Bringing Back The American Chestnut

[Tom Watson]

Watson

tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)

[Han]

Tom Watson wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I hope that our pinoaks will last until they can be replaced with chestnuts ...

[dicko]

When I bought my house, I discovered I had a small stand of Chestnut trees in the back yard. I dont think they're American C'nuts, but they're not Asian either. As close as I can tell they're a hybrid, but they produce the most delicious nuts.....

Until this past year: The year of the 17 year Cicada.

I tell ya, all the new reports said, "ignore the Cicadas, they dont do any lasting damage"... Yeah right! It was like every single Cicada in a 1 mile radius made a beeline for those trees. There wasnt a green leaf left standing after the onslaught was over. The trees made a half hearted attempt at rebudding, but there were only a few leaves all summer long. Not to mention, no nuts in the fall. :-( I truly suspect these trees are history. Will know for sure next spring...

-dickm

[Han]

dicko wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I hope that your trees will survive, Dick.

As an aside, about an hour north of here in NY is a place called Mohonk Mountain house, a very nice hotel and surroundings . There are American chestnut trees u[ there, but they don't last. They are making seed and it makes new trees, but the trees succumb to the fungus before they are more than 3-4 inches in trunk diameter. I think they are hoping that natural mutations will generate resistant trees, and who knows ...

[Ivan Vegvary]

Chestnut trees are some of the most beautiful of all trees. As a small boy I remember them on the streets of Eastern Europe.

At my old age I finally planted 5 trees 3 years ago. Unfortunately all that was available were the Chinese variety. Got 4 Colossal and 1 Nevada pollinator. Trees are starting to be about 6-7 feet high and about 3 inches in diameter. I hope I live long enough to see them mature.

I'm in northern Oregon, and, there are several orchards starting to grow them around here and southern Washington state.

The neat thing about them (if you've never seen one outside of a supermarket) is that they come in a 'burr' slightly smaller than a tennis ball. You just about need welding gloves to pick them up due to the sharpness and solidity of the prickles. There is no way that a squirrel or any other critter would fool with theses things. Yes, after they drop they will open up in about 2 weeks. By that time I'm already on them. Unlike the walnut tree I had where the squirrels would strip the tree about 4 weeks before they are either ready to eat or ready to drop.

[dpb]

That, unfortunately, is the general tendency. There are a few places where there are some which have regenerated and survived so far. I know of a couple specimens in VA which are kept almost a state secret in order to protect them that have reached about 40 years' age by now...they're the basis for quite a lot of research at VPI and elsewhere...