Check your Chestnuts
- Thread starter mattpatt
- Start date
Native Hunter
Well-Known Member
That's a chestnut encounter of the third kind.
PS: My chestnuts are later this year than last. They have been falling for about a week and looks like some of them could still be dropping in a couple of weeks.
Native Hunter
Well-Known Member
mattpatt
Well-Known Member
I see you're in Texas as well. My one and only bur is in the process of opening up as we speak.
mattpatt
Well-Known Member
These guys are located in East Texas. I don’t know them personally but follow them on YouTube. They have several chestnuts planted and pretty much look similar to mine. He apparently got a decent crop this year off of one of his trees so it gives me hope that my trees may start producing in the next few years.
Matt
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Matt
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Hey At least you got one. In Kentucky where I’m at the rain is ruining all the nuts on the ground and in the burrs.
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mattpatt
Well-Known Member
Bill,
I didn't realize that's who that was but I think you're correct. I messaged him on Youtube and he said that tree he shows in the video has been in the ground five years and was 2-3 years old when he got it. So I would guess that I'm about on track as far as my trees are concerned. This year marks five years since I started these trees in Rootmaker 18s and planted them in the orchard a year later.
Matt
mattpatt
Well-Known Member
Okay so this will probably be the final post in this thread for a while. As most of you know, I harvested my first bur yesterday off of one of my "late dropping" trees. This tree was grown from nuts gathered from two different AU Buck IV trees growing at The Wildlife Group nursery five years ago. So here's a little timeline that has lead to where I am now.
Year one. I was able to secure ~20 or so nuts AU Buck IV nuts and grew several seedlings in Rootmaker 18 root pruning containers.
Once they went dormant, I selected six of the healthiest looking seedlings and re potted them into one gallon and eventually into three gallon grow bags by the end of year two.
Year three they were planted in their final places at my home orchard. If I had to do it all over again, I would just direct seed them and skip all the grow bags as I'm not sure it really added anything growth wise and just created more work for me. You also loose the large tap root when you use grow bags as it is air pruned as well. I live in Texas where heat and no rain prevail in the summer months and have come to the realization that having an intact tap root that can go deep underground in search of water is more advantageous to young trees than having a fibrous but shallow root system the Rootmaker pots and grow bags produce.
Year four comes around and a few of the trees bloomed for the first time but none of them produced female catkins. I also added two Dunstan trees purchased from Wal-Mart for 75% off in late spring as well as one other Dunstan that I had grown from seed. This makes a total of nine trees in the orchard.
Then finally in year five, six of the trees in the orchard bloomed including the Wal-Mart Dunstans that were transplanted a year earlier. However, only one of my bigger trees produced a female catkin which I hand pollinated with male flower harvested from another tree. Not sure if this was necessary but I went ahead and did it anyway. This bur grew and produced one nut which I recently harvested. Nut has since been placed in the refrigerator, in a ziplok bag for stratification and will be direct seeded next spring in the home orchard.
My hope for next year is to have multiple trees set at least one bur and for the tree that produced for the first time this year to set 4-5 burs.
Matt
Year one. I was able to secure ~20 or so nuts AU Buck IV nuts and grew several seedlings in Rootmaker 18 root pruning containers.
Once they went dormant, I selected six of the healthiest looking seedlings and re potted them into one gallon and eventually into three gallon grow bags by the end of year two.
Year three they were planted in their final places at my home orchard. If I had to do it all over again, I would just direct seed them and skip all the grow bags as I'm not sure it really added anything growth wise and just created more work for me. You also loose the large tap root when you use grow bags as it is air pruned as well. I live in Texas where heat and no rain prevail in the summer months and have come to the realization that having an intact tap root that can go deep underground in search of water is more advantageous to young trees than having a fibrous but shallow root system the Rootmaker pots and grow bags produce.
Year four comes around and a few of the trees bloomed for the first time but none of them produced female catkins. I also added two Dunstan trees purchased from Wal-Mart for 75% off in late spring as well as one other Dunstan that I had grown from seed. This makes a total of nine trees in the orchard.
Then finally in year five, six of the trees in the orchard bloomed including the Wal-Mart Dunstans that were transplanted a year earlier. However, only one of my bigger trees produced a female catkin which I hand pollinated with male flower harvested from another tree. Not sure if this was necessary but I went ahead and did it anyway. This bur grew and produced one nut which I recently harvested. Nut has since been placed in the refrigerator, in a ziplok bag for stratification and will be direct seeded next spring in the home orchard.
My hope for next year is to have multiple trees set at least one bur and for the tree that produced for the first time this year to set 4-5 burs.
Matt
Native Hunter
Well-Known Member
Looks like I'm not the only one checking my chestnuts:
mattpatt
Well-Known Member
Looks like I'm not the only one checking my chestnuts:
I’ll be glad when mine start producing!
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