Chestnut (Castanea) cultivars

I plan on planting a collection of grafted chestnut cultivars that are hardy and more upright in growth habit. I'm curious if anybody has had experience with Layeroka (Chinese Chestnut x European Chestnut), Marki (Japanese x European), Marsol (Japanese x European) and Skookum ( Chinese x European). I have a few pure American Chestnuts that are doing well and I hope that the diversity that I plan on growing will cross pollenate one another. Another question is if I don't see any sign of yellowing of leaves on my present chestnuts can I except that my pH is low enough to have these acid loving trees continue to grow well and eventually produce for me?

Have you considered the hybrids that Oikos sells?

I plan on ordering four of the chestnut selections that Oikos offers to added to my collection this coming spring.

David,
I've got almost no first-hand experience with chesnuts, other than planting a few ACCF American seedlings, and growing chinkapins from seed. Do have a few F2 Dunstan hybrid(if they are indeed even hybrids, as that's been disputed by some folks) seedlings, and a couple of grafts of the 'Carolina' cultivar.
My friends the Brittains, at Nolin River Nut Tree Nursery - http://www.nolinnursery.com have a couple of grafted Chinese timber-type selections, "Ford's Sweet" and "Ford's Tall", and a KY-origin American/Chinese hybrid that they offer - but they're currently sold out for the 2007 season

John H. Gordon, Jr., has a number of chestnut varieties available, including the Layeroka strain. His website isn't the easiest to navigate, but here 'tis: http://www.geocities.com/nuttreegordon/0Kgordon.htm
Buried somewhere in there, he's got a short dissertation, from a show-and-tell session at one of the NNGA annual meetings, on hybrid chestnuts - it's worth reading: http://www.geocities.com/nuttreegordon/1chstMut.htm
Recent articles in NNGA proceedings present pretty good evidence that some of the hybrid chestnuts - particularly some of the Douglas strain, probably have chinkapin in addition to or instead of American chestnut in their ancestry, based on flowering/fruiting characteristics

The NNGA has a panel of 'experts' who would probably be able to provide some information on what you could expect from the hybrids you've mentioned.
http://www.northernnutgrowers.org/experts.htm#CHESTNUT

I checked into the "Dunstan" chestnut before I ordered my trees from Oikos. I asked the guy at the nursery if they had any American characteristics, and he said no. He described them as a short bushy tree like the Chinese parent.

Just to sweeten the pot, from someone who knows next to nothing about chestnuts...

I attended the Mid South Horticultural Expo today in Louisville. Chatted a bit with Don Shadow as we were leaving around 5 (as rains starting pouring). He says, "Take a look here in my back seat..."

A weeping Castanea mollissima...

What next?

Did you grab it and run like hell?

Scott

Don would've set the cassowaries (or fainting goats) loose on me.

I'd rather have his weeping Carpinus x schuschuensis or laciniate red-leafed Acer tegmentosum.

Castanea sativa, 28m tall

Resin

Thank you Lucky for all your help. I had noticed in my search for chestnuts that Nolin River Nut Tree Nursery has sold out of chestnuts for 2007. Do they have the gall wasp down in their area? I have become nervous about getting chestnuts from an area that has gall wasps or blight. I enjoyed reading John Gordon's article that you gave the link to about traits of the different chestnuts species and their varying degrees of hardiness, disease and pest resistance. I have been in touch with Sandra Anagnostakis who was on your list of NNGA experts and I will be visiting her and the hybrids that she has been creating and working with next spring.

Resin, I have gotten great joy out of visiting with some of the marvelous Castanea sativa growing in England. I was told or read somewhere that the Romans brought them to England and that they weren't naturally occurring there. Is this true? And are the summers warm enough for the nuts to mature?

David

Hi David,

Yes, at least very probably. There are attested records of chestnut trees growing in Britain pre-1000AD, and nut shells have been found on Roman rubbish tips (though these could have been imported nuts).


In the past, about one summer in three was hot enough for mature nuts up here (55°N). More recently, it's been most summers . . . global warming is definitely biting. This last summer (2006; the hottest on record here) even Juglans regia matured nuts, for the first time - in the past, they never matured fully before autumn came. None of the other Castanea species ever get planted here, so I don't know how well they'd do.

Resin

Aren't C.sativa only slighty less susceptible to blight compared to C.dentata, unless they're hybridized with an Asian species?

Hi Escambia - don't know exactly. There is some chestnut blight in southern Europe, but it doesn't seem (for whatever reason) to cause extensive damage; it isn't a major plant health issue. No record of the blight in Britain. Since chestnut blight has a proven ability for long-range dispersal, I'd suspect that there are climatic reasons why it isn't in Britain or doesn't cause major problems in Europe.

Resin

David,
I don't know if the chestnut gall wasp is here in KY - or in significant numbers. Seems like I recalled seeing something in print about it being in Ohio, so it's possible. I've not done much with chestnuts, other than planting a few Americans and some hybrid seedlings for wildife mast plants(see E-guy's thread on eating raw chestnuts, at the fruit & nut forum). It's been a while since I've looked at NRNTN's chestnut offerings, but at least a couple of years back, they listed some of the selections bred & developed at Auburn University, which have exhibited CGW resistance.