Re: Anyone have interest in American Chestnut trees
[Re: Actor]
#6738545
01/21/20 12:35 PM
01/21/20 12:35 PM
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 3,859 Pa
Wright Brothers
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trapper
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 3,859
Pa
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Beaverpealer I think that is the idea of the year on here. I'd try some if guys think it ok crossing with my Chinas? If the new ones made nuts of course.
Sure we may not see them but, if no-one planted cool trees, we'd have less cool ones now.
I'll try remember to bring this up to a schooled nursery man next I see him.
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Re: Anyone have interest in American Chestnut trees
[Re: Actor]
#6738745
01/21/20 03:28 PM
01/21/20 03:28 PM
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Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 6,704 Newark, Ohio 83 years
Actor
OP
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OP
trapper
Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 6,704
Newark, Ohio 83 years
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Starting back in about 1960, I went to 3 different areas that had at one time massive big chestnut trees growing most of the stump were rotting away by that time, some were still pretty solid. At each of these places I got shoots that were coming up and took them home and transplanted them. I could get them to grow to between 15 and 20 feet... then they would die. I guess the blight had been bred into them or something.
I tried everything I could think to try and do something to help them grow. I tried bare root, I tried balling them, I dug holes twice as wide and deep and filled with potting soil, cleaned top soil, I even tried mixing a very small amount of bleach in the water,, washing the trees down with different chemicals someone would suggest. But …. it didn't make any difference they would all end up dying. I had one that got to about 15 feet and even put out blossoms, no fruit was produced and it died the next fall.
Now that they are close to being the real thing and resistant... I don't have a place to plant and to darn old to see any results.
I my lifetime, in my area I have seen the loss of the American Elm, the Box Elder, the oak that someone mentioned above and others I can't think of now. We had a lot of American Elm in and around our town. I can remember when coming across one, just standing admiring those trees. They were as straight as any tree I have ever seen and would reach up to the sky, I would think. The most impressive thing about the Elm trees, they would go up 20 or more feet before there we any branches. We have Mound Builders Park a couple blocks from where I live now, it was loaded with Giant Elm, White and Black Oak trees
If I had a choice of what time I could go back to, it would be in the early 1700s... just so I could see the virgin forests of the east and Midwest, the flocks of Passenger Pigeons, the squirrel by the hundred at a time and the large herds of buffalo.
Well, a guy can dream …
Garry-
“Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.”
Have been trapping 77 years…
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Re: Anyone have interest in American Chestnut trees
[Re: Actor]
#6738754
01/21/20 03:37 PM
01/21/20 03:37 PM
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Joined: Nov 2017
Posts: 5,539 West Central MN
20scout
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trapper
Joined: Nov 2017
Posts: 5,539
West Central MN
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I bought some seedlings last year and planted several around the edges of my yard. The nursery suggested that I add some powdered bone marrow to the root ball to help it along. Bad idea when you have a 10 month old pup who loves to dig. I'll be replacing them this spring.....
Common sense is a not a vegetable that does well in everyone's garden.
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Re: Anyone have interest in American Chestnut trees
[Re: gryhkl]
#6738826
01/21/20 04:56 PM
01/21/20 04:56 PM
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 4,952 PA
elkaholic
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trapper
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 4,952
PA
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My friend told me about that virgin stand of timber in the cook state forest. Funny thing he said, that virgin stand of timber isn't where it used to be before WWII. He claimed they cut the original stand, and then moved the signs to a different area. He's been dead and gone now since the eighties but I never knew him to BS. I believe you friend is mistaken, Otis. There is also a stand of virgin timber with a trail through it on public land in Hearts Content in Warren county. I would agree with gryhkl on this one. Take a walk or ride through Cook Forest and you'll see white pine trees that are well over 200 years, and some pushing 300 years old.
Millions of trees die every year to print environmentalist publications
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Re: Anyone have interest in American Chestnut trees
[Re: beaverpeeler]
#6738942
01/21/20 07:08 PM
01/21/20 07:08 PM
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 2,213 central Missouri
Bigfoot
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trapper
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 2,213
central Missouri
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Bigfoot, if I remember correctly mine started producing burrs at about 7-8 years. Might depend on how fast of a start they get.
BTW, interesting tidbit, bees love the chestnuts. When my american has its catkins in full pollen mode it sounds like a bee swarm with all the pollen gathering taking place.
