One Thousand Chestnut Trees - a Whitetail Deer Project

[catscratch]

Catscratch

I love the rootmaker that have the ventilation holes on the side. They are costly but very effective. I have some but am doing other things fast and buying more of them will be put on the back burner.

The Chinese Chestnut puts out some big leaves.

Beginners take note - he has them tucked up against the house. I very wise practice that helps manage shade and sun. Catscratch is teacher and he and I worked together on a class project last year. Looking forward to round 2.

Thanks friend.

Round two will be even better than round one. I learned a lot last yr, hope to improve things a little. Thanks for your inspiration and help on this one.

You are correct about my pot placement against the house. It's to help with triple digit heat, scoring sun, and the most damaging this yr... wind. I've lost quite a few of those big leafs due to wind scorch this summer. I've thought about bringing them a couple of times when they were bent over touching the ground in a nice summer breeze, but figure if they are to survive here after finding their permanent home they might as well get acclimated now.

 

[wbpdeer]

Catscratch,

Can you put up a wind screen next to the house to protect the wind hitting them hard from the prevailing direction? My nursery guy talks to me about that - his nursery yard is full and windstorms create work. I am looking forward to round two. It was an excellent project.

Thanks for posting your photo here.

 

[catscratch]

I can put a wind screen up, but I don't plan on doing it. I intend to plant them this fall and want them fully exposed to the environment before doing so. Hardened off so to speak.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

 

[wbpdeer]

I collect chestnuts from over 40 different trees. I will increase my options this year it appears. That is important because weather can hurt production. In June the tree I am photographing here looked excellent. It was full of catkins but with camera in tow today's inspection so the burs on the tree are hit and miss.

Three photos for you to view 1) catkins in June, 2) July 29th Section of Tree with Burs, and 3) July 29th Section of Tree Without any Burs.

Lesson is - nature holds the cards - not us.

Catkins galore



Section of Tree with Plenty of Burs (Limbs Weighted Down)



Same Tree Where No Burs Are Present (Nature Deals the Cards)



Now you see why I collect from many different trees. Am I concerned - not yet - but I will be checking my sources trees around town.

 

[wbpdeer]

Glad to see many chestnut growers become members of this forum. Post here please. Some have changed their username - give us a heads up please.

Thanks

 

[Kenny]

Glad to see many chestnut growers become members of this forum. Post here please. Some have changed their username - give us a heads up please.

Thanks

Hello,

I have some of your chestnuts from last year, approx 25-30 going strong. I was MOBuckbuster on the qdma site. I'll keep you updated how they do. This was my first time growing anything from scratch now I'm hooked.

Kenny

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[Oakseeds]

I collect chestnuts from over 40 different trees. I will increase my options this year it appears. That is important because weather can hurt production. In June the tree I am photographing here looked excellent. It was full of catkins but with camera in tow today's inspection so the burs on the tree are hit and miss.

Three photos for you to view 1) catkins in June, 2) July 29th Section of Tree with Burs, and 3) July 29th Section of Tree Without any Burs.

Lesson is - nature holds the cards - not us.

Catkins galore

View attachment 1188

Section of Tree with Plenty of Burs (Limbs Weighted Down)

View attachment 1189

Same Tree Where No Burs Are Present (Nature Deals the Cards)

View attachment 1190

Now you see why I collect from many different trees. Am I concerned - not yet - but I will be checking my sources trees around town.

There are usually more nuts on the south and southwest side of a tree; that's where the tree gets the most sunlight

 

[wbpdeer]

Oakseeds, That could be true but other trees may screen sunlight. It can vary. I have one true that limbs have run way to the east to find the sun and it bears heavy on that side.

I always circle a tree to assess how many burs it has. Then again, I have one tree that shows burs but pollination is a limiting factor.

 

[massey]

This is great! Move over Johnny Appleseed, Wayne Chestnut Seed is here!

 

[wbpdeer]

Kenny,

Those seedlings are mighty healthy and green.

Looking good for sure. Should make good trees in the field.

 

[wbpdeer]

I have been checked trees - checked four new ones today. I think they have some American Chestnut in them - got some research to do on that.

I will be checking my grove of 30 trees this weekend. I have a hunting friend that is going to show me a heavy bearing tree about one mile from my house. Point is - you can have all kinds of chestnut trees in your area and just not lay eyes on them until someone shares the details with you.

After I began collecting and distributing chestnuts, two things happened. First I got better at seeing and looking for them in fence rows near roadways. Also, after a retirement article was written in my hometown paper which mentioned my chestnut project, people went out of their way to share where they knew a Chinese Chestnut tree was located.

If you are reading this thread and you like to save money or do things your way, speak to as many nursery people as you can and ask them if they know where to find a Chinese Chestnut tree in your area. They are the best lead - start there.

Why do I want to find more trees? In a poor year when natures / weather hurts the number of chestnuts I need to find the trees that are loaded. Sort of like a hunter that finds that magic white oak that is loaded in the year where there are no acorns.

