Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Property Projects & Construction Chestnut other trees for wildlife

We have planted both pears and apples, and have had zero luck with pears. I don’t know what it is, but they hate our heavy clay soils. The apples and crabapples thrive.

When I hog the fields, I will notice apple trees sprouting, and I let them grow due to the benefits they can provide while remaining smaller. Now we’re have around 20 “volunteer” crabapples and apples that are large enough to bloom and bear fruit. I knew there was a lot of natural variety in them, but I am blown away by the variety. They all taste different, bloom differently, vary from red to yellow to green, sizes of fruits, and growth style. The animals love some, and eat the apples as soon as they are ripe, and others remain untouched well into winter.

By comparison, I planted cultivars along the driveway from Home Depot. The were cheap at the time, but I didn’t realize how poor they were. Bad root growth so some wound up leaning, little bitty apples that nothing likes, and even the so called purple flowers are not all that great. I have much prettier wild varieties. I have thought about ripping them out and replacing them, but it took forever to get them up to size. The soil along the driveway is poor.

Thanks for typing that up Liquidsquid.

Just the opposite of my (and neighbors') experiences. So, as usual, I believe the most accurate answer is ... it depends!

My soils at the farm are sandy, and are actually too sandy in many places to be considered "good soils"

I don't have any crabapples at the farm, but we do have some in our yard in the city. Those things are hardy as can be for our generally tough tree conditions. Perhaps I should start a few at the farm property this spring?

I dont have any crabapples either. I hope to plant some pears, persimmons, apples, hazelnuts, and chestnuts. I've read thst deer prefer some cover near field edges. Kind of thinking hazelnuts might work for that...

I think that Morse nursery is connected to TreePro where we get our tubes. Don't remember exact connection though.

You might try grafting those apples that nothing likes to varities you know are good.

I'm in SC Kansas. Pears excel here unless they are susceptible to fireblight. Apples and crabs will grow and do well with some help, but they do not sprout up wild at all. Just not a good enough fit for them.

Sir

I planted 5 varieties and they came from Hallman Farms in SC.

To say they have exceeded my expectations is a vast understatement.

We used the 5 because they drop the fruit at varying times - some as early as August and some as late as December, give or take a few weeks.

Wild guess, we feed 2000-4000 lbs per year.

We have a terrible deer problem so no pear goes uneaten.

I am sure other critters than deer eat them also but it is mainly the lawnmowers (as I like to call them)

Tried a bunch of chestnuts planted in non-buried buckets of sand again. Didn't work again. Gotta bury them.

About 14 of those transplanted in 2024 are now above the 6 foot grow tubes.

Just posted an image of some of the chestnuts transplanted in 2022.

I had pretty good success starting Bur Oaks in pots.

1.) Selected good acorns off the ground and started them in pots - outside, so they would be subjected to some freezing temperatures.

2.) Brought them into the basement around the end of January. Watered the pots and started them with two cheap fluorescent tube grow lights. Put the lights on one of those simple mechanical timers.

3.) I think I had a 100% emergence rate(?). They grew very fast in that warm environment. I took the pots outside around mid-April, which is after our date for bitter cold.

4.) They still grew very fast during the late spring. A few grew so fast that they were a little spindly and I had to stake them up.

5.) Moved them into partial shade around late June, because the direct sun was baking the soil in the pots.

6.) Transplanted them to our farm in the late fall.

[I can't tell you how well they did after that. We had a drought at the farm most of the next year and the only things growing in some areas were in my little drip irrigation circles around my oaks. The d*mn pocket gophers went to the moist soil with various roots in the vicinity and killed every single oak.]

Lessons: This was not much work, but it was strictly a small-scale operation. I only did 10-12 trees, which was limited by my space availability in the basement.

I also should have put mulch in the pots during May. Just never thought of that, since my simple brain had only been conditioned to put mulch on the ground.

Please keep posting your tree projects. I live in an area with tough conditions for trees, so I am always happy to learn the good lessons (and bad lessons) from others.

Walmart has some excellent looking dustan chestnuts on clearance right now for $10 or $15 per. About all I could do to keep from buying some more to replace those that died. To be totally candid, I'd buy a bunch more if my wife said go for it.

