r ranson wrote:Transplant the tree with care, wide hole, maybe give it some water and a bit of nice soil, that sort of thing. then come back next spring and see if it made it.
r ranson wrote:If the choice comes down to cull or not cull, try transplant with STUN (extreme neglect). Let the tree make the decision. If it's too sick, it wll die. If not, it will thrive.
greg mosser wrote:we have quite a few hybrid chestnuts planted in pure southern red clay that seem to be doing just fine aside from deer browse issues. they are around the crown of a hill, so (lack of) drainage doesn’t seem to be as much of a big deal as it could be.
Ulla Bisgaard wrote:I don’t have a lot of advice, but check your soil PH. It should be between 4.5 and 6 for chestnut trees. Also, it might be your grow zone. What I can find says zone 4 to 9, but you do say what you have is a hybrid.
I would take a good large soil sample and send it to a lab and get it tested. It’s usually about 50$ and it’s worth it. I do it when I run into problems. They will check the ph and your soil quality, and get back to you with advice on how to fix it, if anything needs fixing.
One more thing though, sometimes it just don’t work. I have had to replace trees because I just couldn’t get them to grow right.
Right now we have an apple tree to cut down. I have given it 8 years, and while it flowers we don’t get any apples. Instead we are planting a cherry tree.
r ranson wrote:Thankfully blight hasn't made it here yet.
But sometimes we get issues with fruit and nut trees looking sick, but it's a soil problem. Too much or not enough...drainage, water, minerals, nutrients, critters eating roots, toxins from up hill neighbours.
Sometimes we can fix on location like adding lime or manuer, and other times relocating the tree does the trick (kill or cure).
...
Could you tell us more about the soil? Hopefully someone familiar with your climate can chime in with ideas.
R Scott wrote:Can you lay it down in one piece? If you can, you could build it like a cutting board or countertop and dropped in place.
R Scott wrote:Nails will still loosen as the wood swells and dries in thickness, but shouldn’t split or get loose enough to be an issue. My preference for board and batten is to nail the boards on one edge, then finish the boards if you’re going to. Then screw the prefinished battens in place with stainless or color matched screws. That way you can tighten the battens if they dry a lot or remove them to re finish. You can also screw a few boards on the same way if you need an access panel.
R Scott wrote:Flat head nails split and finish nails pull out if the wood moves too much. Which is better depends on the species, thickness of board, and where the nail is placed. And how it’s driven—over driven flat heads definitely split worse. I don’t know the right answer for your situation, test your options and pick your poison. Finish nails definitely look better in my opinion, unless you overdrive them with a gun and then they are ugly.
Galvanized nails for a nail gun are a slight premium over regular, stainless are available but $$$. We would use galvanized ring shank nails in a regular air gun turned way down, then finish driving them with a hammer and a special punch—it has a guide collar so you can’t miss or bend the nail. I think they call it a trim nail punch. Made for driving nails into aluminum trim.
A quarter inch air gap between the siding and sheathing will do WONDERS for letting the siding dry and last longer. You can rip pieces of plywood or 2x material or buy the stickers material from a lumber mill. They make bug screens for the top and bottom, some are like heavy filter material used for ridge vent (cobra filter) and some are perforated metal and some are corrugated plastic. None are cheap, but if you have a Menards they sell sheets of Coro-plast you can rip down for a decent price.