One Thousand Chestnut Trees - a Whitetail Deer Project

[Neahawg]

I had a few chestnuts this year with weevils and they still sank, one got mold but the rest I'm still overwintering, I think it just depends on what part of the but they ate.

Inside every chestnut you should have the actively growing parts such as the hypocotyl and the radicle, whick draw energy from the two cotolydons or the meat of the chestnut. As long as the weevil doesn't take out the actively horsing portion it can still germinate I believe though it's at higher risk for mold.

 

[wbpdeer]

Neahawg,

Mold is a death sentence at my house. If it is white - toss it. If it soft - toss it. If it has weevil holes - I give it the squeeze test and if it firm, I put it in the weevil collection bag. Orchards have a fear of weevils because human beings that want to eat chestnuts have no tolerance for white little grub worms.

So I will probably have some numbers to share on weevils and germination in a few months.

 

[lakngolf]

Checked on my direct seeded plants yesterday. Any time now I should transplant them, so I began looking for good spot. What is the ideal location for a chestnut? Hilly, ditches, etc?

 

[wbpdeer]

Two critical factors to get right: full sunlight to produce chestnuts & avoid standing water.

If it rains two inches we don't want the seedling under standing water. Space them in pairs at least because they pollenate by air and we say 7 steps apart which is right at 20 feet.

A Chinese Chestnut tops out at about 45 to 50 when mature which means it don't make it in a forest setting. It would live it just will not produce chestnuts due to not enough sunlight.

 

[Neahawg]

Checked on my direct seeded plants yesterday. Any time now I should transplant them, so I began looking for good spot. What is the ideal location for a chestnut? Hilly, ditches, etc?

I like a sloped sandy loam area. Normally these areas are well drained. Like who said leave plenty of room I like to space my trees 30-35 feet apart in hopes I don't have to thin any out later on. The accf recommends you plant American chestnuts on a slope facing north, north east, or east direction so that's a good place to start, but I think the main factor is to avoid heavy clay and standing water.

 

[lakngolf]

I have a good spot facing east, slope on sandy loam. Will give that a try. Going to leave a couple where they are, but will be near pear tree. I hope that is ok. By far my sawtooth trees do best at head of, or alongside, ditches.

 

[Cap'n]

You should be able to do a soil drench with Imidacloprid and get decent control. It's fairly cheap too. We have it for $45.00 gal.
You would need to do it well in advance of the adults emergence because the chemical might take 30-60 days to get distributed throughout the tree if they are big. I would guess that if you did the treatment by april or may you would be alright but your extension agent will know. I'm basing that off of Pecan case bearer which is very similar to the acorn weevil. We used to spray 2 foliar apps at 14 day intervals for case bearers in June.
Using a systemic insecticide and drenching is good because you don't need a big spray rig, I have a 265 gal tote i use to do mine with and just gravity flow at a rate of 10 gal per 1000 sq. ft but you can use any barrel or even a 5 gal bucket for smaller trees. You can also mix in water soluble fert and micros at the same time.

 

[Neahawg]

Wbp I need you to start growing sequins for me so I can finally get some seed! Tried to order a few bare roots from the wildlife group this year but they are out!

 

[wbpdeer]

Neahawg

I have over 20 sequins on the farm now that I got from the Wildlife Group. I expect by next fall I will get a good many nuts from them. If I am lucky I will put you on Merle on the share list. We need to find out if they will grow from cuttings? If that is true we can save some money. They are priced rather high in my tight fisted world.

I lost my planting map and the farm got timbered, I will have to hit the ground to see what survived the loggers. In the bottom field I have 15 good ones in good soil.

I have four things on future tree projects: 1) chestnuts, 2) sawtooth, 3) DCO and 4) cuttings. I do intend to graph things until I get good at it. Pears and persimmons are on my graphing list.

I will check with MattPatt from Texas to see how he did grown sequins from the nut.

I am going to the Brushpile to visit in late February, I might have to visit you guys if you will show your ground and trees.

Wayne

 

[Neahawg]

Man when you swing through let me know! Me and Merle could take you out. I'm going to set you up with pear scions so and if you want I'm a pull a few seedling Chickasaw plums for you.

