Nut grafting experiment (and Request)

Well, the nut grafts are not looking too good. I did not expect much. They say it is very hard to graft Seguins to any other chestnut. We still have 10 more days until the first grafts are a month old. I’m not seeing any bud swell on any yet. I have at least one that is putting up top growth from the nut, which of course will be Dunstan if I let it grow, but no seguin success. I decided to give them more light to see if that helps. So, today I attached bamboo to the lights and hung them from the bamboo:

On a positive note for Seguins, 3 of the 4 nuts I planted have produced top growth. Only one of the 4 Chinese chestnuts have done so:

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Can you give them a little more heat? Sometimes heat speeds them up. Also, at 20 days, they may need more time.

Has anybody tried or had luck with grafting chestnuts to Bur Oak or European Beech? I ask because chestnuts hate the alkaline clay soil in the mountain west but some reports say the two above trees can be used for root stock and they are both adaptable to the soil.

They are in my heated basement that is nominally 70 degrees. I realize 20 days is too soon to expect much. Mayfield says he checks them for roots and swelling buds at 1 month. They will probably be a few degrees warmer now that they are under lights.

I had an old grafter tell me that he was experimenting with grafting chestnuts to sawtooth oaks. It has been a few years since I heard from him. The last I had heard from him, he told me grafts took and the trees lived for several years but then died. He assumed some incompatibility.

If the first batch of nuts had no root yet, they may have taken a little time to wake up. This can delay growth.
It can also lower the success rate, as sometimes the scion dies before the nut is ready to make callous.
Sometimes it’s fine. it will be interesting to see if there is any practical difference between the first and second batch of nuts, given the roots were out on the second ones. I have never worked with seguinii, so that wil be fun to see how it works out too.

Love that red one.

I have not checked for roots yet. I don’t wan to mess with the bags for a full month. I’ve just bee looking for bud swell. I kept all of my buds above the medium so I can check them just looking trough the bag.

You are right that there may be several differences between the groups. The first group did not have root radicles, but they are nuts I cold stratified myself and I know they had enough time. The second group all had root radicles. I think the biggest risk is compatibility between Seguinii scions with Dunstan nuts. The other difference between groups is the first group has relatively large nuts with about 1/8th inch scions and the second group has small nuts with larger scions.

It will be a fun experiment whether it works or not. At least one of the first batch has put up a small diameter shoot. It is now an inch and a half tall. I’m presuming that nut has rooted or close to it. That nut had the same amount of cold stratification as the rest, so maybe roots are forming on the others.

I’ll report back as things progress.

Great, pictures would be nice, when you have something to show. Pictures are ALWAYS nice, grin.

Will do. Don’t have anything to show on Seguins yet, but I could always post GRIN pictures, grin. My apple grafts are just starting to leaf out.

You are kind :slight_smile:
The other day I wanted spring so bad that I went into a local greenhouse just to smell the warm earth, sniffffff, sigh, heaven!

Ok…it’s off topic…but just for you…:slight_smile:

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Ah, spring!!! Thankyou.

Here is what happens when you split the nut when inserting the scion. The petioles root as usual, and the split nut partly opens up. The insertion point has callous between each cotyledon and the scion, so doesn’t open at that point. The little guy is in our woods now and 15 feet tall, so don’t worry too much over a split nut.

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That is good to know since I’m sure I split several in the second batch!

It is probably hard to see in the picture, but I believe a see a green bud through the bag from one of the first group of nut grafts:

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Wah Hoo! I think so too. It’s at the right location and angle for growth. Roots will show up against the sides of the plastic soon too, quite noticeable soon.

In 5 more days I plan to remove the first batch, put any with roots into Rootmaker 18s, and them put the in my misting chamber.

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No more of the seguin or Chinese chestnuts I planted have shown top growth, but the ones that have are doing well. Three are seguins and one is Chinese:

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Well, it has been a full month since I did the first set of Seguin to Dunstan nut grafts. So, I decided to take them out of the plastic bags and put them in 18s and the tray in my mister. Even though the second set won’t be in the bags a month until the 24th, I decided to move them all at once.

Of the 18 only one looks like it had a chance of success:

It has roots and a green bud. One had no roots and mold and the nut was soft. I culled that one. All of the other nuts in the first batch had roots. Two of them had no green buds and had put of top growth. Those will be Dunstans if I don’t cull them later. The rest in the first batch had roots with no green buds yet.

In the second group none had green buds and none had put up any shoots. Most had roots. A few had no roots yet but the nuts were solid and showed no signs of mold.

So I ended up with 17 in a tray and in my mister:

I set the mister to mist for 1 minute every hour. I hope this enough to keep them at the right humidity level.

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