American Chestnut Foundation ( update with pics)

The Night Stalker · October 12, 2013, 11:57:00 AM

I am taking the day off from hunting to go to the chestnut foundation farms open house in Meadowview, VA. They say deer prefer chestnuts to oaks 100 to 1. I am trying to get some chestnut trees to grow on the farm and hoping to get some insight.
Look up the American Chestnut history and story. Good conservation. Tim in NC

ChuckC · October 12, 2013, 12:20:00 PM

I have a handful on my property in UP MI, but they are tiny and although they are growing, they are not growing very fast. Combination of crappy soil and me not living on site to water and care for them I guess.

ChuckC

vwvectors · October 12, 2013, 12:48:00 PM

The chestnut blight was one of the worst environmental disasters to ever hit this country & all in the name of greed.

Pat B · October 12, 2013, 01:04:00 PM

I ordered and planted 10 Am.chestnut hybrids about 15 years ago. I planted them in a nursery bed to raise them up for a few years but that winter voles ate the roots off of them and killed them all.
I'd like to plant more. I did find an Am. chestnut in full bloom on the Blue Ridge Parkway last spring. It is the only one I have ever seen. There is a native stand of Am. chestnuts growing in Pine Mountain GA. that are eing used to develop the newest hybrids.
Before the chestnut blight chestnut trees comprised 40% to 70% of the tree canopy in the Eastern US. They said that beard and deer were 100# heavier back then because the chestnuts were a more reliable foor ource for wildlife...and humans.

October 12, 2013, 01:12:00 PM

When you find a chestnut in the right spot, it will have no offspring, the deer make certain of that. I have yet to find a chestnut that was away from the roads that was not a hub for the deer when the nuts were dropping, although I have seen wild apple trees get ignored.

2fletch · October 12, 2013, 02:30:00 PM

I planted a couple of hybrid chestnut trees about 6-7 years ago. For thelast two years there were only immature nuts on the trees, but this year it looked different. One tree had several hundred burrs on it and things looked promising. However, again the burrs only contained immature nuts excepted for one good healthy nut. A call to the nursery confirmed what I suspected, it is a pollination problem. Now I'll plant another couple of trees and wait.

When the immature nuts started to fall a couple of weeks ago there was a doe and her two fawns that checked them out. Indications were that these deer were very interested in this chestnut tree. Supposedly chestnuts were the main mast crop for deer for thousands of years. It was also an important food item for Native Americans. It's very high in nutrients.

Pat B, don't let the voils get the best of you. Edible Landscape Nursery near Stanton, Va. Is having their Persimmon Festival on the 26th of October. That's a chance to enjoy and learn at their wonderful nursery. They also are discounting their prices for this event. I hope to pick up at least two hybrid chestnut trees at this event and maybe get to eat some chestnuts and persimmons.

2treks · October 12, 2013, 03:12:00 PM

I want some Chestnut trees.
YUM!

r-man · October 12, 2013, 09:29:00 PM

deer love mine, and they set nuts in two yrs here, and tolerate bogg soils and require little to no care, I know of a supplier for outdoors men, called nativnursiers.com.

Bladepeek · October 12, 2013, 09:56:00 PM

I plan to buy a few and plant them at our gun club. They allow bow hunting there and we have several large fields in the sporting clays area where I'd like to put them.

ChuckC · October 12, 2013, 10:59:00 PM

Also check out Morse Nursery, Battle Creek MI. They do things a bit different and I have found their stock to be very good. They ship specially rooted stock, not bare root.

ChuckC

VictoryHunter · October 12, 2013, 11:02:00 PM

Chestnuts are the way to go. Deer love them even more than acorns. They grow fast and can start producing in as little as two years! Also from a conservation standpoint since the American Chestnut was virtually wiped out it's great a great thing to be able to help reintroduce this tree. I will be planting them when and where I am able.

