Pure American Chestnut trees for sale!

Hello all!

First off, these are not free. I'm selling them, but also open to trades and other barter.

I've grown out a couple hundred *pure* American Chestnut trees. These are not dunstans, not backcrossed hybrids, not GMO Americans. These are absolutely pure from a few secret sources of pure trees pollinated only by other pure trees. These have no blight resistance. They will only grow and persist west of the Rockies as we are free of the blight.

Anyways - I have had far higher germination than I expected, and far higher survival past that as well. This has left me with too many of these awesome, endangered, rare trees for me to care for on my own property.

In lieu of planting them in our woods and hoping 5-10% survive, I would rather they go out into the Permie world in groups of 3 or more to be well cared for and serve to provide genetic stock for future generations.

Especially now, with the new hybrids and GMO chestnuts being released, as well as extensive development here in the Northwest where many of the only blight-free pure American chestnuts remain, completely pure American chestnuts are going to get harder and harder to find. I would like to increase their numbers while it's still an option.

So, if you have a good place to put 3 or more, please send me a message or reply to this post and I will message you. Please plant them somewhere they are likely to persist for at least a few decades so they can produce plenty of nuts and seedlings before they are cut down by development. On that note, pure American nuts sell for as much as $1 apiece, so you could consider it a financial investment as well. I'm asking $50 for a bundle of 3 healthy trees. There will be price breaks if you buy more. Again, open to trades and barter as well.

If you have questions about their requirements or site preferences, spacing, etc, please post in the questions and I will reply for everyone to see.

I also have (way too many) other species for sale, including 15 pine nut species, 5 walnut species, ginkgo, yellowhorn, siberian pea shrub, douglas fir,  european chestnut trees, comfrey, currants, jostaberries, gooseberries, coffee, horseradish, cornelian cherry, apples, pears, jujubee, milkweed, among others. Please feel free to message me if you're interested in any of those as well.

I am not west of the Rockies, unfortunately, but I think it is great that you are trying to bring back the American chestnut. There is a group here in Missouri doing the same thing with a resistant variety of Butternut that has been pretty much wiped out through the years for similar reasons. Good luck with your project!

Hi Robert,

No clue if you get this. Interested and in your pine nut seeds
343-262-3960

Out of curiosity, is there evidence that Chestnut Blight still exists in its 'damaging' form today?  Often, if the natural host has been largely eradicated, the pathogen will have become less aggressive, either due to mutation and/or the adaptation to new, alternate hosts.  Is it for sure that if such a tree species is planted back in the original locale that it will succumb to the previous disease?  We can't really compare this to Dutch elm disease since there are so many elms still around infected (likely) with close to the original aggressive strains of the fungus.  Just don't know and was wondering if anyone else had been following this.

It’s still around. The blight doesn’t necessarily kill the entire tree, just the above-ground part. I’ve read that it’s pretty common for chestnuts to send up shoots from an ancient root system, which can live for up to 15 years before the blight knocks them back down.


-D

yep, we still often find american chestnuts in the woods here, regrowing from pretty dead stumps. you never see them very big. the bigger ones die and new ones keep coming. just enough to keep the blight around?

How do I contact you for chestnut seedlings?

Possibly interested in American Chestnut, walnut, apple and pear.  Let me know what you have available that would grow well in my location and pricing for those species.

I would like to purchase some of your American Chestnut seeds or seedlings. I could use as few as 3 but as many as 10 or even a few more. I have a 3.5 acer lot and a space for this amount is cleared and ready to go.

We live in Michigan, so definitely not in the “safe” zone. I think what you’re trying to do is great though. Chestnuts are fantastic trees.

My wife and I made a 300 mile round trip last spring to a nursery to buy hybrid chestnuts among other things. Of all the things I’ve planted here... flowers, herbs, vegetables, berries, other trees, the chestnuts were what I was most excited about. They were the planned canopy of our food forest in progress. They were the main calorie crop to be grown at home. They were something that would last for generations and feed more people than I would ever meet. And I think they’re all dying...

As of now, they have tiny little buds. No leaves, no buds opening, no buds swelling, just stuck as tiny little bumps. I did some reading and see that they do pretty poorly in heavy clay soils, which we have here. Didnt know that when we planted them. We added compost to the holes, mulched with woodchips, planted comfrey around, fenced them in and kept them watered. Im so bummed that this isn’t working for them.

Do you know if there’s any hope for the trees or if theres any reasonable way to grow chestnuts in a heavier soil?

Brody, we had some chestnut trees in our backyard in TN that were planted right after the blight hit in the early 1900's. They are in heavy clay. They're huge now & still produce many nuts every year. I don't know any details other than that but I think there is hope for yours.

Mike Barkley wrote:Brody, we had some chestnut trees in our backyard in TN that were planted right after the blight hit in the early 1900's. They are in heavy clay. They're huge now & still produce many nuts every year. I don't know any details other than that but I think there is hope for yours.

That is hopeful! Maybe it isn’t the soil that’s our problem, but if it isn’t, I don’t know what is! Mayne chestnuts are slow to leaf out, but even if that’s the case it still seems unreasonable. The buds aren’t even opening and literally everything else around is not only fully leafed out but a lot of stuff is flowering now.

Do yours have sufficient water? Most of ours were within about 200 feet of a pond. We also had fairly consistent rains. The soil was slightly acidic.

Mike Barkley wrote:Do yours have sufficient water? Most of ours were within about 200 feet of a pond. We also had fairly consistent rains. The soil was slightly acidic.

I’m not sure. On average, I would water them once a week unless we got a decent amount of rain (which we probably didn’t because everything was dry last year). I would water around the base for a couple minutes each.

Ive considered that maybe they werowarered enough, but based off of what others have said about clay soil I’m hesitant to overwater now. Especially of there could be a “soup bowl” effect going on that I cant see.

Hi Mike! I'm also in TN and very interested in trying to plant some of the original American Chestnuts. Would you be interested in selling any seeds?

I have four wooded acres that I can dedicate to space for helping American Chestnuts.  4tim.murphy@gmail.com

Given the lack of response it would appear Mr Swan is no longer on Permies.  Sadly.