We had two chestnut trees at the house I grew up in. East Tulsa. One died about 10 years ago but the other one is doing good and is nearly 40 years old. Nice for shade and the nuts were good roasted but the husk the nuts come in are dangerous if stepped on. Look like little sea urchins. My father just called it a Chinese Chestnut and it looks just like the pictures. I would guess he just dug it up from some place and watered it until it got settled and that was it.

There's a couple of 40 tall Chinese Chestnuts on unclaimed land near me. I've gotten about five seedlings from them; sold those. There is a fellow near Prior, OK who has a few of the Dunbarton crosses which are meant to reapproach the American chestnut.

Mucho thanks,

To sand_mueller, Is there any way I could get some of the nuts off of the trees on the unclaimed property near your house? I acquired the family homestead that my great, great grand parents homesteaded in 1893 and would like to try starting some tree's in a friends greenhouse, then seeing if I can get them established on the property. thank you Doc Smith b52doc@cox.net

I think the American Chestnut was destroyed in the early 1900's by a blight, and I have read that it no longer grows successfully in the US, but the Chinese Chestnut will grow. I will see if I can locate the info again.

I read in Mark Shepard's Restoration Agriculture, about the Chestnut trees, and he says that there are some American Chestnuts west of the Rocky Mountains that haven't been infected with the virus. He also mentions the American Chestnut Foundation of Virginia and their attempt to bring back the American Chestnut. They have a web site HERE

Check out Badgersett Research Farm. They have tons of info on chestnuts (and Hazelnuts, which Mark Shepard also regards highly) and even have their own hybrid/cross with Chinese and other chestnuts. I think that some of the American strain in the hybrid comes from some chestnuts that miraculously survived the blight, although I think it only partially survived: seemed to die but had saplings come forth afterwards.

"We do not have the chestnut blight here at Badgersett, so we cannot test our trees here. However, years ago, comprehensive samples of our materials were sent to both China and Auburn University, in Alabama - blight is a fact of life in both places. Dr. Huang Hong-Wen conducted extensive observations on our chestnuts in both locations (his results were published in Root & Branch #4). Basically, he found about 80% of our seedlings to be functionally resistant to the blight, with about 20% succumbing to the disease. That is actually better than we had hoped for hybrids of this sort. While it cannot be a guarantee of resistance, it is an excellent indication." Badgersett Research Farm

Charles

Thanks Charles. That site goes into my favorites list so I can read it all when I find time. Didn't they just clear cut all of the eastern chestnut trees when the blight started, thinking that would be the way to stop the virus, instead of leaving some that might have been strong enough to survive it. Sometimes we do some pretty weird things, don't we?

We certainly do. I hadn't heard about the cutting of all those trees. Maybe they'll make a comeback.

Are you into permaculture? Intending to plant any trees?

Charles, yes I am into permaculture and have taken a Permaculture Design course but I only live on a small property so I am limited here. However, my son just completed his PDC a couple of months ago and he has 100 acres to play with. Over the last few years we have planted about 600 trees at his place.

Wow. 600 trees! Can I ask what kind and where you bought them?

Actually 500 of them were small seedlings that we bought through the Oklahoma Forestry Service and the other hundred we ordered from Stark's, bought locally, and he planted from seed. We did a small orchard of various fruit trees which mostly came from Starks. From OK Forestry Service we planted native pecan, mulberry, two kinds of plums, black locust, a few evergreen which didn't do well, and that is all I remember right now. He needed windbreak, and some erosion control down by a creek, and wildlife habitat. I don't see the same list that I ordered from for the initial trees, but you had to order in quantity. I live near Missouri and I loved what they had to offer and wished that I could have bought from them because you could order in quantities of 10, from their forestry service. Where do you live?

I live near Durant, OK. We must definitely be on or around the same page(s) bc most of those are the same trees I intend to plant. My brother has already planted 10 acres of pecans (he used Wonack's) on the same property.

A couple more questions: 1) Did y'all install an irrigation system? 2) Have you read "Tree Crops" by Russell Smith?

Charles

Charles, I just looked at Missouri again and there is a statement that "out of State orders will be charged additional shipping", so I guess you can order from them. https://mdc6.mdc.mo.gov/Applications/TreeSeedling/

Hey, thank you! I somehow missed your comment. Was just browsing through the threads here and saw it.

We purchased a small (6" tall) Chestnut tree, I believe from Oikos Tree Crops. I believe it was an American Hybrid Chestnut. Anyway, I planted it out in the field and fenced it from the goats. After a couple years, it is still there, and about a foot tall. I need to side dress it.

We have friends nearby who are into permaculture. They have some chestnut trees which are starting to produce nuts. I don't know where they got theirs.

Here's a link to Oikos Tree Crops. Just be aware that their environment is quite different than ours. I've purchased some oaks from them which did well. Apios americana (ground nuts), however, couldn't handle our conditions.

Oikos Tree Crops Chestnuts

George

We have grown Chestnut trees in Chandler , OK FOR 9 years, our OK orchard is approaching 1,100 trees, with another 800 in our TN orchard. We have evaluated over 100 varieties of chestnut trees and 95% are not compatible with OK soil and extreme weather. In addition to our Chestnut orchards, we also propagate 5,000 trees per year. OSU has been active with us. Any questions, email us at sflranchok@yahoo.com or give us a call @ 405-328-0186. Thanks. Steve and Jean Lucas