Chestnut Foundtion Annual Meeting

[Ron Wenrich]

The American Chestnut Foundation has its annual meeting at La Crosse, Wisconsin on October 18-20, 2002.  There will be a tour of the West Salem stand of chestnut, the largest remaining chestnut stand in the nation.  Unfortunately, this stand now is infected with the blight and may not survive for many more years.

For information on the American Chestnut Foundation, visit their website at http://www.acf.org

[L. Wakefield]

   Interesting what they said about the slope with water and maples nearby indicating good chestnut territory. The one blighted A chestnut I ever saw was in just such a spot.

  I hope we can save this species.   lw

[Ron Wenrich]

We're getting closer.  Penn State and the American Chestnut Foundation have started a seed orchard near the University.  They are planting a 5th generation orchard.  There will be 45,000 seedlings, with only 300 parent trees to be chosen.  

From these trees, blight resistance should be in place for the chestnut.  It will have the resistance from the Chinese chestnut, but have all the characteristics of the American.  That should be about 8-10 years away, maybe a little less.

From there, I believe they will be going about to reintroduce them into the woods, but on a limited availability.

[Frank_Pender]

Ron, I think I read somewhere that Oregon State University Dept. of Forestry is also doing some sort of research on the  same strain.  I have a conference on the 15th of October and I will try and remember to ask about how it is coming along.   I too wish them good growing and success on the new strains.

[Brian_Bailey]

I planted some American Chestnut seedlings that I bought from the County Soil & Water Service when they first started offering them to land owners. Last year, I noticed a few nuts on one tree.  This year I've got one tree that is loaded with nuts and several others with a few.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the blight stays dormant.

[Brian_Bailey]

I finally got time to post this photo.  Thought someone would enjoy seeing an American Chestnut nut. I got about 50 nuts from this tree this year. I ate a few and I could tell why they were an important food source. They sure were tasty .


 

[Weekend_Sawyer]

Hi Brian,

How many years did it take your trees to produce nuts?

I have Chinkipin (sp) and Asian Chestnuts on my property so it may be a good place to re intoduce them.
Jon

[Brian_Bailey]

Jon,

I can't remember the exact year that I planted them.  It was the 1st year the county offered them as some what blight resistant.  I'm gonna guess maybe 15 yrs ago.  I had the dates written down but can't seem to find my notes anywheres.

On a sad   note,  this weekend we had a bad ice storm 3/4" of ice and a lot of the trees that I have planted, mainly red oak and the chestnuts took a lot of damage. This year the leaves didn't fall off and the ice bent them right to the ground, snapping the stems on a lot of them.  I went right out Sunday morning and tried to get as much ice off the trees and hopefully they'll straighten up, but I'm not counting on it.  I've been trying to establish a tree farm on my 30 acres, but between the deer and other natural events, it has been a tough go.

[Brian_Bailey]

After I made the last post, I went out and took some pics.

This is the ice on a walnut tree I had planted.


The tree with the leaves is an American Chestnut that was bent right to the ground. I knocked the ice off and hopefully it will straighten up. This tree gave me approx. 50 nuts this year.


This is a red oak that I planted and it looks like it will be going for kindling. DanG ice !


Did I say I wasn't particlarly fond of winter??