Chestnut espalier

Crazy thought but is it possible to espalier chestnut trees? I have a fence that needs replacing around the chicken area and I was thinking espalier mulberries or maybe chestnuts. I know chestnut is fairly tough. Could they handle being tortured into espalier?

They get pretty big.
Will they produce nuts if they are pruned/ trained to a smaller size?

William Bronson wrote:They get pretty big.
Will they produce nuts if they are pruned/ trained to a smaller size?

Yes! A neighbor has a pruned tree, about 2-3 meters high, and it produces nuts. It's common in Japan to keep fruit and nut trees short for ease of harvest and care. Not sure about training...

This is Chiba prefecture's guide to pruning chestnuts: (in Japanese, but there are good illustrations) https://www.pref.chiba.lg.jp/ninaite/seikafukyu/documents/03_kuri-teijukou.pdf

(Edit: I figured out that if you download the pdf, you can then upload it to google translate as a document. The translation is not horrible.)

An overview from a researcher's blog: He says that pruning allows more even sunlight and results in bigger and more chestnuts.
http://ne-koiki.jp/item/kurizensho/p04_17/p10.html

Wow!
I have read here : PFAF that Japanese Chestnuts are shorter than others.
Are these the variety they use?
I wonder if different varietals will respond differently.
 

William Bronson wrote:Wow!
I have read here : PFAF that Japanese Chestnuts are shorter than others.
Are these the variety they use?
I wonder if different varietals will respond differently.
 

Google Translate tells me in the second link:  "After many years of research, Mr. Tsukamoto has developed a new variety "Kinka". In 1965, "Tono No. 3" was recognized as a prefectural variety by multiplying the varieties that survived a severe blow by the Kuros wasp that came from China. Not only is the bee tolerant, but it is an excellent variety that only leaves the fruit when it is harvested. The name comes from the famous mountain "Kinkazan" in Gifu prefecture. It accounts for about 10% of the cultivars grown in the prefecture."

This link definitely lists Kinka as a cultivar locally available to Indochina:  http://eng.iodfarm.com/2011/01/chestnuts.html but implies that it may not be very cold-hardy.  (Which would be weird as chestnuts are fairly cold-hardy and Japan certainly gets cold winters, but...)

The technique looks interesting - hard pruning until it's about 3.5 m high, then pruning down to 2.5 m and about 15 years and keeping it there.  I don't think I understand why, though I get why no central leader.

I planted 2 smaller chestnuts - Anny's Summer Red ( https://www.pflanzmich.de/produkt/55325/esskastanie-annys-summer-red.html ) and Vincent van Gogh ( https://www.pflanzmich.de/produkt/22004/esskastanie-vincent-van-gogh.html ) which are supposed to top out at 3 m high and 2 m wide.  I was kind of hoping with such small growth they'd not need any pruning.

They both appear to be dead this year, which is almost definitely the place they are planted, which kills everything.  Do I try again?  Sigh.

I think it's possible but could get away from you. Hazelnuts would be an excellent choice though. Just be sure they're blight resistant.  

It seems there are many varieties of the Japanese chestnut, Castanea Crenata. These are the most common, but certainly not all. There are many more.



(variety top to bottom: tanzawa, izumo, oomine, rihei, tsukuba, ginyosei, ishitsuchi, ganne. Far right column is time of harvest. )

Examples of difference in nut shapes:

from: https://www.ibaraki-shokusai.net/season/season_kasamakuri.php


There is more info about the Japanese chestnut on the Japanese wikipedia page for chestnuts https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%AF%E3%83%AA Ask google to translate into english instead of going to the "english" wikipedia page.

They are mainly selected for differences in time of harvest, nut size, spike length, and ease of cracking. The only mention I can find of difference in pruning resilience is that some varieties prefer, (meaning they will still fruit on that branch the same year) if only two-year-old growth is pruned and not new growth....as far as I can decipher. The vocab used is not readily translated to English...

But, I did find an article in English about the benefits of Japanese pruning techniques from 2000. None other than "The Western Chestnut" published this article outlining the increase in production resulting from pruning. Pruning Chestnuts for Improved Productivity:http://www.chestnutgrowers.org/2000april.pdf

It seems like any variety would handle pruning fine. The only differences would be in nut production. If a few less nuts aren't a concern, then prune away. I'll be curious to see how the trees deal with training. Please keep us updated in the following years!

Chestnuts are pretty tough.  We have two of what I assume to be Chinese chestnuts in our front yard.  They were planted by the previous owner over forty years ago.  We had a massive early snowstorm in the fall of 2011 or 2012 that dumped 28” of wet snow, while the trees had not yet lost their leaves.  One of the chestnut trees was badly damaged to the point where we planned to have it taken down.  It bounced back, regained it’s shape, and produced a massive amount of chestnuts last two years.  

I don’t see why they wouldn’t adapt to being espaliered.  

I love the replies. Thanks for the info everyone! I’m thinking of incorporating the pruning technique for my c.crenata chestnut that’s planted in the front. If I do end up doing an espalier with hazelnuts or chestnuts I’ll keep you all updated on the progress. It’s very tempting. The downside of having to prune a lot more is sort of balanced by the woody products I’d be getting that I can use elsewhere.