yoderjac
Well-Known Member
I'm trying something new this year. For many years, I grew high volumes of wildlife trees, including a lot of chestnuts and Allegheny Chinquapins by starting them under lights in the winter in rootmakers. A few years back, I decided I was too old to continue this at the farm and sold all my rootmaker containers.
Last spring, I decided to direct seed some Allegheny Chinquapins. The seeds were from the previous fall kept in a crisper and all had root radicles when I planted them They were protected with tree tubes and planted in slits through weed barrier to reduce competition. THEY ALL FAILED! I must have planted 30 of them. There is a picture on this thread: AC and OCs Thread. These are at my retirement property near the barn so I was able to watch them daily and I'm sure none were predated. I'm not sure why they failed.
So, I'm trying something new this year. I collected a bunch of chestnuts from my Dunstan (sons of Dunstan) trees last fall. Because beavers cut down all the ACs, they did not produce nuts last year. I still had some 2 year old AC nuts in the crisper.
I'm going to wait until I get top growth. I'm not using root pruning pots, so this will be a balancing act. I'll need to plant them before the roots j-hook or circle and I'll need to dig deep enough to accommodate the root radicle at planting time. I'm simply taking some 5 gal buckets, drilling a few drain holes in the bottom and filling them about 1/3 full with pine bark mulch for drainage. Next I'm adding about 1/3 full of cheap big box store potting soil with fertilizer. Finally, I'm adding an inch or 2 of sphagnum the nuts, and covering them with sphagnum.
A few of the chestnuts had significant mold and a few did not survive the float test, but 95 percent sunk. They had been in the fridge since September with no added sphagnum or water. About 5% of the survivors had a root radicle just beginning. The ACs were very moldy. Only a few survived the float test and none had root radicles.
Here are the buckets before I covered them with sphagnum:
I watered them and put them in the barn. Tomorrow, I plan to hang them on my overhang posts where they can get some sun, but I first need to put hardware cloth over them to keep birds out.
I have no idea how this method will work out. I'm wondering if I'll have root entanglement by the time I transplant. I have way more nuts in these buckets than I have room to plant, so I only need a small percentage to survive. Any extras I'll offer to the neighbors.
Last spring, I decided to direct seed some Allegheny Chinquapins. The seeds were from the previous fall kept in a crisper and all had root radicles when I planted them They were protected with tree tubes and planted in slits through weed barrier to reduce competition. THEY ALL FAILED! I must have planted 30 of them. There is a picture on this thread: AC and OCs Thread. These are at my retirement property near the barn so I was able to watch them daily and I'm sure none were predated. I'm not sure why they failed.
So, I'm trying something new this year. I collected a bunch of chestnuts from my Dunstan (sons of Dunstan) trees last fall. Because beavers cut down all the ACs, they did not produce nuts last year. I still had some 2 year old AC nuts in the crisper.
I'm going to wait until I get top growth. I'm not using root pruning pots, so this will be a balancing act. I'll need to plant them before the roots j-hook or circle and I'll need to dig deep enough to accommodate the root radicle at planting time. I'm simply taking some 5 gal buckets, drilling a few drain holes in the bottom and filling them about 1/3 full with pine bark mulch for drainage. Next I'm adding about 1/3 full of cheap big box store potting soil with fertilizer. Finally, I'm adding an inch or 2 of sphagnum the nuts, and covering them with sphagnum.
A few of the chestnuts had significant mold and a few did not survive the float test, but 95 percent sunk. They had been in the fridge since September with no added sphagnum or water. About 5% of the survivors had a root radicle just beginning. The ACs were very moldy. Only a few survived the float test and none had root radicles.
Here are the buckets before I covered them with sphagnum:
I watered them and put them in the barn. Tomorrow, I plan to hang them on my overhang posts where they can get some sun, but I first need to put hardware cloth over them to keep birds out.
I have no idea how this method will work out. I'm wondering if I'll have root entanglement by the time I transplant. I have way more nuts in these buckets than I have room to plant, so I only need a small percentage to survive. Any extras I'll offer to the neighbors.
