Not able to get hybrid chestnuts seeds to europe. Help?

Hello,

I'd like to ask if there is anybody here who knows how to get hybrid chestnut seeds shipped to europe?
I'm trying to get seeds now since more than two year from Badgersett Farm and other places.
They seem to be a very good source for our climate here in the alps in Austria, just they don't answer my mails and I phoned them but nothing.
I really tried, but I'm getting tired of not getting an answer.

In Europe you can get Castanea sative but hardly something else. In my location those hybrids would do great because of the slightly acid but rich soils.
Just, its a bit to cold for the Castanea sativas to be really productive, nobody grows them - just some single trees in some gardens.

I would like to plant a small farm and would need a source I can trust, and somebody who is willing to tell me at least a bit about where the genetics are coming from.
Somehow, maybe I'm wrong, but somehow it seems nobody from the companies I've been in contact with, wants to talk about the genetics of the seeds they are selling.
Am I wrong? I don't know.

So my question is there somebody with some advice what to do?

Thanks,
Christian Mpunkt

PM me, we might be able to figure a work around....i.e. they ship them to me and I'll ship them to you!

I'd be interested in getting some too as I don't think I would get a crop from native types as it is too cold here.

Katy Whitby-last wrote:I'd be interested in getting some too as I don't think I would get a crop from native types as it is too cold here.

Same offer....PM me!

Dave Dahlsrud wrote:PM me, we might be able to figure a work around....i.e. they ship them to me and I'll ship them to you!

Thanks I did already!

Can anybody recommend other "Badgersett-Style" chestnut sources? For a climate from 4 to 6 and about 30'' to 40'' of Rain?
I'm sure there are some I don't know of.

Christian,
I'm not sure why you are so set on hybrid chestnuts from the U.S.
Europe has some of the oldest chestnuts in the world. The breeding programs there might not sound as fancy as badgersett, but they've been going on for thousands of years, generation by generation.
If I was in Europe, I would visit the chestnut orchards in northern Italy, northern Spain, and then head East towards the black sea region which is home to tremendous chestnut/beech forests. I'm sure some of the chestnuts will not be hardy in the alps, but many will be. C. Sativa is a hardy species that is well adapted to many soils and sites. We have c. sativa here in upstate NY, edge of zone 4/5, the trees are from Italy and are hardy here.
I don't think you need to find a company that is selling seed, I think you need to find orchards, farms, and forests. That's all just my opinion of course. I think if you're planting chestnut seeds of any type you won't regret it.

I have looked into European one's and though there are hardier ones they won't produce a crop here because of the low summer temperatures.

That's really interesting. I don't know very much about European climates. I have read about old chestnut forests in the Italian Alps, and orchards in the UK, but perhaps those are warmer climates than you. It's surprising to me that after all this time, no one in Europe has found chestnuts that do well in cool climates.

Yes all the chestnuts in the UK tend to be in the south of England where the big coppice woods are. We are pretty borderline here for growing lots of stuff so I'd rather grow from seed and try as many types as possible to increase my chances of getting some sort of crop.

On the north side of the alps we have huge amounts of rain. Our main weather streams are coming from north-west. The alps block the clouds and cource a lot of rain and less sun hours.
40'' are normal about 30km north from the alp. Inside the vallies 60 to 70'' of rain are normal. Just a litte bit further south there is a much warmer climate. At the place where the famous
Krameterhof form Sepp Holzer is, there is already less rain because it a bit further south. I guess he has to deal with about 30'' of rain.

What do I know of European climates, it sounds like you have good reasons for wanting different strains of chestnut.
If I ever get past all the paperwork and am able to send seeds overseas, I'd be happy to send our hybrid chestnut seeds from the northeast U.S.
The last time I looked into the paperwork, it seemed like a huge hassle that I wasn't ready to deal with. I'm sure one day I'll get over that hurdle, maybe by next fall.
Cheers
Akiva

Akiva Silver wrote:What do I know of European climates, it sounds like you have good reasons for wanting different strains of chestnut.
If I ever get past all the paperwork and am able to send seeds overseas, I'd be happy to send our hybrid chestnut seeds from the northeast U.S.
The last time I looked into the paperwork, it seemed like a huge hassle that I wasn't ready to deal with. I'm sure one day I'll get over that hurdle, maybe by next fall.
Cheers
Akiva

Well sending plants is not possible. But sending seeds as food is the way how it works - as long as the seeds are then treated with UV-light for sanitation.
What would be a wise idea ...