The Night Stalker · October 12, 2013, 11:20:00 PM

It was worth the trip, Dr Fred Hebard gave us a tour of the research farm and discussed the back cross breeding program. They raffled of two pairs of the 15/16 blight resistant trees of and I was fortunate enough to win one of the pair. I had to sign an agreement not to sell the offspring of the trees to report how the trees are doing yearly. These seedlings will be the first crop to start a possible reforestation effort. Below is pictures of the day. The dunstan chestnut sold by real tree nursery is a blight resistant Chinese/ American hybrid with Chinese characteristics. Because they are shorter, they will get shaded out in a mature forest because everything is taller and will die out in a timber stand. They would be great in a orchard setting or around the edge of fields where they can get some sunlight. Well, I have to pick two spots in my pasture with protection to plant these valuable seedlings. Short tree tubes and heavy wire baskets I am guessing will work.

Amberjack · October 12, 2013, 11:35:00 PM

Y'all are inspirational, what a great conservation project - with bowhunting possibilities!

American chestnuts are a powerhouse of nutrition and sweet besides so it doesn't surprise me that deer or any other critter would take to them.

To me they taste sorta like sweet potatoes. We cook with 'em and yes, we roast a few around Christmas time to share with folks that have never had one.

God bless Dr. Hebard and the crew there in Va. I gotta believe eventually they'll lick the blight problem and what a day that'll be!

AJ

far rider · October 13, 2013, 02:22:00 AM

Very interesting topic. I would like to find out more. Do they do well down the hill just a bit, like say, the western Piedmont area? Do they like creek bottoms, or hill tops? Our soil is a mix of sandrock and red dirt, ya think it would be suitable?
Thanks

Bowwild · October 13, 2013, 08:01:00 AM

Walmart will begin selling the crossed Chestnut this coming spring. I'm going to plant a half dozen in my backyard near the woods.

I planted two swamp white oaks about 2 weeks ago.

The Night Stalker · October 13, 2013, 09:37:00 AM

You can find out more on this site, home range, science,etc.

www.acf.org/

You can help if you know where an original tree is. Dr Fred said that only about 20 out of Billions survived and appear to be blight resistant. You might have one per county. I know of one tree in Ashe County.
Keep your eyes open for burrs while bow hunting. You can see American characteristics on the website above.

Amberjack · October 13, 2013, 09:49:00 AM

I've been a member of ACF for the past few years, ever since I learned the story of the blight.

It's really not possible to overestimate the economic and cultural damage that was done to our country by this foreign invader.

Didn't know about the trees being available at Walmart - that's great. If the chestnut is ever going to make even a minor comeback we'll have to get them into as many hands as possible.

Hawkeye · October 13, 2013, 09:55:00 AM

What is the growing range of these trees? Could not find a map, and I have never talked to anyone who found one in Central Illinois.

Amberjack · October 13, 2013, 10:43:00 AM

Lots of good info at ACF and elsewhere on the range but at a macro scale it's estimated that there were over 4 billion mature chestnut trees at the beginning of the 20th century ranging from Georgia to Maine and west to Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. By 1950 99%+ were gone.

That said, chestnuts are growing well today in Wisconsin and many other locations outside their original range. They tend to like slightly acidic soil and traditionally were found along and below ridge lines, as opposed to bottomland. There are always exceptions and in fact the mother trees that are out there today possibly were spared because they grew apart from their sisters.
Unfortunately for me, at 8,000', Chestnuts will never grow on my property but I take joy in the fact that they're growing and eventually will thrive in my native Virginia.

For more great reading, check out 'Mighty Giants' and 'American Chestnut: The Life, Death and Rebirth of the Perfect Tree'...both available at ACF.org or Amazon, etc.

Tedd · October 13, 2013, 11:22:00 AM

Interesting! I have a few old growth roots or stumps on my wood lot property. So I like to read about this. When we built the house they must have been disturbed and with sunlight growth was triggered. They get about 6'-8' tall and die. Also a few years ago I discovered one just below the house by the creek in a mature wooded area. It was about 8"-10" across and 30' tall and straight! I was a real American Chestnut. No limbs or leaves for the first 15'. I only discovered it because I noticed a tree with dead leaves. I had found it in it's last year of life. I cut the tree that winter and hauled the small log to the house. Not sure what to do with it. In chance conversation with a turkey call maker at a sports show, I mentioned the log. He was there the next morning at 6:00 to haul it away for call making. He sent me a call.
Tedd