How to grow chestnuts

[castanea]

Pretty decent article in Mother Earth News, and a nice addition to the how to plant chestnuts video link:

www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/Growing-Chestnuts-How-To-Grow-Chestnuts.aspx

[Hristo]

This year I finally began paying more attention to the fruits/nuts and of course chestnuts are very high in my list to grow. But I'm still trying to figure out which of them should be my priority. Of all the species and hybrids, I have eaten only sativa and they are superb, but according to what I read in our books sativa does not tolerate well temp bellow -18C which is a problem. Probably this is the main reason chestnuts are not grown in my area at all. Also in the past there have been trials with mollisima and crenata showing identical results. I suppose dentata is hardier than them, but probably I should try myself all of them and see.

Now, what about the taste. According to what I read it's something like that dentata > pumila > sativa > the asian species. Can you say this is true. What about the hybrids, are they good? Which is your favorite for taste variety? Which ones has the best combination of flavor, size and yield for you?

Lots of questions

P. S. Here is a very good book about chestnuts:
www.actahort.org/chronica/pdf/sh_9.pdf

[castanea]

Nov 17, 2011 18:20:45 GMT -5 Hristo said:

This year I finally began paying more attention to the fruits/nuts and of course chestnuts are very high in my list to grow. But I'm still trying to figure out which of them should be my priority. Of all the species and hybrids, I have eaten only sativa and they are superb, but according to what I read in our books sativa does not tolerate well temp bellow -18C which is a problem. Probably this is the main reason chestnuts are not grown in my area at all. Also in the past there have been trials with mollisima and crenata showing identical results. I suppose dentata is hardier than them, but probably I should try myself all of them and see.

Now, what about the taste. According to what I read it's something like that dentata > pumila > sativa > the asian species. Can you say this is true. What about the hybrids, are they good? Which is your favorite for taste variety? Which ones has the best combination of flavor, size and yield for you?

Lots of questions

P. S. Here is a very good book about chestnuts:
www.actahort.org/chronica/pdf/sh_9.pdf

One of the most cold hardy chestnuts is a variety called Luvall's Monster. It is 1/2 Chinese, 1/4 Japanese and 1/4 American. It produces a large tasty nut that peels very well. I don't know if anyone in Europe has it.

Chinese chestnuts can taste just as good as American or European nuts if you cook them properly. Chinese nuts are very dense, which means you have to cook them at lower temperatures for longer peirods of time. Generally their sugar levels are higher than Europeans and maybe the same as Americans. Americans have higher fat levels which give them a more rounded flavor. Chinese nuts cook really well by boiling whereas Americans and Europeans can turn to mush if you try to boil them because they are not as dense as the Chinese.

Chinese trees (Castanea mollisima) will easily tolerate -18C, plus they resist chestnut blight and root rot, but pure Chinese trees or even Chinese hybrids are a little hard to find in Europe.

[Hristo]

Chestnuts are seldom available in my area, only for short time in autumn, so we have no much knowledge how to eat them, and we mostly eat them... boiled and they are not mushy, but crumbly. Maybe this is due to the variety, if it is cultivar at all, most probably they are collected from wild stands, because they are not very big - ~1-1.5", also I know for only 2 or 3 named varieties, but even they are selected from superior wild trees.

So, mollisima is good tasting and hardy! Thanks!

[Hristo]

Forget to ask you the other question that puzzles me. Nearly all sources I read say sativa needs ~20 years to bear from seed (I tend to believe this is may be true for wild trees, but not for trees under care), while I read about dentata that it can bear in just 2-3 years under favorable conditions. Is this true? Is there a significant difference between the species?

[castanea]

General statements about how long it takes any fruit or nut tree to bear are to be distrusted because they usually refer to trees growing in the wild.

All chestnut species have the potential to bear nuts in 3 or 4 years if cared for, although there can be a great deal of difference between individual trees or breeding populations. The genetic diversity of Chinese trees is huge. I have Chinese trees that have developed nuts in 3 years and other Chinese trees that have taken 12 or more years. The same thing would be true of European and American trees. The biggest difference would be the Japanese trees (Castanea crenata) which have very little genetic diversity. Almost all of them will bear in the 6-10 year range.

[Hristo]

Thanks! That is what I wanted to know.

[gray]

Castanea what do you know about the chestnut hill nursery and Dunstan chestnut trees? Have been considering starting a chestnut orchard verses pecan and thought these looked good. Gray

[castanea]

I really like the Dunstan Revival tree. It is a vigorous completely blight resistant tree that produces a large very tasty nut. It sometimes has graft issues if grown in very cold climates (zone 5 or 6) or grafted onto dissimilar rootstock. The other Dunstan varieties are OK but none of them stand out to me.

If I were planting a commercial chestnut orchard in NC, I might use Revival, Qing, Payne, Sleeping Giant, and either Gideon or Peach. Maybe Chandler and Smith. You have to get Revival from Chestnut Hill. You can get the others from Empire Chestnuts:

www.empirechestnut.com/catalog.htm

[gray]

Castanea thanks for the info on the reply. Sorry it has taken me a few days to reply. I have been out of town working. Liked the link to empire. May try ordering seeds and growing my own. Will get corn in mail to you tommorrow. Gray

[castanea]

Growing your own seedlings is always a good idea. If you don't like the seedlings, then graft them over to something else in a few years.

[DarJones]

Propagating chestnuts is a thread of its own. Never let the nuts dry out, stratify them in moist cool conditions over winter, plant in prepared soil in early spring.

Grafting chestnuts can be a problem if you don't know some basics. There are 4 recognized phenotypes that affect growth and dormancy. If you graft one type onto a rootstock of another type, the graft often will fail under stressful conditions. The easiest way to avoid this is to graft onto seedlings from the tree that provides the scionwood. This results in 90% or better compatibility.

Another good source for trees is:
www.nolinnursery.com/

DarJones

[castanea]

And if you're in the western US or other blight free area, you can plant the blight susceptible trees from Burnt Ridge Nursery:

www.burntridgenursery.com/