The Return of the American Chestnut

I was checking out the Good News Network this morning and found an amazing article and documentary about the return of the American Chestnut in Maine, thanks to Dr. Bernd Heinrich, author of Ravens in Winter and many other great books. Check this out:

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/once-wiped-out-by-blight-thousands-of-american-chestnut-trees-are-thriving-on-biologists-land-in-maine/

The American Chestnut was decimated by chestnut blight in the early 1900s, which killed million of trees through the eastern United States. But thanks to Dr. Heinrich, they are making a comeback in Maine. This article was very inspirational for me because I just planted and began stratifying several dozen chestnut seeds a few weeks ago. I'm planning on planting, selling and donating lots of chestnut seedlings once they begin germinating. Chestnuts are amazing trees and can live for hundreds of years. And they are delicious roasted!

Anyone out there growing chestnuts? What species do you grow and where do you live?

Oh, that's nice to hear!

We are growing chestnuts. Very early days yet, none of them has fruited, and given our climate (Norwegian coast) we'll probably have to wait for a decade or so for nuts, but they are growing quite well. As for what species we are growing, we've just collected nuts from trees we came across, mostly without known pedigree. Most are probably C. sativa, some I strongly suspect to be crenata x sativa (one lonely small tree with very big nuts in a garden, with plenty of wild-ish sativa trees in the vicinity) and a couple are either pure dentata or dentata x sativa (nuts from a couple American chestnut trees in an arboretum, in an area where there are wild sativas, although not in the immediate vicinity). We're taking a "landrace" approach to chestnuts, plant them all together and let them cross freely, growing out nuts from the trees that do best in our area (if they ever manage to fruit, that is...) Would like some of the other species too, if we can find them, to increase the genetic diversity further.

I just read something interesting here. Apparently, some surviving trees of C. ozarkensis, the Ozark chinkapin, have been found to have even better resistance to chestnut blight than C. mollissima. Now that would be some nice genetics to have in the population! Can probably just forget finding any on this side of the Atlantic, though...

I love Bernd Heinrich!  I've really enjoyed reading his books.  

I planted Chinese chestnut seeds a decade ago that I have been harvesting from for the past few years.  I see a few seedlings popping up here and there from those trees.  Also, last year I bought nuts from a mother tree that is 75% American chestnut and am hoping they end up behaving very much like full American chestnuts as they will need to compete in a forest setting.  Fingers crossed.  I'd love to get my fingers on some resistant 100% American and chinkapin seeds to add to my forest too.  Such a lovely dream to see them return.

i’m part of a nut orchard group. we got chestnut seed from a former president of the northern nut growers association, who was at the time three generations in on a big open-pollinated chestnut breeding project that included all 7 of the world chestnut species. each time he started a new orchard he would take seed from his favorite trees in the previous orchard. he was mainly going for trees that conform to a more chinese/korean tree shape (the easier for dealing with in an orchard setting) but he also selected a number of ‘timber-type’ trees that act much more like an american chestnut. definitely not pure genetics, but totally blight resistant and really nice to see such tall chestnuts doing their thing!

we were expecting some of the first nuts from our chestnuts (and the ones we have at home too) last year, but the brood XIV cicadas really knocked them back pretty hard. soon!

also a fan of bernd’s books!

Thank you for your replies everyone. I'm always interested in hearing about other people who grow chestnuts.

I transplanted two Chinese Chestnuts here about 10 years ago and they flowered for the first time last summer, but no chestnuts formed inside the burrs. I'm hoping for the first crop this year. The trees receive minimal care except for Scotch broom mulch and a bit of organic fertilizer.

The seeds I planted a few weeks ago were from Silverleaf Chestnut, a chestnut that is a predominantly Japanese hybrid variety. I'm trying this variety out because it can produce in the forth year after planting, doesn't get too gigantic and is resistant to blight. If I had the room though, I would like to try some of resistant American Chestnut varieties. They are remarkable trees.

Here's a video called "The Chestnut Grove" from a three part series about chestnuts by Akiva Silver, a fellow permies member, nurseryman, author and chestnut enthusiast:



He's got lots of other  cool videos about growing fruit and nut trees.

over the past 10 years ive planted more than 500 chestnut trees. currently I believe 300-400 of them have survived, I have not counted them. last fall was the first year they have produced chestnuts. I collected a total of 15lbs of beautiful organic pest free chestnuts. I let the deer have their way with them for about the first week of harvest season then began gathering every nut in the orchard. I currently have Chinese and Dustan varieties. both blight resistant. about a week ago I took delivery of 25 more Dustan seedlings from the State of Tennessee Department of forestry and donated a half dozen to the rural medical clinic located on Chestnut Hill, here in East Tennessee. Now that I know I can successfully grow chestnuts I would be more than happy to accept donations of New blight resistant American Chestnut trees.