A tale of two trees...

[mattpatt]

Let me tell you a story about two Dunstan Chestnut trees. Both purchased in the spring of 2016 on clearance from Wal-Mart. I put them in the ground about 20’ apart from one another. Both trees were in pretty rough shape but I kept watering them and they survived. Then the spring of 2017 came and both trees put on new leaves and started growing again. They both bloomed but didn’t set any burs. However one of the trees seems to be simply “maintaining” versus growing. Perhaps it’s roots were damaged worse than the other?

First pic is of the “runt.”

This is its counterpart that has done pretty well.

Matt


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[TreeDaddy]

............time

i love reclamation projects

My money says they bounce back in a season or two

particularly with the obvious care that you give them

bill

 

[j-bird]

Unless the smaller tree looks sick, I wouldn't worry about it. lots of things can come into play. One of the trees could be older than the other, or have had more stress or some sort. Some are simply more vigorous than others....

 

[Chainsaw]

There is an even aged stand of maples on this property with practically every single tree in the stand being the same age. They however range in size from 8 inches DBH all the way up to 16 inches DBH. At the same age some trees of the same species are twice the size as others growing right next to them. It happens "all the time".

Possibly both of your Dunstan Chestnut trees are "runts" compared to the top trees in the "stand"they were raised in. I can't think of any other reason that a major nursery sells or places on consignment trees to big box stores that sell at retail as low as half the price that they sell to their wholesale customers. It otherwise doesn't make any sense to me but admittedly it is just a guess on my part. And of course it is also possible that a nursery could just be dumping their overstock to big box stores but still expecting them to sell their best of the stand is too much. Sorry-I'm getting off subject here.