Chestnut Production?

I’ve been watering once every five days, and about a quart of water on the entire tray. I guess I’ll let them dry out completely. There is NOTHING easy about this. It’s incredibly frustrating.
It does take a while to get on to it. It can be frustrating but it can be fun. I had great success the first year I tried it and had a big failure the second year. It has a fairly steep learning curve, but once you get it down, it is worth it.
 
I’ve been watering once every five days, and about a quart of water on the entire tray. I guess I’ll let them dry out completely. There is NOTHING easy about this. It’s incredibly frustrating.

Makes you wonder how these things even make it in that wild if they are that picky, huh? lol


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That’s EXACTLY what I was thinking!
They don't. Think about how many nuts a mature tree produces every year. Very, Very, few of those nuts every turn into trees. When I was growing chestnuts, most years, about 75% of the nuts I started with made it to a 3 gal RB2 container. Some would not germinate. Some would get some kind of root disease when young. Some just would not be strong growers and get culled.

Odds for those nuts are drastically greater than nature.
 
They don't. Think about how many nuts a mature tree produces every year. Very, Very, few of those nuts every turn into trees. When I was growing chestnuts, most years, about 75% of the nuts I started with made it to a 3 gal RB2 container. Some would not germinate. Some would get some kind of root disease when young. Some just would not be strong growers and get culled.

Odds for those nuts are drastically greater than nature.

We are definitely bucking the trend vs nature for sure.


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Not a fan of the R-18s and high dollar dirt. Not one nut has put in real top growth yet. I’ve had much better success in the past starting the seeds with one gallon rootmakers and regular dirt out of the ground. I went with all the good stuff this time around and nothing. Nuts are still green with energy, so I’m guessing roots are still okay, but this is getting ridiculous. It’s definitely not an over-watering problem now, I’ve been watering them once a week for almost a month now. This shoot got an inch and a half out of the ground before it turned black at the top and just stopped growing.
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Not a fan of the R-18s and high dollar dirt. Not one nut has put in real top growth yet. I’ve had much better success in the past starting the seeds with one gallon rootmakers and regular dirt out of the ground. I went with all the good stuff this time around and nothing. Nuts are still green with energy, so I’m guessing roots are still okay, but this is getting ridiculous. It’s definitely not an over-watering problem now, I’ve been watering them once a week for almost a month now. This shoot got an inch and a half out of the ground before it turned black at the top and just stopped growing.
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I'm guessing you haven't gotten the hang of watering yet. I found it took me some time to get it right indoors under controlled conditions. Once they develop an issue with the roots, they often don't recover. The tap root can swell and then the trees go south. I wish I had more tricks to pass on, but my experience is all indoor under light. By the time my trees go outside, they are in 1 gal rb2s and quite tall.

I would sacrifice a couple to see if you can figure out what is happening.
 
temp in mid 80s here

My RM 18s are in full sun

If I didn't water daily( in absence of rain ) they would die

You cannot over water them in east texas

Find what works for you , expect to kill a few trees on the way, and don't give up

" Chestnuts aint' easy to love and they're harder to grow". apologies to willie

bill
 
Pretty sure I’m switching back to oaks next year. The only three chestnuts we had success with are behind the house and over 15’ tall and never had a single nut. They’re over 10 years old. Chestnuts don’t like me and I’m about to return the prejudice.
 
Pretty sure I’m switching back to oaks next year. The only three chestnuts we had success with are behind the house and over 15’ tall and never had a single nut. They’re over 10 years old. Chestnuts don’t like me and I’m about to return the prejudice.

@mattpatt has a good thread on here for Wal-Mart Dunstans: Unless you are planting trees in high volume like I was, or you just enjoy growing trees from nuts, I'm not sure the growing setup cost and effort is worth it.
 
Maybe try growing sawtooth oaks from acorns. They were pretty easy for me. My chestnuts from Walmart look to be loaded this year, but I didn’t grow them from seed.
 
Pretty sure I’m switching back to oaks next year. The only three chestnuts we had success with are behind the house and over 15’ tall and never had a single nut. They’re over 10 years old. Chestnuts don’t like me and I’m about to return the prejudice.
I might have spoken a little too soon, I THINK one of the 3 chestnuts in behind the house might have some female blooms. We’ll see……
 
That swollen top root is classic symptom when nuts they are too wet for too long. Until I went to watering by weight, I had quite of few of these. A normal tree will have a slim white tap root that terminates at about 4" and lots of white horizontal later roots above that prune.
 
That swollen top root is classic symptom when nuts they are too wet for too long. Until I went to watering by weight, I had quite of few of these. A normal tree will have a slim white tap root that terminates at about 4" and lots of white horizontal later roots above that prune.
Ok, thanks… I magine they're all like this. I wonder why this never happened with the one gallon root makers? I’m guessing just because of more room for the water to go when they’re young. Not yet sure what I’ll do next year. If I try chestnuts again, I’ll probably start them in the one gallons.
 
Ok, thanks… I magine they're all like this. I wonder why this never happened with the one gallon root makers? I’m guessing just because of more room for the water to go when they’re young. Not yet sure what I’ll do next year. If I try chestnuts again, I’ll probably start them in the one gallons.
I've never started chestnuts in larger containers. I've always started in 18s and transplanted to 1 gals then 3 gals. I will say that once I transplant, they are much less sensitive to watering than in 18s.
 
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