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

Update:
The seed starts for this year are pretty much a bust. One place recommended soaking the seeds briefly in a bleach solution. That is the main thing I did differently this year vs last.
The seedlings from last year that I transplanted are doing far better than anticipated. We transplanted them into an area of heavy clay soil that doesn't grow much well. Then we didn't water them at all even during several very dry periods. Surprisingly, most survived and some are now near the tops of the tree tubes.
Some of my more mature chestnuts appear loaded so will probably try again.
On the down side... I tried some prepared chestnuts. They were like icky mush with little taste. Hopefully, not all are like that. If so, they'll definitely be for wildlife only and I'll plant more pecans for myself.

Support the Darling GM chestnut. I am too old to see the results, but this is a good thing.

We been trying to get dunstan chestnut trees to survive here and so far not so good , to dry and sandy to be able to water enough with over a month of 100 degree plus days and three months of no rain

I signed up to get emails about the Darling GM project. This sounds like a great project and I hope it can get through the red tape to get final approval. Thanks RAH.

I think buying some dunstan trees would be good for our area where we are trying to attract deer. Thanks!

https://www.treepro.com/chestnut-trees

Get the tree tubes too.

I've done two plantings of Dunstan Chestnut. Four trees spring of '22, ten trees spring of '23.

One of the first four made it a year in good condition. One died and the other two aren't doing well.
Was my fault for not watering them consistently during the heat of summer last year.

Six of the ten I planted this year are up and out of their grow tubes. I improved my irrigation setup in the spring,
which got them through the early drought we had here. I'll buy another ten pack in the fall for spring planting.
Three to fill out the grove, two to replace the ones that aren't healthy, and a handful of spares to heel in as backups.

I'll build cages around the good ones before winter but I won't pull the tubes until they've leafed out in the spring.
The dang deers will eat a young tree down to a nub so protection is necessary until they've sized up quite a bit.

Beautiful!! Any advice on location (sun, shade, direction of sun, soil types?)

Mine are planted in full sun. The soil where they are growing is ~8" loam topsoil over clay pan.
I dug the planting holes ~24" diameter x 16" deep and mixed plenty of compost into the soil when I backfilled.
I've fertilized twice this season with a quart of 13-13-13 spread around the base of each tree.
In my (very limited) experience with this species it's important to be semi-consistent with the watering.
They don't like to dry out to the point of wilting, and they REALLY don't like being over-watered.

Thanks! Esshup, similar instructions for the hybrid chestnut in the link that you shared? your link doesn't seem to be of the dunstan type.

Those hybrids aren't a Dunstan. They are a cross between American Chestnut and Chinese Chestnut, They do well in zone 4-9 and I can attest that they are fast growers, growing out of the tree tube that they furnish with them in 2 years. Their tree tubes are different than most, as they condense water vapor at night to help water the trees. I put this up here because they are a very fast growing chestnut tree, and should start producing nuts in 3-5 years post planting.

I’ve propagated roses several times from cuttings started out in a cup of water. This year, so far, one has survived and uncertain about it. I’m about to try again.

I have 2 large and one small blackberry patch that birds have to take responsibility for. Trying cuttings here also.

Currently keeping a big bunch of wild plums in moist paper in the bottom of the refrigerator. Then inside a plastic bag. Directions on the web says keep them there for 3 to 6 months(depending on which web site you believe), and they should sprout roots. These are wild plums from the sides of the road. There are plenty of them but I want to try to do my own. Wife says I’m nuts.

I tend to agree with your wife but whatever makes you happy! Remember what Bob's client said about buying green bananas? ROFL

The Dunstan Chestnut is also a hybrid - American Chestnut x Chinese Chestnut.

HIstory of the Dunstan Chestnut

I used the tree tubes that Esshup recommended and could easily tell a difference between those in and out of a tube.

I wish the stakes were a little longer and the tubes had a few more factory holes as they weren't at top of tube once driven down far enough to keep it upright and some tubes buckled over in wind as a result. I will probably order some more tubes from them next year as I plant more.

Scott, we have wild plums everywhere on the road sides. This is more of a personal challenge.

I have used 3/4" Sch 40 PVC pipe for my tree tube supports. They keep the tubes from buckling, but allow the tube to "wiggle" just enough in the wind that the trunks of the saplings thicken up properly at the base. I attach them with heavy duty removable zip ties, since I need to weed and prune the trees in my area a few times before they are mature enough to be liberated from the tubes.

