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

Have about 77 chestnut trees (about 14 producing), 12 apple trees producing, a couple pear trees, several persimmon and mulberry trees. I do not have enough experience yet to conclusively say if helps as much as advertised; but we have lots of grain crops, oak trees, and such in this area. What are everyones' thoughts? Are they worth the cost and effort?

In my opinion, every bit of wildlife habitat restoration is a step in the right direction.

We have started planting some chestnut trees for wildlife (deer) and with the drought these last few years have lost about half of them some to deer crashing through the wire cages and some to harvester ants defoliating all the leaves the first spring….. having a tough time trying to get them established….. at 35$ to 50$ each…… we have planted one Japanese persimmon and hopefully this next spring it will fruit out we will see

Are the new chestnuts immune to blight? I thought that the only truly immune varieties are yet to be approved by regulators?

Several years ago, I raised about 20 pecan trees from nuts. When they got about 3 years old, I planted them. None made it. OTOH, I did it at a rent house that I own. That worked because I could more easily water them during crucial times while deep roots were developing.

On the chestnuts, I purchased about 20 of them ($20 - $40 each). I put several on island in big pond (along with with some apple, pear, and other trees). Watered whenever could (either buckets or water pump) for first couple years. Most survived. Pretty much neglected for a few years. A couple got damaged by the tree tube from menards. Those damaged trunks died; but a ton of sprouts generated from base that grew fast and have yielded nuts. Gathered about a 100 nuts last year. Found a video where guy drills holes in bottom of 5 gl bucket, then alternates layers of sand and nuts, wets it down, puts a lid on it, and buries it over the winter in mound of dirt. I did that. Dug it up last spring and had eighty some chestnuts sprouting. I transferred to pots with planting soil, kept watered over summer, and transplanted the 61 that remained (gave several away) last weekend. My back still hurts. Will they make it? I don't know. I think most will. They are close enough to another one of our ponds that I should be able to warer them at least a couple times next summer. The dirt isn't very good; but we wouldn't be putting the trees there if it were prime farmland. I bought some tubes I need to get over them to help protect them from deer.

I didn't check for harvesting nuts in timely manner this year. Ground covered in husks; but only about 30 nuts. Raccoon or something beat me to most of them.

I saved seeds from bunch of disease resistant apples this year. Thinking about trying them and the 30 or so chestnuts I did get. Don't know.

I read a good article from a wildlife habitat expert (mostly focused on deer). He is frequently asked, "What is the best thing to grow for habitat?"

He said that there is no perfect answer - but the best things to add to your habitat are the things you are MISSING on your property!

If you have zero mast trees, add a variety of those. If you have hard mast trees (acorns and chestnuts), add some soft mast fruit trees. If you have no water supply on your property, add a small pond. If you have no deep shelter, plant some shrubs and form thickets. If you have no row crops, keep your feeders operating for most or all of the year.

That sounded like excellent advice to me.

Of course, not being an expert, I wasn't exactly sure what I was missing the most, but I have read lots of posts from the good habitat people on Pond Boss and gained more knowledge in that area.

I planted four Dunstan Chestnut saplings last spring. I'm pretty sure two of them are toast.
I'll replace the dead ones and add a few more new ones come spring.

I put 60-some Burr Oak acorns in starter cells and in a wire cage in the greenhouse a few weeks back.
Last winter I skipped the wire cage part and the squirrels swiped every single nut.

I tried just the opposite.

The squirrels plant several hundred bur oak acorns in my yard in the city every year. I have tried to dig up the saplings and replant them at the farm. However, they typically have a tap root that goes straight down at least a foot.

I almost always break the tap root, which causes the replanted tree to die.

I suspect there is a perfect date to dig up the saplings, probably right when the leaves first erupt from the soil.

I love the 140-year-old bur oaks in our yard, but they take a loooong time to mature in Kansas. I have switched to planting hybrid white oak trees at our farm because they should be able to produce acorns at a much earlier age. I have two hybrids that have produced acorns during Year 3. (They were about 24" tall when planted.)

I have added several other types of hybrid oaks in recent years, and am hoping for similar good results so I can plant more of the varieties that are flourishing in our tough conditions.

We did plant six chestnuts a few years ago.

Drought is a more common problem than extreme wetness at our farm, so I planted all of the trees in a depression in an attempt to channel a little more water to the trees.

Of course, the first spring and summer were very wet at our property. I lost 5 out of 6 trees. I believe the problem was several months of water saturated soil did not allow enough oxygen and the roots subsequently died.

If you are in an area with good annual rainfall, you may need to plant your chestnuts on slightly elevated ground for them to thrive.

Good points. I'm not sure that our properties are missing any of those things. It is probably more of a way to congregat the deer a bit at certain times.

