posted 10 years ago
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.