They have supported my trees safely until they are 2-3 feet out of the top of my 5' tubes. However, at that point the trees have enough potential wind area that storm winds will break my zip ties and flatten the trees.

I then move on to Phase 2 of protecting the trees, which also involves some elevated fencing because my deer will stand on their hind legs and eat the tree tops out of the 5' tubes.

I have several acres of drought-resistant sand plums on our property.

Next time I try to send you some rain, should I also try to send you a 1/4-acre of sand plums?

The customers place that has the tree tubes used the grey 3/4" or 1" electrical PVC pipe to anchor the tubes. The PVC is the same height as the tubes.

Some of our transplanted chestnut trees are now above the tubes (like in Augie's picture).
We mowed at the island last weekend and some of the chestnut trees there are absolutely loaded. I bet one of the trees alone has hundreds of nuts.
May try my luck just planting some seeds where transplanted ones died.
Only one of the six trees by the house has any. Same small tree as had the most last year. Neither of the two biggest trees has any... Don't quite understand that.
Have several hundred black walnuts, pecans, and some cherry seeds saved back, have a lot of apples to pick, and will have a lot of chestnuts. Not sure what I'll do with any of them. Not sure I'm up for a mass transplanting effort again. Feel like I need to plant them somewhere; but not sure where. If it all works out, may try to clear off some areas that just have brush and plant seeds. A lot of things would have to come together just right for that to work out (time, money, and equipment availability); but...

My farm has pretty tough conditions, but I think it is much easier to start seeds in pots in a controlled environment and then later transplant your best and healthiest seedlings than it is to grow straight from seed to tree in the "wild". (The kids liked watching the results in the basement "grow room" when I did trees and Mom did garden plants.)

However, trees have been growing from a nut in the wild by themselves for hundreds of millions of years!

Maybe in your area, your best use of time and effort would be planting your desired seeds too densely. If a huge number make it to 5 years of age and are well-established, then it is quite easy to cull a few of the weaker trees.

If going with the seed plan, I would try to maximize diversity of the micro-environment of the planting locations to get the most trees through the unknown future weather conditions.

My trees usually have to combat drought, so I planted six chestnuts in one of my small depressions. We had prolific rains the entire next spring and summer and all but one of the trees died because they were too long in fully water saturated ground!

I think if you plant a few seeds in the depressions, a few on the tops of the hillocks, a few on the side slopes, then you will have a much higher likelihood of having a significant number of trees make it to the 5 year mark.

Good luck on your ongoing tree projects!

At this time, I have about 50 plum seeds in the refrigerator. Instructions say to eat the plum and put the seed in wet paper towels. Then into a plastic bag for a couple of months. Some SHOULD put out roots that I can transplant.

We will see. This is just an experiment. Wild plums are on the side of the country roads around my place.

I am butt deep in wild blackberries. It happens when a bird passes a seed that takes roots. They are in 4 places. One is 100 yards long.

There is a certain time of year where the deer must really enjoy eating the honey locust pods that have dropped on the ground at our place. I can see the big black seeds when I come across a deer dropping.

The deer seem to be quite adept at planting AND fertilizing Honey Locust trees on our property! Whereas they attempt to eat my oak trees and fruit trees. I sure wish I could train my deer to be a little better behaved.

I believe I get a much stronger tree when direct seeded in their permanent location. Tap root trees simple do better if their root has been allowed to grow fully instead of in a pot. It takes a little protection to make it happen but I think it's worth it. Of course I do pot starts too as I enjoy growing trees, just don't think it's best.

I started out trying to transplant several of the bur oak saplings that the squirrels had so kindly planted in our yard in the city! You are correct - it is nearly impossible to extract the long tap root fully intact.

I then tried our giant bur oak acorns in oversized pots. They did very well even under my cheap grow lights, but tended to have a long tap root that was wrapping around the bottom of the pot. When I used a fluffy potting mix, it WAS possible to extract the saplings with their tap roots intact and gently straighten the tap root into the planting hole.

That was fun and productive, but then I contemplated the growth rate of bur oak trees in Kansas. My great grandchildren will think those trees are awesome.

I have now switched to hybrid oak varieties that grow much faster and hit acorn production maturity much sooner!

Sounds like a great project!
What hybrids are you planting? I've got a Concordia oak or two, some Bur's, DCO's, and quite a few Sawtooths that I've planted. Also lots of pear, apple, and persimmon's. It's addicting like pond habitat is.