 

[Sparkynutz]

I took the year off from growing new trees and now its hitting me how much fun growing them was. I still have about 15 dormant potted trees in my garage but they aren't much to mess with besides watering about twice a month. I might have to grow some again next year and give them away. I don't know what I'm going to do with the ones in my garage. I'm out of room to plant them on my land and I haven't found any new land I can afford to tinker on yet. I sure miss the feeling of accomplishment starting trees from seed and first few months. Cant wait till spring to see how the previous years trees take off now that their roots are well established.

 

[wbpdeer]

Sparkynutz

Good to see you posting again. I think you need to find someone that has land that needs a hunting buddy. With your knack for growing trees, you could improve the habitat on their land for some hunting rights.

You understand the joy of seeing a chestnut or acorn become a seedling and then a tree. I hope work and family news are all good for you.

Wayne

 

[THE LLC]

Got twenty trees from your seeds ready to go in the ground in March. I have learned to wait until past last frost to plant chestnuts, so it may actually be mid-April.

 

[wbpdeer]

I assume they are dormant now - maybe bear of leaves. You could plant them now if the grow had some moisture and assuming it is not frozen. If they trees begin to break bud - then I would not plant until the last chance of frost.

I am guessing these germinated last spring and you carried them thru the summer of 2016 and fall of 2016. Is that assumption correct?

If so - they have a big advantage.

Yee Haa for 20 trees. Congrats to LLC. Thanks for sharing.

Wayne

 

[THE LLC]

They are dormant and bare of leaves. I could plant now, but I like to tube my trees. Every year that I have planted before late March or early April, and tubed, they start growing really good only to have an early April freeze kill the growth and stunt the tree. This year I will wait until that late freeze threat is gone. They have a root ball so I'm not too concerned about the wait.

 

[wbpdeer]

You are thinking correctly. Putting out a new tree tube now might cause you mice issues too. I have thought about building owl boxes to reduce mice on our farm. Many tree growers have gone to the trouble to erect perch trees for this very reason and to reduce rabbits.

I will plant around April 18 -21 here based upon the forecast at that time.

Wayne

 

[wbpdeer]

Thursday, Jan 12 will a rainy dreary day. I will be sticking chestnuts, Saw Tooth, Swamp White Oak, etc in growing media in Rootmaker 18s. The electric bill is about to jump up for a couple of months.

Always fun to see those trays full and thinking about when they start throwing off leaves and reaching for the light. Two grow boxes will be full by week's end. 8 trays in the newest grow box and 6 trays in the oldest grow box. 252 cells - something will make it - actually most will.

However, the weak will not and when I make a miscue some others will suffer by goof ups. Going to be fun and I will distribute many of these to the remain 40 counties in my state. I have my chestnuts in 55 counties now. It makes me feel good to give back. I was a state employee for ten years.

Wayne

 

[wbpdeer]

I will grow some seedlings in rootmaker 18 express outside in the greenhouse later on. I will certainly plant acorns in large containers as GraceNmercy has promoted. He does an excellent job doing this because he wants to plant more mature trees in the hot Texas climate.

I will not limit myself to 252 seedlings with a greenhouse. I will not plant everything I grow on our farm. I plant more so I can share some too.

The items started late are prospect for fall planting or carrying over the winter in the greenhouse and planting in the spring of 2018.

Wayne

 

[lakngolf]

With good cold temps last weekend, and dormant chestnut seedlings, I decided it was time to do some transplanting. Made that decision when the temps were 27 degrees.......Did the actual work when the temps were 77 degrees.....only a week apart.

I have previously discussed and showed pictures of the seedlings that sprouted from direct seeding a couple years back. They could have been transplanted last winter but I never got to it, and their extra growth should be beneficial. Here are the trees:

I carefully dug up each one, preserving and protecting as many roots as possible. I was pleased with tap roots and runners. This pictures shows the roots on even a small tree.

I loaded them all into the tractor FEL and off to the planting spot. Had about a dozen trees, dug up ten and left two in the germination spot. The two I left were at each end, really too close together, but I want to see what they will do without being disturbed.

I used the tiller on the tractor to create a planting area, dug holes as deep as the tap roots and set them on their way. I will later put some cages around them.

Most of them were planted near the pond in the bull pen. The trees in the background are pears planted last January. If this all works the deer will have a smorgasboard in this area: Sawtooth, Pears, and chestnuts.

Here's hoping they make Wayne proud!

 

[wbpdeer]

The deer will love those three choices: pears, sawtooth and chestnuts. Your seedlings look great.

Thanks for sharing.

Wayne