Hey Clark, I kind of wondered the same thing about those pics. The biggest of the Morton arboretum had a breast-height-diameter of about 5 ft and they had a known age of 129 years when I saw them. Does the pollen not carry the blight
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Re: Anyone have interest in American Chestnut trees
[Re: Actor]
#6738968
01/21/20 07:32 PM
01/21/20 07:32 PM
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Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 420 Iowa
ou812
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trapper
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 420
Iowa
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I have 4 Dunstin Chestnuts growing in Northern Iowa. This will be 4th growing season. I had a flower on one of the trees last year will see what this year brings.
Last edited by ou812; 01/21/20 07:33 PM. Reason: Spelt words wrong
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Re: Anyone have interest in American Chestnut trees
[Re: Actor]
#6738975
01/21/20 07:37 PM
01/21/20 07:37 PM
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 11,294 Oregon
beaverpeeler
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trapper
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 11,294
Oregon
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Seniortrap, if you bought chestnuts from Italy those would have been the European chestnut which has a little bit of resistance to the blight. Remember if you buy chestnuts thinking to sprout them it probably won't work unless care was taken to not let them dry out. Commercially, chestnuts are dried for a couple of weeks before they are sold and the germ is no longer viable.
Bigfoot, good question on blight transfer with pollen. I don't think it would or could transfer blight...UNLESS some windborne spores got into the pollen. I do not believe the fungal disease is systemic. It spreads by wind and water action. In fact I read once that when the blight first got going that they burned great piles of dead and dying chestnuts and the heat/smoke plumes pushed up spores into the jet stream causing the disease to spread great distances.
Last edited by beaverpeeler; 01/21/20 07:38 PM.
My fear of moving stairs is escalating!
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Re: Anyone have interest in American Chestnut trees
[Re: Actor]
#6739479
01/22/20 09:01 AM
01/22/20 09:01 AM
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 2,313 Western Michigan
Animals Only
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trapper
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 2,313
Western Michigan
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If someone wants to send me American chestnut nuts, I would be happy to plant them on my property. Send me a pm if you're interested.
AKA: Rusty Shackleford
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Re: Anyone have interest in American Chestnut trees
[Re: TurkeyTime]
#6739935
01/22/20 03:31 PM
01/22/20 03:31 PM
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Joined: Oct 2011
Posts: 17,488 Wheaton Ks
lee steinmeyer
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trapper
Joined: Oct 2011
Posts: 17,488
Wheaton Ks
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Golfball- Where did you get your seed? I also would like to know this!
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Re: Anyone have interest in American Chestnut trees
[Re: gryhkl]
#6740062
01/22/20 05:23 PM
01/22/20 05:23 PM
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Joined: Oct 2016
Posts: 717 Michigan
BigBlackBirds
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trapper
Joined: Oct 2016
Posts: 717
Michigan
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One of my sons spent his summer two years ago working on an American chestnut project. He and another student went around western and central PA monitoring the health and taking measurements of the trees in stands of hopefully blight resistant chestnut that have been planted over the years. He was told that most stands are planted way of the beaten path because of problems with theft of the trees.
Nearly 40 years I ago when i was kid went with fellow from state that was working on a grant to help save chestnut. Took him into a bunch of old ginseng woods that had various sized chestnut trees from pretty big to little saplings and he took all kinds of samples and then did something where he innoculated some of them with something. A few of the trees are still alive in one area but many of them were victims of logging and construction in the housing boom of late 90's early 2000 era that swept across western Michigan.
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Re: Anyone have interest in American Chestnut trees
[Re: Actor]
#6740665
01/23/20 01:05 AM
01/23/20 01:05 AM
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Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 3,621 N. Carolina
Scout1
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Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 3,621
N. Carolina
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Is there anywhere to buy saplings of the "new" American chestnut? We still have lots of sprouts that come up then die. It is surprising how strong the wood is for as light as it is. When we see the power companies clearing right of ways where we know of lots of the sprouts, we'll go after they trim and get the fresh cut chestnut sprouts that are big and straight enough to make excellent walking sticks. Occasionally we'll find a good nut or two. Hence the old saying " even a blind hog can find a nut very now and then!"
------------------------------------- DJT & MTG in 2024!
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