Allegheny Chinquapin

[yoderjac]

My mind is not made up yet but based off my observations so far I feel like I’ll move in the direction of planting more AC than chestnuts. I’ve definitely babied my chestnut trees more and it seems like the AC will eventually out perform.

In my case ACs take on a bush-like form. They have several advantages. First, they produce faster, but have much smaller nuts. They are subject to the blight, but unlike American chestnuts, they respond differently. They die back and resprout from the roots and can produce nuts again in 2 years after resprouting. The respond to fire in the same way.

The advantage of Chinese chestnuts is they don't get blight like American and ACs. They produce full size trees that, in time can produce many more and larger chestnuts.

That is how they perform at my place. I believe @Native Hunter gets full size trees from his ACs. I don't know if the difference is his strain or some difference in our environments. AC grow native on my place.

 

[EET]

In my case ACs take on a bush-like form. They have several advantages. First, they produce faster, but have much smaller nuts. They are subject to the blight, but unlike American chestnuts, they respond differently. They die back and resprout from the roots and can produce nuts again in 2 years after resprouting. The respond to fire in the same way.

The advantage of Chinese chestnuts is they don't get blight like American and ACs. They produce full size trees that, in time can produce many more and larger chestnuts.

That is how they perform at my place. I believe @Native Hunter gets full size trees from his ACs. I don't know if the difference is his strain or some difference in our environments. AC grow native on my place.

Where are you located? I’m in Kentucky.
My AC’s come from 4 different nurseries, from 4 different states. The 1st 4(lost 1) I got seem to be taking tree form and are going into their 5th growing season, the jury is still out on the others. I haven’t dealt with the blight yetbut I’m sure the day is coming. I should probably invest in some Chinese chestnuts to back up the potential failing of my Dunstans. The Dunstans and AC was planted the same season and my AC looks to be loaded. My feelings could change this fall if everything gets pollinated good, we will see.

 

[yoderjac]

Where are you located? I’m in Kentucky.
My AC’s come from 4 different nurseries, from 4 different states. The 1st 4(lost 1) I got seem to be taking tree form and are going into their 5th growing season, the jury is still out on the others. I haven’t dealt with the blight yetbut I’m sure the day is coming. I should probably invest in some Chinese chestnuts to back up the potential failing of my Dunstans. The Dunstans and AC was planted the same season and my AC looks to be loaded. My feelings could change this fall if everything gets pollinated good, we will see.

I'm in zone 7a in central VA. Dunstan is mostly Chinese so I put that under the Chinese umbrella. Chinese chestnuts take much longer to produce nuts than ACs. I propagates a bunch of ACs from the farm using the Rootmaker root pruning system. I had way more than I had time to plant at the farm. I planted about 6 of them in the back yard in full sun. The very next season after I planted them they were loaded with nut. I grew Dunstans from nuts the same way. It took an additional 7 years before I saw the first nuts and many of those Dunstans have still not produced nuts after 10 years plus. I'm sure they will all be good produces in the long run. Most trees, like Chestnuts, are a long-term investment. ACs are an exception for me in terms of how quickly they produce nuts.

 

[Native Hunter]

I have found Chinese seedlings to grow faster and be more productive than the 3 Dunstans that I planted. Some of my Chinese trees are getting massive now and literally covering the ground with nuts nearly every year. See pic below for size.

My ACs do tend to grow more upright but one from the same source took more of a bush form. The nuts are larger in size on that one.

 

[EET]

Several female flowers on this one

 

[EET]

 

[EET]

 

[EET]

Harvested my 1st AC nut, done got it in a pot.

 

[Native Hunter]

View attachment 28540
Harvested my 1st AC nut, done got it in a pot.

Mine are loaded this year, but they don't start dropping until about October 15th each year. They will finish dropping late November.

 

[yoderjac]

View attachment 28540
Harvested my 1st AC nut, done got it in a pot.

Yep, they are amazing trees!

 

[EET]

I went back Monday to see if anymore burs had opened up and found 1 more. After looking back at pictures I had a lot of burs come off through the season. Not sure why, storms, squirrels??

 

[ViperD]

If anyone is going to have some spare nuts this fall, let me know! Would love to get some planted on my property!

 

[yoderjac]

If anyone is going to have some spare nuts this fall, let me know! Would love to get some planted on my property!

I handed out a lot of AC nuts last fall, but over the winter, beavers cut them down. They bounced right back this spring, but they won't produce nuts until next year. Unfortunately (from a nut collection standpoint) we are retiring and moving at the end of this year.

 

[ViperD]

I handed out a lot of AC nuts last fall, but over the winter, beavers cut them down. They bounced right back this spring, but they won't produce nuts until next year. Unfortunately (from a nut collection standpoint) we are retiring and moving at the end of this year.

I was one of the ones that received nuts from you last fall! I ended up with about 10 solid trees, the biggest getting about 3 ft tall this summer. Thank you so much and good luck with the move!

 

[EET]

If anyone is going to have some spare nuts this fall, let me know! Would love to get some planted on my property!

I would but went from a loaded tree to not very many. This is this trees 5th growing season. I have been waiting for the other 2 to catch up and produce catkins for cross pollination. My 1st purchase seem like early bloomers, and my second purchase seems like late bloomers. I have 5 more in pots to plant out this fall so not sure about those yet. Maybe in the next year or 2 I can supply you with some. Hind sight I wish I would’ve babied them more. Right now they are one of my favorite plants

 

[EET]

I believe I figured out what was happening to the burs falling off, squirrels. Oh well, I harvested 2 nuts and hopefully they sprout soon.

 

[yoderjac]

I believe I figured out what was happening to the burs falling off, squirrels. Oh well, I harvested 2 nuts and hopefully they sprout soon.

Yep, squirrels will hammer them. They will even dig up new trees in pots for some reason. I bought a Benjamin pellet gun to "manage" the squirrel population around our home when I was growing trees. The management goal was zero!

 

[EET]

Both nuts I harvested are sprouting

 

[EET]

I picked up 3 AC in Jacksonville (Gnarley nursery). The owner seemed to have a lot of knowledge about Chinquapins.