Project: Growing Chestnuts - better than acorns

[EastTx]

Cool thread. I am going to be trying my green hand at Chinese Chestnut and American/ Chinese Hybrid from seed. I will also be growing some Allegheny Chickapin for the first time. I have had good luck starting oaks from seed but it sounds like I am going to need a little luck with the chestnuts. I have collected a lot of acorns this year for planting and have way more than I need. If anyone is interested in some seeds and willing to pay shipping I will gladly send some. Also, if anyone has any Dwarf Chinquapin Oak acorns I would like about 25.
I have

White Oak (5 gallons, some sprouting)
Shumard Red Oak (3 gallons)
Water Oak (1 gallon)
Overcup Oak (1 gallon)
Chinquapin Oak ( only 10 acorns left)

Let me know.

[gettin closer]

I finally puled the trigger and ordered a few trees from the Dunstan Chestnut guys. My cousin and I ordered a total of 15 of them. I planted 7 of them on a slope with sandy clay soil. My cousin has planted 4 behind his house to "nurture them" and will test 4 of them on the edge of a pasture/tree line. We will see what works.

As far as a watering system, we are using a 5 gallon bucket with a small wire hole melted through the bottom. This will drain 5 gallons in about 6 hours letting it get a good soaking and not running off. I hope 1 good watering on Saturday morning and Sunday evening are enough to keep the trees going!

I am also going to try to plant some Persimmon Trees from seed to mix in with the Chestnuts. I think this would be a good later season attractant for the deer!

I also called the guys at rootmaker today. They said to use the propagation trays for 2-4 months (till the roots filled the container and could be lifted out without soil going everywhere) and then move them to the 3 gallon container. they would be ready that fall to put in the ground! I think I will give it a try and see how it does.

[unclefish]

Sounds like a great plan.

I planted my 2 surviving Dunstans and 1 Chinkapin Oak last week right before we got about 2 inches of rain. I put tubes on all of them so we will see how they do this summer.

[texaspyro21]

Any update on the trees that were planted?

[SwampRanger]

How's this progressing ?

[unclefish]

My place flooded (has 3 feet of water on most it for a month)....haven't checked on the trees but I bet its not good.

[cwbow]

I lost 6 trees that flooded also. Mine stayed under for 30 days.

[GraceNmercy]

Well I've never seen this thread until today as I usually post in this forum regarding turkeys. I've been growing chestnuts for about 5 or 6 years on our families place in Anderson county. I started off buying large potted Dunstans from a wholesale nursery here in Houston. I planted 6 and 3 of those are still surviving and producing nuts.

I started collecting seed from the nursery trees before learning about chestnut ridge of Pike county and growing them in pots. I just had 25-30 gallon large pots that I mixed with peat, potting soil and native soil from the property and planted multiple nuts in the big pots and most did well. I plant out on the property in the fall every September/October and lost a few early on during summer droughts in 2015 and 2016.

Over the past few years I picked up a few trees from Walmart and lost quite a few and still have quite a few survivors. The best thing that works for me now is direct seeding. I've done it the past 2 or 3 years and I have more direct seeded trees to survive since they have more of a tap root by June once I plant them out in February or early March. I did have a few pure American over the years but did lose due to blight and drought over the years.

Today I have a few young American and 60+%, 87%, and 97% hybrid Americans and a few pure Americans I direct seeded last year. I have probably a couple of hundred Dunstans and a few pure Chinese. This fall I'll plant more hybrids and backcrossed Americans and also Ozark chinquapins which were once native to northeastern Texas.

Our native east Texas chestnuts are Allegheny and Ozark chinquapin, and since our place is on the southwestern most range of the Ozark chinquapin range I'm working to get them reestablished in our part of east Texas with the Ozark Chinquapin Foundations breeding program. I'm going to their annual fall meeting and have been locating several good sized native east Texas chinqiapins over the past couple of years.

As much as I love growing chestnuts I'm really starting to get into getting our native (dwarf) chestnut trees reestablished. Here is a link to some vids I posted of my chestnut plantings.. [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pyqg7bBscTI&t=1s"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pyqg7bBscTI&t=1s[/ame]

[LivinADream]

I just noticed yesterday that two of my trees have nuts on them. been in the ground for 3 years I think. (were 3 year old trees when I planted) bought them at walmart. these will be the first nuts my trees have made, think there are 9 total. when do chestnuts normally fall?

[GraceNmercy]

I just noticed yesterday that two of my trees have nuts on them. been in the ground for 3 years I think. (were 3 year old trees when I planted) bought them at walmart. these will be the first nuts my trees have made, think there are 9 total. when do chestnuts normally fall?

The Dunstans typically start falling late September into October. It can vary though. About 2 years after I planted my first large potted trees I had one to produce one nut and I pulled it off and opened the bur to take the nut out in late October..the week before deer season.

[LivinADream]

The Dunstans typically start falling late September into October. It can vary though. About 2 years after I planted my first large potted trees I had one to produce one nut and I pulled it off and opened the bur to take the nut out in late October..the week before deer season.

good to know.... thank you

off topic but did you have an ongoing tree thread on the qdma forum?

[GraceNmercy]

good to know.... thank you

off topic but did you have an ongoing tree thread on the qdma forum?

Yes I did before they made the changes to the forum there. Like most other folks in the forum I picked up and continued my thread on the deerhuntersforum, but have just been to busy to keep it updated over the past year or so. Have made a lot of changes so I need to make some updates..

[unclefish]

Good stuff guys. When I started this thread I had high ambitions....but I never could get my Dunstans to survive at my place.

I really love the idea of bringing back trees that have disappeared from the region. Kudos to y'all!

[TreeDaddy]

Enjoyed the video,Terrence

Glad to see you posting somewhere!!

bill