Time to be getting your name placed on my distribution list if you want chestnuts to direct seed or grow seedlings in containers. Send me a conversation with your name, mailing address, email or cell phone.

My email is wbpdeer@att.net If you send me an email please add your username and the forum name.

 

[wbpdeer]

This morning I did a recon on the 30 tree chestnut orchard I have been allowed to collect from in the past. 2016 is going to be a year where I have to work harder to collect chestnuts. What I see on trees this year is down 30 to 40 % from last year.

Factors - I am going to get more orders this year I believe because I have targeted more avenues / methods to get users. I don't advertising - everything is done on the internet forums or by email. I have more time now - I am retired. I have obtained permission to collect from more trees in other locations. I think I will add a few trees this week to the permission category.

Last year I learned how to process larger volumes of chestnuts. I basically collected on Saturdays because I was still on a Monday thru Friday job.

Go two photos this morning.

The photo below is a tree in the orchard of 30 that faces the south and gets full sun. It has a many burs but the size of them is smaller than they should be. Last year this tree was an outstanding producer. It was one that dropped early in the cycle.


The photo below is a tree on the north east side of the orchard. The photo is the side that gets the afternoon sun. The tree has burs that are good size but the number of burs is at least 40% to 50% below what it produced last year. Where I parked, it was one of the first trees I would collect under. Look at the photo and you see some burs together and then some burs that are loners with nothing next to them.

 

[wbpdeer]

How to inspect a chestnut tree?

Walk the entire perimeter of the tree. The sun lights hits some branches while other branches don't receive sun or they may be shaded by larger trees between them and the sun.

When you inspect a chestnut tree in August or early September from a distance, look for branches touching the ground or pointing downward due to the weight it is holding. Branches that touch the ground normally means there will be many chestnuts to collect.

When you find a chestnut tree - look for the second and third chestnut tree in the area. Why? These are air pollenated and the lack of chestnuts to spread the pollen can create burs that have no viable nuts inside them.

If a tree has no chestnut burs on the ends of the limbs - step back 60 - 70 feet to inspect the crown of the tree. If there are none on the very top of the tree nor the ends of the limbs, you are looking at a tree that didn't bear for this year.

I hope this helps someone that is interested in collecting chestnuts. Talk to mail carriers, nursery people, tree trimmers and farm coops. These are the people that can share locations of trees that bare.

 

[wbpdeer]

Meeting a friend at 3 PM today. We are going to inspect a huge chestnut tree that is reported to be loaded.

I hope it is. I will post photos if it is a good collection tree.

 

[mattpatt]

Wayne,

If they are anything like a pecan tree (which I have tons of experience with here in Texas) some years they tend to bear more than others and some varieties get stuck in in a cycle. They will bear heavily one year and then due to the stress from supporting all the nuts will hardly have anything the next. Basically it takes them a year to recover from bearing a heavy crop. Lots of pecan varieties do this. Some more so than others. So if your chestnuts had an unusually good year last year it may just be that it is a natural process and the tree needs some time to recover. If this is true, hopefully they are not all stuck in the same cycle so you'll have some trees that have a good crop this year then the others from a year ago will have a good crop next year while the ones that had a good crop this year recover.

Matt

 

[wbpdeer]

The Chestnut Trees I inspected are two large trees. I can collect from those. I believe they have some American in them due to the leaves. I impression today is they are hybrid. When the chestnuts drop I will assess them accurately.

I great addition to this years collection.

Now is the time for any users on this forum to send me a conversation if you will be wanting "Chinese Chestnuts" from me.

Thank for reading this thread.

 

[Neahawg]

Who post some pics of the one you think may be a hybrid if they I wouldn't mind some of them.

 

[wbpdeer]

Who post some pics of the one you think may be a hybrid if they I wouldn't mind some of them.

Just to be clear Neahawg, I think you are wanting some hybrid chestnuts if they are part American and part Chinese. Am I correct in my thinking?

I thought I would wait until the chestnuts drop to determine if they are part American. I actually have six huge trees in two different locations that this appears to be the case. The trees are huge and we don't believe there were many Chinese Chestnuts back then in our country. The leaves have the hooks on the leaves.

Do you know if the ACF charges to test leaves, branches and chestnuts?

Thanks.
WBP

 

[Neahawg]

Not entirely sure. I know there is a section for you to let them know if you think you've found one. Next time you see them things to look for are little to no hairs on the leaf margin or underneath the leaf, the deeply hooked serations on the leaf, true Americans leaves will feel thin, also the leaves taper off in to a point.

 

[Neahawg]

http://www.acf.org/find_a_tree.php

Wbp that link should take you to a page on the acf website on chestnut leaf identification. If you scroll down there is a link on how to submit a leaf sample. Know you asked last night worked til 3 in the am so just got around to looking.