I planted five American Chinquapins on my farm when I first started planting trees. I thought I was far enough west of the natural range that they might never be subject to the blight. (Unless it travelled with the saplings.)
Unfortunately, only one of them is still growing. The other four were quickly eaten by the deer. I have had lots of trees in tree tubes on the farm, and the deer have nibbled tops and knocked down a few tubes. However, none of my other tree species suffered 80% deer consumption in the first year.
I don't know if the problem was my planting technique, or if the deer especially loved to browse on chinquapins. If the surviving shrub does manage to produce a good nut crop at maturity, then I think I will try some more in the future.
