Chestnut seeds?

Starting a small nut nursery to fund the development of a 27ha regenerative farm next year and the seed chestnut market looks good (there's only one other nursery selling in the whole country) so I'm wondering, does anyone have a source of chinese or blight resistant chestnuts in Europe?

Thanks

I myself have planted a combination of different chestnuts in my orchard, both store bought grafted/layered trees, and also sprouted seedlings. Some of the sprouted seedlings were commercially purchased that were sprouted from exceptional stock, and others myself from high quality store-bought chestnuts. None of my self-sprouted seedlings show the slightest hint of blight, so I'm assuming that they orignated from resistance orchard trees to begin with.

You might try the same thing with similar success. My personal observation is that chestnuts will not sprout till they've over-wintered in soil, but robustly sprout as soon as the weather warms in spring. I sprouted my chestnuts in 5 gallon plastic pots, with wire covering to protect them from animals. Squirrels with find and eat every single nut if left unprotected.

Note that the general rule of thumb is that seedling trees bear fruit or nuts more slowly than grafted trees. That is my personal observation also. What I've seen is that my grafted or layered trees start flowering about 4 years after planting, whereas the seedling trees are only starting to flower now after 7 years.

Hi Michael

Thanks for the quick reply

Any sources of seeds / trees in Europe?

I can't speak for Europe, but in the Atlanta, Ga area there is an asian supermarket called Super H Mart that sells Korean chestnuts seasonally. I bought some, removed the leathery outer covering with a razor, planted them and they grew. I have three trees right now that are growing in my yard that are 3-4 foot tall.