i planted 5 Chinese chestnuts i bought from forestag last spring. all but 1 made it. no guarantee on the quality of nuts though. id like to try planting some z4 hardy cultivars with good nuts. any recommendations from you northern chestnut growers on here? can be American hybrid crosses as long as they are reasonably blight resistant. im so far north that chestnuts were never in our forests here but now we are considered borderline with the warming climate zones. the guy that gifted me the 3 acres wants to plant alot more of his old fields. like another 50 + acres and ive convinced him to commit long term on large and small nut orchards. currently these fields are being used for hay. says he will have the resources and money to do so. maybe even do black walnut. he wants most of his 75+ acre fields reforested with something productive. he has the equipment to take it to another level, im game. just need a good source of trees that would do well here. will be planted on sloping ground relatively well draining.
When I moved here, I contacted Burnt Ridge Nursery to find out what they felt were their most northern hardy Chinese or Chinese/American chestnuts. Colossal, Layeroka, and I believe Skioka were their recommendations. I planted a couple of each as I recall. One or two survived the first winter (I believe that would have been the winter of '13-'14), then the second winter took those two out (both Layeroka I think). One continued to send up shoots from the roots for a couple more years, then I assume the roots just ran out of energy.
My chestnut experiment is done, but Iād sure like to hear of some success in a truly cold location.
I have a couple baby chestnut trees hanging in there, but they havenāt grown much in 6 or 7 years. I think the Layerokas are still alive. This spring I planted a couple trees in Plantra tubes to see if that helps any. They also prefer acid soil, so try a little sulfur or peat added to the soil. So no success to report from St. Paul area. I do have one butternut tree that produces about a 15 nuts a year, though. Great tasting, but they require a vise to crack. Meats come out in one or two pieces. Maybe try a couple butternuts and forget the chestnuts.
You should check with Perfect Circle Nursery in Vermont. Theyāre in zone 4 and grow lots of chestnuts.
Seedlings from hardy and early ripening cultivar parents would be the best bet, ideally from mother trees in a similar zone to your location. I have been harvesting from Chinese and hybrid and pure American chestnut trees in z4-z5 Oxford county Maine for a few years and growing out the seedlings. Perfect Circle Farm is a great resource but most if not all of the seed nuts are imported from more southerly states. Good luck!
Yes, most of the seeds they sell come from outside zone 4, but they grow a lot of chestnut trees and seedlings in zone 4 and can provide advice on what does well and what does poorly in zone 4.
1 reason i think i would have better luck here is our deep snowpack keeps everything protected and dormant until early May. as much as i hate deep snow, it has its benefits. im also around 350ft elevation on a hill sloping west. the larger trees to the east gives dappled shade until about 8-9am in spring allowing the snow to melt more slowly there. another benefit of deep snow is it hydrates the plants well before they start to grow, giving them a good head start once they leaf out. im also looking into cold hardy persimmons. see the other thread on that. anyone with seed for the 2 varieties mentioned on there, or other possible cold hardy varieties you know are hardy to z4a, id trade or buy some from you. now if i can keep the damned voles from eating them, ill be golden!
any chance i could trade you or buy some seed from what you see as your most hardy cultivars Jesse?.
i will definitely reach out to them. thank you . i already have them on my favorites list. been trying to get some Siberian peachs from them.
Seconding Perfect Circle in general but Twisted Tree might also be worth checking? Theyāre down in New York. Chestnut ā Twisted Tree Farm
I donāt see any chestnut seeds listed on Edgewood Nursery but they are also in Maine and may be worth reaching out to. https://edgewood-nursery.com/
I was hoping youād be zone 4 more out my way (Minnesota), but if anyone on the plains-side z4 is reading: keep an eye out for anywhere else you can find Badgersett chestnut genetics - theyāre out of southern Minnesota although the business itself seems to have folded. I know their hazels have been getting released through Experimental Farm Network but I havenāt heard anything on their chestnuts recently.
Red Fern Farm does commercial U-Pick Chestnuts in 5b Iowa and I know for a while they were selling some Badgersett genetics but havenāt seen them offering the āBadgerā series in a while.
I have aspirations to get some land an put large and small nut tree orchards up so I thought I would share some sources. Driving 5 hours to pick chestnuts in Iowa is quite a haul haha.
thanks. ive been following badgersett for awhile now. even got some of their hybrids they made in cooperation with arbor day 6 yrs. back. 1 bush in particular is very heavy yielding. so much so several branches broke and the rest were laying on each other last summer. ive also been following twisted tree and even ordered some stuff from Edgewood. i will reach out to them. thank you.
Iām in zone 6b and I planted 20 chestnut seedlings from forestag this year. Ive had 5 or 6 just give up and die. You might have just had bad luck in seedlings.
Red Fern offered wood from some Badgersett genetics last year-
Giant Badger Iā Extra cold-hardy Chinese X American hybrid from Minnesota that produces extra-large nuts, up to 24 grams. Pollen fertile.
Giant Badger IIā Extra cold-hardy Chinese X American hybrid from Minnesota that produces extra-large nuts, up to 24 grams. Pollen sterile.
Definitely a possibility that your snowpack will help you, at least until the trees are a few years old anyway. I also imagine your soil will be more āfriendlyā for chestnuts than mine. Native ph here is right around 6 or 6.2.
As far as cold hardy persimmonsā¦I have very strong doubts about them too. That said, Iām currently trialing a handful of seedling persimmons from Bluehill Wildlife Nursery. The owner says that the seedlingās parents have survived plenty of -20s and some -25s. I donāt really think they have a chance in He!! here, but I figured Iād give them a shot just for researchās sake.
When I look at the native range of American chestnuts (allegedly the most winter hardy type) and of persimmons, I know why they donāt survive here. Neither is remotely close to my location. Since we had one of the coldest winters (overall) on record here a few years ago, I donāt envision āclimate changeā making either chestnuts or persimmons likely to survive hereā¦but Iāve been wrong before.
Good to know they offer scion wood, I only ever check the nuts! Thanks!
i wonder how relevant these maps are now? 40 years ago we were z3a. some say 2b. we also got less snow believe it or not. 30 years ago i couldnt grow hybrid American hazels here. now i can. we just had the all time warmest july on record. our lakes have got so unpredictable due to warmer temps. it was dangerous ice fishing last winter. my permanent nearly fell in because the ice on 1 end melted through. my neighbor lost the bottom of his HighLift trying to jack his. never seen that before in early Jan.
Thereās more to a specieās native range than just winter low temps.
I messed around for a number of years trying to grow stuff that wasnāt intended to grow where I used to live. That was 6 hours southeast of here. Those attempts werenāt successful. Iām getting too old to mess around with stuff that isnāt either already proven to be hardy here, or that isnāt close to itās native range.
That doesnāt mean you or others shouldnāt give it a shot though.
well both of them are native to the Appalachian range and im at the northern edge of that so hopefully thatās enough that they will take here now that is warmer. i dont know anyone thatās tried to grow these up here. cant hurt to try.
Youāre much, much closer to where they are intended to live than am I.
Iāll guess you have more luck with American/Chinese chestnut hybrids than with persimmons, but Iāll be interested to hear how they each do for you.
The zone maps may or may not have any relevance at all depending on where you are.
And warm Julyās do not cancel out colder than normal winters.
I moved to zone 6b a few years ago and immediately had zone 6a temps followed by zone 5b temps a couple of weeks later. A number of Plains and Midwestern states and Texas had temps a zone or two lower than their assigned zones. Last year we had zone 6a temps again and this year we went back into 5b territory. So for three years straight we have been one or two zones colder than normal here.