We have two, mature Chinese chestnut trees. They produce mast every year (the nut husk is covered in spikes that would make a porcupine proud). The pods pop open and drop out 3-4 chestnuts. The deer absolutely love them. We have lots of burr oak as well. I have observed deer preferentially eating hickory nuts in our hunting timber. We have smooth bark hickory around here.
I have also planted some Dunstan chestnuts, and 3 of the 4 are close to mast bearing size (took about 5 years). Dunstan's are blight resistant. American Chestnuts were all but wiped out by a blight, but a blight resistant cultivar is being worked on still. Chinese chestnuts are also blight resistant.
I think FishinRod is on to something, re: adding some forage or cover that wasn't available before helps attract more wildlife.

If everyone around you has good deer habitat, then you need to make sure you have BETTER habitat. Especially at the time of the year that you wish to draw the deer over to your property.

I think RAH has done that at his place. He has created a small sanctuary at his place to draw them in during the peak of hunting season.

I’ve learned, on pecans, to soak the nuts for a week or so.
Then put about 10 scattered around in a 5 gallon bucket with the pointed end up and barely protruding. Some will sprout. After some time, eliminate all but one. Replant it. Keep it watered for the first year or so until the root system fully develops. Then replant it. Try to pick a low spot where water naturally collects after a rain.

I have 2 that have worked out well but I planted them in town at a rent house that I could keep up with the watering when required. And, no deer ate the tops out of them.

Yes, I have learned this lesson the hard way.

I have deer cam pics of deer standing on their hind legs eating the tops off of my trees after they cleared a 5' tree tube.

Even eating just 8" off the top has caused the entire main leader to die. If the tree is very healthy, then I have had re-growth from the base of the tree. Some of those trees have eventually thrived but it took a lot of TLC.

Much better to keep the deer out of the trees!

My solution is to have so much food that my new plantings get minimal pressure. We have losses, but we plant a lot and accept that only some will survive. We (my wife) grow most from seed and we plant at least 100 bare-root seedlings from the DNR each year. I also try to tag out on does every year. Still need a muzzleloader doe to tag out this year, so I will be out there when the season comes in. Even so, we have a lot of deer. Trying to keep lots of smaller bucks for future years. My herd control is mainly to reduce the chances of a disease epidemic. I really only have one person hunting adjacent land that is like minded, so it is an uphill battle. On a positive note, I only found one small buck dead on my property so far this year, but that was before gun season started...

Ok, now I am confused. I have lots of chestnut trees here, I actually call them buckeyes, as Dr Luke described, the mast has spiked balls with the buckeyes inside it, are these true chestnuts?? my wife and I collect them and give them away as good luck pieces. I know people can’t eat them but I didn’t know deer ate them, I have hundreds of them here in Central Mo. actually Johnson county Mo. if these are the same as what you all are planting, and you want any, let me know and I will be happy to send you any seeds you want.

I suspect those are horse chestnuts.

https://www.anses.fr/en/content/how-avoid-confusing-horse-chestnuts-sweet-chestnuts#:~:text=Sweet%20chestnuts%20are%20edible%2C%20but,involve%20horse%20and%20sweet%20chestnuts.

Can you eat em??

Yes; but the horse chestnuts are poisonous so don't recommend it!

The sweet chestnuts are good to eat though.

Gpugh: Sorry for smart aleck comment earlier. The sweet chestnuts are great for wildlife and humans to eat. The horse chestnuts are poisonous for humans. I don't know if wildlife eat them or not. I think; but don't know, that horse chestnuts may also be called buckeyes. I remember being given one while a young kid and cautioned not to eat it. I thought it was the neatest thing and kept it for years. Now, I don't know if they have any real redeeming value.

I would check out the type of chestnuts you do have. If they are sweet chestnuts, you are one lucky dude! :-)

Rangers edge,
No need to apologize for the comment, I surely did not take it as a smart aleck comment. What I have here are the buckeyes, I looked them up and they are not edible. I do have one that my wife’s grandfather gave me about 40 years ago, he had it since he was a kid, so it’s about 100 years old, he said to carry it for good luck, but don’t eat it, they are poisonous. I am going to keep looking here for the sweet chestnuts, who knows, might be some mixed in with the buckeyes.
Thank you for the verification, the offer still stands if anybody want any of these, like I said, I have lots of them here in Missouri. Don’t know what people would do with them, but they are here if anybody wants some
Gregg

If you are talking about Ohio Buckeye, then only squirrels supposedly eat them. They do bloom with nice yellow flowers early in spring which helps bees and such. https://naturalresources.extension.iastate.edu/forestry/iowa_trees/trees/ohio_buckeye.html
https://naturesmace.com/do-deer-eat-buckeyes/