From the flip side, we already have a bunch of chestnut trees and apple trees. My hope is to get more of our properties cleared of "brush" and growing plants that are more beneficial for wildlife and lumber so clearing should be priority this year. Also run risk of not getting them concentrated to one area if have trees scattered all over in multiple locations.

My success has been in pecans. I found a source for native pecans that attained some decent size. I planted about 50 in pots after soaking for a couple of weeks. .About 20% turned into trees. I kept and planted some and planted 2 at my home. This was about 30 years ago and everything is going well with them. That home is now a rent house that my grandson and his wife live in. I thrash the limbs every year to get some nuts.

I also have lots of areas of brush that are mostly undesirable invasive trees. I started clearing those areas and then realized that was a huge job.

I have now become more strategic. You only need to create a small clearing to start your new desirable trees. I make a patch that has mostly south exposure for sunlight, and then make sure to clear any of the adjacent trees that would fall on my new tree plantings if felled. Once I get the good trees established, I can then clear out the remaining crap brush at my convenience.

I have also noticed that my wildlife really likes the cleared patches in my forest. The deer, turkey, and quail all create their optimal transit routes and then use the patches for food, bedding, etc.

I've tried to start pecans from the nuts several times now with absolutely no luck. Friend brags about just throwing a couple inches of dirt over them and they all come up.

I'm going to try pecans again this year. I would like to have some pecans in our woods. We have hickories, oaks, walnuts, and far too many maples / cotttonwoods.

I have no delusions about being able to get rid of all my junk brush in the near future. I now have the bigger excavator and Mt nephew has a big dozer; but neither of us have much free time.

If it all works out, I hope to retire in about four more years. If health and finances work out like hope, I plan to do a LOT of property improvements. Clear out most of the undesirable brush and replace with other trees. Build several new ponds. Rework some old ones. Etc.

In regard to chestnuts, my wife is a member of the Purdue Univ. Extension Master Gardeners program. She has acquired American chestnuts from a grower, which I believe are supposed to be pure genetically (as opposed to being an American/Chinese hybrid) and somewhat blight resistant. She potted several dozen, and currentley has a nice grouping of nearly foot tall seedlings to be transplanted in the fall. If you've read about these trees, you know they were a quite magnificent feature of the eastern forests a century ago. It would be great to see someone discover a disease resistant variety to re-take some of its original place in the woods. I'll post a shot in the next day or so.

Scooter: You must be over there around Indianapolis. My son took a couple weeks of robotics / coding classes through ID Tech at Butler University a couple years ago. While he was there, we roamed the area, went to tree pro, bought some tubes and talked with them (did a tour), checked out Purdue's tree programs, and etc.

Yes, west of Indy. Purdue keeps extension offices in county's 4H fairgrounds. I still need to get a picture of our seedlings growing!

Many of those transplanted in 2022 are loaded with chestnuts.

One of those transplanted in 2024 has a chestnut.

Top picture is of the American chestnut seedlings.
Anyone want to guess what the seedlings are in the bottom pic?

Latest article on the two prongs of the efforts to restore Chestnut trees in the U.S.

One is bioengineering the genetic code for blight resistance. The other is hybridization with Chinese Chestnuts, but specifically targeting only the blight resistance genes in an attempt to have the hybrids have the highest possible content of American Chestnut DNA.

Neither method is perfect.

USDA Approves Bioengineered Chestnut Trees for Wild Plantings


[Moderators - I could not extract the exact article I wanted from the Yahoo news scroll, so the link goes to the current scroll of multiple news items. If this is causing a problem, or may cause a problem in the future, then please delete my post.]

In another hundred years, they may also compensate for Dutch Elm Disease and the Emerald Ash Borer.

By which time, our poor national bio-security will have allowed in pests and diseases that wipe out oaks, walnuts, and maples.

(Depressed mode OFF)

My street as a child had two giant American Elms near the curb on seven of the eight houses. Their branches arched over the street and provided perfect shade in the summer.

We did a ton of activities and games on the smooth asphalt below that canopy. We added just one extra rule to each game, you had to yell "CAR!" when you saw one approaching.

Boy do I miss all of those elms! (And perhaps a bit of my youth as well.)

I will be happy to see my chestnuts exceed 20 ft...
So, no one wanted to guess the identity of the other seedlings?
Walnut would have been too easy, those pictured are Butternuts! (Also prone to disease )