Bringing Back The Chestnut: Establishing a Chestnut Orchard

[@christopherlockard6346]

I planted 85 trees this spring. A mix of Qing, mossbarger, and empire. The empires have grown the best with 10 of them already out the top of a 6 ft tree tube. Thanks for all the info.

[@bearcreekorganics1295]

This was a nice video!

[@Rytoast99]

hey man great video but I have one question. What would be the best way to select which chestnuts to plant from unknown parents. the parents trees are growing fine but the seeds are various broad in shape size and color what characteristics would you say to look for in the nuts when selecting which seeds to plant? I appreciate the help

[@nj1639]

I plant nuts from trees that have the growth characteristics that I want - tall and straight. I choose nuts that come from burrs that only contain one nut. These are larger than the flat sided nuts that have had to share a burr with one or two other nuts. The rounded, single nuts have a better start to them in my opinion, due to them being larger.

[@larryroberts8607]

If the soil is not well drained, can you mound the soil to mimic ridge like conditions?

[@robertmifkovic6325]

Yes

[@stevegermain1222]

Do you sell seedlings

[@Less1leg2]

I think, if local governments provided tax incentives or tax deductions for farmers to plant American Chestnuts in their wood lots. We might see faster advancement of American Chestnut trees if benefits could be found. On State or Regional Governments whom own wood lots. First choice of planting new trees should be the American Chestnut first. Parkland and any place where tree lots are. First choice should be American Chestnut and only Native Species Trees should be planted. In fact, foreign species trees should be removed and replaced by native species of trees. Eventually American Chestnut might come back but we need incentives to ensure the volume is there to create a self sustaining tree group. But we must offer up the Chestnut trees as in the old ratio of 4:1. If American Chestnut prior to us meddling in the forest with importing Chinese or Japanese Chestnut was 4:1 we must return the ration back to its healthy number. there had to be a reason, nature had a 4:1 ratio of American Chestnut to all other native trees.

[@soroush927]

can you grow chestnuts in Denver area ?

[@bobfrel4828]

Yes you can. We bought seedlings from Greg in 2006. Last year we had a harvest of about seven pounds of chestnuts from two trees. This spring we started two more trees from two of last year’s nuts.

[@Tapajara]

Why don't you plant recovered American Chestnut trees? The blight resistant ones are almost ready for restoration.

[@jamesanagnos6123]

why Chinese and not Native American chestnuts ? I dont agree with you no matter what your reasons ,desiese resistance or what ever,Grow American

[@jamesanagnos6123]

@@MrJohnfultz im sure their are many ways to treat it and kill it before it can cause damage to trees, have you try a treatment with spinosad, a natural soil bactiria that has been furmented and is used as a bug killer, tri it on infected trees,i have many ideas for products that would work and kill it ,i just dont think you people have done enough research to find something that works

[@jamesanagnos6123]

@@MrJohnfultz I dont have any degree but have been growing trees and vegetables all my life for over 50 years and i try to use common sence to solve problems , new products come about that can solve a problem you might have had for years prior, i menion Spinosad because it is made from a bactiria found in soil and i know that the chestnut blite does not like something in the soil and is why it wont attack and kill the roots of the tree, maybe applying spinosad will kill this desiese its worth a try and you can find it under Monteray insect garden spray, just make sure it has spinosad as the active ingridient, i would experiment with many other phytotoxins as well more so then conventional spray's and treatment for plant desieses, i know if i had chestnut trees i would not stop until i had an effective cure, all these people you mention in universities go stricktly by the book and never think out side of the box ,i dont trust the so called experts , what have they done all this time they have been trying , ZERO

[@Qingeaton]

@@MrJohnfultz Hey friend, Don't know if you do the facebook thing, but if you would like, I could recommend you to their group. They had to close it to the public because of people being quoted on other sites without their permission. I've been growing for about 30 years, many people on there with much more knowledge than I have. That said, you have two real choices. Plant the seedling trees and learn to graft, so you can put the types you want on them later. Plant the grafted trees (and learn to graft, so YOU can replace the dead ones) You have to cage them from deer. We grow the varieties ... Eaton...Qing...Pandora...Scharlbaum...Jenny....Peach.... Black Satin...(our own new introduction) If you put your time in with them and get started right, they will pay you back well. Greg Miller is a good man. They sell at a reasonable price. I've bought from them myself.

[@bandmasterjf]

@@Qingeaton Yes, I do Facebook. Look me up and add me if you like. There are several with my name on Facebook. My profile pick is my dad in overalls and my son when he was 3 or 4. Blonde curly headed boy.

[@jimdent351]

He's trying to raise trees for profit. Why would he waste his time and money planting something that probably won't survive. There are organizations that are working to bring back the American trees. There's nothing this man can do that others aren't already trying. I'm guessing that if he put the effort into planting American chestnuts that you wanted him to then he'd go bankrupt.