Chinese Chestnuts and a hybrid variety?

[Deleted]

Way back in the 1970s I got a bundle of ten chestnut trees from the Pennsylvania Game Commission for wildlife planting. The trees grow up to a fairly good height and then usually get the chestnut fire blight and die off, but the root systems sprout new trees. Also, usually these trees produce nuts when the get to a certain age. So far we have lost one tree to the blight. What is interesting to me is that I was told at the time that these were Chinese chestnuts. I believe they are actually hybrids. Here is a photo of the trees as they stand a few years ago in 2011. In the foreground you can see one of the trees sprouting back from roots, with eight more mature trees in the background.


Compare the above trees with this one. It is a pure Chinese chestnut that is on a neighbor’s property. To my knowledge it has never shown a blight canker, such as will be easily seen in the next photo.

[Deleted]

to continue with the thread, 
This is a photo of one of my chestnut trees showing a blight canker.


The pure Chinese chestnut tree in the photo in the first post produced the nuts on the left. Seven of my trees produce nuts such as the ones on the right. One of my trees produces nuts similar to the Chinese chestnut. The smaller nuts are similar to the nuts American chestnut trees produced when they were a dominant tree in our forests. Since my trees seem to grow tall and straight and not bushy as does the Chinese chestnut, I believe that my trees are some sort of hybrid of the two varieties.

[Deleted]

I have an interesting proposal to anyone who is willing to play a bit with this.  I am harvesting nuts from my chestnut trees this week and will refrigerate them.  If anyone would like to try to raise some of these trees from nuts I am willing to give a handfull to you.  Let me know and I can mail them out at my expense.  All I ask is that you try to raise them and see what kind of trees you get.  I am planting a bunch of these nuts at our property in Somerset County. Since I am now 72, there is little chance that I will be alive to see the result, but someone will.   You many wish to start these in pots or a garden.  They do not require good soil or anything special, which is one of the beautiful things about chestnut trees.
The Mutt

[gobblerhunter]

A guy i know has a few in his yard and I ran into him at the local high school football game this past friday and he boils the nuts and he gave me a few to try and they are really tasty. they looked like the ones on the left on your pic

[bake545]

If they get the blight they are not chinese chestnuts. Chinese are immune to the blight. They probably are a hybrid as you suspect.

[Deleted]

I contacted the PGC to see if they knew anything about this. I will let you all know what I find out, but I tend to agree with Bake. That fire blight canker on one of my trees (they all get them) indicates that they are not pure Chinese chestnut trees but are hybrids.

We do our chestnuts in the microwave, but I will try boiling them.  How long do you let them boil?

[fleroo]

We do our chestnuts in the microwave, but I will try boiling them. How long do you let them boil?

At least until the worms all come out and float to the top. smileys-whistling-823718

[gobblerhunter]

he told me at least 20 mins

[buzz]

I planted 4 Dunstan chestnuts trees near my pond last spring. They seem to be highly rated ? Does anyone have experience with them ?
Friend of mine who has a farm, has been planting a few each year for the past 3 years. He sent me pics of his 3 year old ones this summer, and they already had nuts on them. They claim to produce in 3 to 5 years, guess his have proven that to be correct.

[bake545]

I haven't planted any Dunstans but they have a big following over on the QDMA boards. Chinese/American cross I believe. Doesn't matter what kind, deer love chestnuts.

[Dutch]

I was under the impression that sometimes the Chinese Chestnuts do get blight. Maybe I'm wrong about that tho.

[Dutch]

Here is the "problem" with chestnuts. I was on a ride along with a PGC land manager the other year in Lehigh County. He showed me some younger chestnuts they had planted. Each of them was broken and misshapen due to bear damage. When bears broke limbs, the PGC guys went in and sawed them off. They sure weren't pretty. He told me, that if he had it to do all over, he would not have planted them.

These trees were fairly tall at that point, not like Mutts pics tho.

I planted some chesnuts in Potter about 7 years ago. They have not done well at all. Two years of caterpillers and then droughts hammered them. Best one is about 7 ft tall.

[lanceoutfitters]

I would love to try to grow some. What longitude are you guys over there?. We shouldn't have quite the snow fall or cold you guys do but probably warmer summers with slightly less rainfall.

[Deleted]

I planted a few hybrids about 8 years ago, as well as some hybrid oaks. They produced mast in 2 years...the deer love them.