I'll look into that for next season. I'm all sold out of chestnut seed this year.

Akiva Silver wrote:That's really interesting. I don't know very much about European climates. I have read about old chestnut forests in the Italian Alps, and orchards in the UK, but perhaps those are warmer climates than you. It's surprising to me that after all this time, no one in Europe has found chestnuts that do well in cool climates.

There are, but as far as I know it is only horse chestnut... they have great medicinal uses and can be a reliable livestock feed to some species, but they are poisonous to humans and many other animals as well, if eaten.

I am also interested. Let me know if anyone gets a hold of anything that'd survive and produce edible chestnuts despite the Scandinavian winters!

Hello,

Not sure if this is of any help but I know this company will ship seeds to Europe. I have been in contact with him in the past and am hoping to have some shipped in the spring when i start growing also.

https://www.treeshrubseeds.com/genussearch?g=c&ID=0

This is my first post, I hope its helpful. And hope the first of many in this new community.

Many Thanks

Nicky

if I look at the 1st USDA hardines zone map for Europe Google spits out:


thanks to the gulf stream? all of GB is zone 8 or 9, central Shottland zone 7
so no cold winters at all

the southern edge of Germany is 7 or 6

as for you, Maja, you never disclosed your location, for all I know your scandinavian winters can be a zone 7 in Denmark or at the scandinavian west coast
well, there is some zone 6 even in northern GA

now help me understand why you need such extreme cold hardy chestnuts, please

ev kuhn wrote:if I look at the 1st USDA hardines zone map for Europe Google spits out:
thanks to the gulf stream? all of GB is zone 8 or 9, central Shottland zone 7
so no cold winters at all

the southern edge of Germany is 7 or 6

as for you, Maja, you never disclosed your location, for all I know your scandinavian winters can be a zone 7 in Denmark or at the scandinavian west coast
well, there is some zone 6 even in northern GA

now help me understand why you need such extreme cold hardy chestnuts, please

Well, I guess we all know does maps.
But shortening the view on climate on just the minimum temperature is just not reality. Not speaking for scandinavia but for austria:
We do get -25°C in low altitude areas (marked as 6 in the map) and we do get much colder weather 500m or 1000m further up. And both places are shown as USDA 6.
The map shows a very simplified climate of europe, if you could zoom into the map you would know what I mean.
And yes gulf stream is playing a huge role....

ev kuhn wrote:as for you, Maja, you never disclosed your location, for all I know your scandinavian winters can be a zone 7 in Denmark or at the scandinavian west coast
well, there is some zone 6 even in northern GA

now help me understand why you need such extreme cold hardy chestnuts, please

I am in zone 5 or 6 somewhere.

The issue with your map is that it is seriously simplified, and based upon average without taking into account the occurrence of the extreme. It assumes that the climate stays the same every year, but every now and then, we get a good old wolf winter and they will test everything. Take my own area, for example - normally we would rarely get temperatures lower than -15 degrees C, but this year we have spent a lot of time in temps well below -20. The coldest it got was -34, cold enough to permanently damage cars, houses, and asphalt. Nearby areas suffered from -43 for a few days, that could've easily been us.. What makes this winter even WORSE, is that the weather was extremely warm right up until the beginning of January.. so warm, in fact, that spring flowers started to pop up in the lawn and many trees began to bud well out of their season, they've taken a harsh blow from that. And even when our winters are warm, it's not unusual for us to get some very harsh summertime iron nights. So as you can see, a plant in zone 5 or 6 should preferably be very cold-hardy if it is expected to live for many seasons, like a tree would. If we were talking about plants that only lived a season or two, I wouldn't be as careful.

It wouldn't be worth planting a Mediterranean type of tree up here. I bet it would thrive just fine for a few years, but then we'd get another wolf winter and we might as well mark it down for timber.

Hi I am growing chestnuts [UK sativa] in southwest UK. I am particularly interested in anyone pollarding/pruning older trees for fruit. Regarding  the above posts... Do you get a reliable large fruit variety from seed or do you then graft onto your new seedstock? I know that sativa is not a true UK native but I would like to understand more about any adverse environmental implications of introducing foreign hybrids etc into a semi-natural domain. There was an issue a while back with (I think) Dutch Hawthorn for hedging flowering out of synch with fauna and messing up the feeding/nesting/rearing cycle. Any further links or info most welcome. Cheers.