an endophyte that is benign to its host. Its been a while since I came across it, possibly probably in a footnote. I wonder what other endophytes might possibly provide such a service. Isnt that partly how hypo virulence hasbeen explained?

Theres a good size bearing ACF test orchard near me. Im not sure if theyve innoculated yet, but Ive been meaning to see what’s changed since I last walked it, maybe in 2016.

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#47

BdB and Colossal are both Japanese hybrids and both have “some” blight resistance, but it’s not enough resistance to keep them alive for very long in areas of the US with high blight pressure.

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#48

This guy is leading the charge on the endophyte idea: Can fungal endophytes protect American Chestnut (Castanea dentata) from blight (Cryphonectria parasitica)? | Experiment

His master’s thesis on the same subject is available online too.

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#49

I planted 50 Chinese Chestnuts from the KY Dept of Forestry in 2019. I put tubes on them to protect from deer. I had probably 10 or 15 die back to the roots and resprout when we had a late summer drought spanning about 2 months with high heat in 2020 or 2021. The tubes could have made the issue worse, but most grew back anyways. Last winter, I guess the cold temperatures or something else caused a handful to resprout from the roots. Overall, most are doing well. I don’t do too much with them besides let them grow.

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#50

Unless you have two of the same pollen-sterile (bad name not actually sterile) seedling varieties or grafted chestnuts, you shouldn’t have any problem, I’m not sure if say a pure Japanese can pollinate a pure European chestnut though.

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#51

Different Castanea species can pollenize each other, but the timing is often wrong. Japanese trees bloom early and Europeans bloom later.

#52

my Bouche de Betizac is a seedling, so Id imagined perhaps it was pollenated by a more blight resistant type. I looked closer and the trunk is easily 8 inches at the base. Pretty big for no flowers, eh? I hope it doesn’t blight. Its pretty close to the house. I knew it was sort of timber form, but at this rate its going to be a monster. Im not in the know at all really about compatible pollenizers. Any good resources out there for that sort of thing?

#53

There’s no way to know when a hybrid is going to flower, or even if it will flower (some won’t), until it actually flowers.

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#54

So I had a hard freeze (28°) on 5/18 and had no flowers on my american trees this year after having some last year. Is it likely that the freeze was the culprit or is it more likely the young trees are just being finicky early on?

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#55

Beneficial nematodes are a good organic preventative for chafers. Also diatomaceous earth (DE). It requires repeated application but does not kill soil biology like most pesticides. Just offering an alternative

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#56

I know. It’s just not realistic here where I’m surrounded by other properties that attract them and feed them.

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#57

There has been talk here about the worms that get into Chestnuts. My Chinese chestnuts are still tiny, but I am wondering what types of worms these would be, whether I have them in my area of central Kentucky or not, and what I should be doing to avoid them.

Thanks in advance for any help and advice you can offer!

John in Kentucky

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#58

They are not worms. They are chestnut weevil larvae. Chestnut weevils are a flying insect.
They are very common in KY in areas where chestnuts are being grown.

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#59

I see, so is there something I should be doing to avoid such infestations from starting?

As far as I know, there are no other chestnut trees around me. But if the weevils like nuts, perhaps they also feed on hickories, and oaks which we have plenty of.

John

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#60

If you don’t have them, don’t worry.
If you get them, always pick up all of your nuts and put them in containers that the weevil larvae cannot escape from. If you can do this for 3 straight years you can usually eliminate weevils.

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#61

I found this long article in my google new this morning. It notes how the blight was brought in. Interesting story. The American chestnut tree is coming back. Who is it for? | Grist

30 minute audio of the reading is embedded.

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