Clinton Hitch

Damn, that's the first I've heard of thousand canker disease, too! Wikipedia says the disease is around Knoxville now so that's pretty close to home...

We have a ton of black walnuts around here (most of ye locals consider the tree a weed) and at least a dozen mature ones on my property. So maybe we'll prove to have some survivor DNA in our trees.

I also planted two dozen wild hazelnuts before reading up on eastern filbert blight... and we are planting six American chestnuts this spring...

The Am. chestnuts we ordered from Chief River Nursery out of Wisconsin. Here's their blurb about growing their chestnut seedlings:

"Our pure American Chestnuts come from mature parents who have survived the blight and are producing chestnut seeds.  For now, the possibility of American Chestnuts getting the blight sometime in their life is a real possibility.  These seedlings are grown from chestnuts collected from a large orchard of very old American Chestnut trees which have never displayed symptoms of the blight even though the blight has affected all the other trees in the region.  It is uncommon to see this happen and leads us to believe that the parents may have some natural built in blight resistance."

Seemed legit...

christopher Sommers wrote:Excellent work Clinton! In regards to your butternuts, do you see any issues with butternut canker disease in your part of the range? They have been hit hard in the central part and is expanding.

that's the first I've heard of it! Might explain why they weren't expensive?

Sounds like the cardboard method may not be necessary but that ground looks mighty bare. Planting some perennial groundcovers is what I'd do, along with layering on compost or some kind of mulch.

There will be all kinds of variety when grown from seed, I would plant as many as you can. First two summers they should be grown with ample shade and wind protection. Mature trees, however, do best in full sun but oo much dry wind will damage their leaves at any age. Some acidity in the soil is a plus.

We have a pile of wood and a clean stovepipe.

Planted a few dozen trees and shrubs over late fall/early winter (mostly native "wildlife mix" bareroot type stuff along with 10 highbush bl. berry and 10 everbearing rasp., some clumping+dwarf bamboo, 2 dozen pawpaw seedlings etc.) and currently waiting it out until the second round of bareroots arrive in the spring.

We are looking forward to planting 6 American chestnut (seedlings from a stand of blight-immune/resistant trees), hardy pecans, butternuts, more currants, etc.

Current noteworthy building project has been transitioning our 8 chickens from a static coop to a mobile tractor system. Have slapped together 1 of 2 necessary tractors; making these light and on the cheap so it's basically a scrap pine frame wired in on the sides with a tarp for a roof and a built-in hardwood pole perch.

Check us out, about 3 years into regenerating this old farm:
https://nativeforestgardens.wordpress.com/

Pueraria ("Kudzu" aka "Japanese Arrowroot") that were introduced in the US back in the 30s are thought to have been a hybrid of two or more of the common species found overseas: P. montana, P. edulis, P. phaseoloides, P. tuberosa.

It's a great plant in many ways, all parts are edible as far as I know and I have seen honey bees forage its nectar. It's also a nitrogen-fixer and "Oh, did you know they are great at erosion control?"

I'm amazed that so many permies are so comfortable writing off an incredibly biologically diverse region of one of the world's oldest, most beautiful mountain chains as too "redneck."

"Shame on yuns!"

That being said, east TN/east KY/WV are probably the toughest parts of all Appalachia--not for the faint of heart at all. They don't care about permaculture because they've never heard of it and they've never heard of it because they're too busy struggling to get by.

Appalachia needs it's own forum on here...

I suppose they can roost on the rocks but I always provide some kind of poles to perch on.

The best low-interaction guinea coop I've seen was an enclosed roost built up on stilts with some sheet metal fixed around each leg to foil predators. All it needs is a couple walls on the NW side, a roof and the four stilts to hang it all on--don't need to build a floor or a ladder since they will fly in and out.

I have even seen guineas kept "free range" inside a 4 or 5 ft enclosure. They fly over the fence to get in and out--also a low maintenance option.

The question is just keeping keets alive to where they can handle it on their own as usual.

I used to start mine on "turkey" feed or any other higher protein poultry feed. The organic thing mine ever got was garden scraps and stuff they foraged on their own.

I would keep it simple: spread a good, thick (several inch) layer of Material A directly onto the ground surface, then spread a similar layer of Material B atop that. Repeat as necessary.

Top it off with 6" of rooting medium and grow your hardwood cuttings in it later this winter (stacking functions)!