Growing Chestnuts with Students

[Charlieyca]

First off, this possible because wbpdeer and his 1,000 chestnut tree initiative.
I am located in Wilmington, NC and I teach high school science. My NC wildlife class will be growing chestnuts from seed and planting them around our campus. We will be doing a combination of rootmaker 18s, student made containers, and a few direct seed with protection. We will be planting them on campus, at our off campus athletic fields, sent home with kdis, and 1 or 2 for my little front yard.

On 9-21-15 I received 102 chinese chestnuts from wbpdeer, and immediately put them into cold storage. The next week I took them out of his bags.
Soaked them for 3-4 hours.
Dried them and put them in bags of 10.
I returned them to the fridge and added a thermometer to make sure it was not reaching below 34 degrees.
The next few weeks we will keep an eye out for mold and mushy chesnuts and monitor the moisture

I have contacted a few tree tube companies about helping us out with a limited budget. Being inner city, browse should be minimal.

 

[wbpdeer]

I would add that at times rabbits and squirrels are a threat to a young tree. Rabbits like the tender bark. Squirrels will kill a tree if it is planted with a chestnut still attached.
I have battled squirrels more rabbits have not caused me too much grief.

I congratulate you on a great project. Some of students will get addicted to watching a tree grow and develope.

 

[lakngolf]

I am located in Wilmington, NC and I teach high school science. My NC wildlife class will be growing chestnuts from seed and planting them around our campus.

Good job and good for you. What greater way to learn than by doing, watching that little radicle emerge, considering nutrients in the soil, worrying with some mold and rodents, seeing the first leaf, measuring growth, planting, etc. I look forward to checking on your progress.
Be careful up there with this storm approaching.

 

[buckdeer1]

Cat scratch did this in his class also,good job way to get the kids involved

 

[Charlieyca]

Day 45 of cold stratification and I removed the chestnuts from the fridge to check for mold and re hydrate. No mold is present, but as I hydrated the chestnuts I did have 2 floaters. Upon examination they had a soft side with a tiny hold in. Dried and returned the chestnuts to their bags.

 

[wbpdeer]

Is it true the 2 floaters are the first two that showed any issues. The hole in the chestnuts is produced by a chestnut weevil.

People smarter than I am say those will germinate anyway even though a weevil worked on it. I think the weevil hole chestnuts will germinate just at a lower rate. I have a bag with weevil holes I put in the fridge to check on there germination rate.

My personal belief is that chestnuts that get soft spots don't cross the finish line if they get to the squishy state.

Great to hear you have no mold issues. I think your current situation is outstanding. You have taken good care of the chestnuts since they arrived. Also, it means the collection process went well too.

 

[Charlieyca]

That is the only 2 issues. The rest look great. We may keep them refrigerated til after winter break, about 100 days, but that way I can ensure proper hydration once we put them in trays. If not, they will go 2 weeks without any care, and often they shut off heat to our building on long breaks.

 

[catscratch]

We may keep them refrigerated til after winter break, about 100 days,

That's the same schedule that I have (and for the same reasons). I figure we will start them at around 106 days and possibly upgrade pot size before they take them home for the summer.

 

[Charlieyca]

My semester will end about 4 weeks after we plant, so I will have a mix of some going home then to get cared for by students, some I will care for until spring planting and some I try to fall plant for comparison.

 

[Charlieyca]

Today we put removed our chestnuts from the fridge. 2 had white mold, 2 floated. When i looked at the floaters closely, they both had very small pin holes from weevils i assume. The rest are currently soaking a while before putting into our pots.

 

[wbpdeer]

Charlieyca

Be a good experiment to see if they two with the weevil hole's will germinate and create a seedling. If you have room it would not take much to find out. Some professional papers say they will make a tree. I have a group in the fridge I hope to do the exact same experiment with if I have room for it.

Good luck to the class and many of us will enjoy following along.

Wayne

 

[Charlieyca]

There were 2 with holes that floated and there were 2 that were borderline soft and had a darker color from where it looked like they absorbed some water, maybe condensation, while in the fridge. We marked all 4 and put them in the dirt to see what would happen. one group sorted the chestnuts by size and then arranged them to see if the bigger nuts produced bigger sprouts.

 

[Charlieyca]

We have a spot cleared on campus to plant a few of the trees, so each year we can measure and record the growth, and each new class can see the time it takes for them to grow.

 

[wbpdeer]

Some times the larger chestnuts are slower to germinate (produce the radicle). Glad to hear how you set up the experiment. Teaches the student to ask questions and to think outside the box. I do believe a chestnut with a weevil hole will still germinate in some instances. I do believe the percentage of success will be lower.

Wayne

 

[wbpdeer]

I believe if the stress is reduced on chestnut seedlings they will bear a few years earlier. Water them good, eliminate competition, good sunlight and feed them (fertilize them) but not after July 4th will improve them chances.

Your city students should have a ball watching this process play out. Good job teacher.

 

[Rickey]

What is happening with the trees?

 

[wbpdeer]

Rickey,

This is a class room project. I donated the Chinese Chestnuts to this forum member. It is instructional in nature but I do believe some students will get to take a seedling home if they are successful. These are city kids - so it a good introduction IMO.

The teacher will likely respond when he is not occupied.

Wayne

 

[Charlieyca]

What is happening with the trees?

We are growing chestnuts from seed as a class project. Students are in group of 3 and they have 10 chestnuts. Each group.is measuring a different variable of their choosing. Some are varying light, water, soul, size of nuts, comparing to othwr nuts and so on. Students who want can take seedling home in spring or leave with me over summer for waterimg and care. We will also plant some on campus each year to show the different age classes.

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[Rickey]

Nice. I think it's awesome. I was just wondering what would happen to the trees. I would be interested to see the difference in growth each year along with certain data suck as temps and rainfall each year.

 

[catscratch]

Good job! Sounds like a great project.

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