|
|
Post by jocelyn on Feb 18, 2023 10:00:14 GMT -3.5
Folks can get nuts out of all provinces except Ontario, which protects chestnut under both the Species at Risk Act and the Endangered Species Act. Having said that, both protections are recent, and Ontario folks have sent seed down east from before those acts came into force. Most of the Ontario trees are too young for many nuts, but some of the older ones are over 200 years old. If anybody wants the database of trees we know about, and whose owners have given consent, I'll send it as an attachment. Contacting folks in the spring will reserve a few nuts from the limited supply for fall mailings. The supply will steadily increase as the youngest trees mature. There must be at least two trees to have any nuts, and many folks have only one, so the pollinators will have to grow up a bit to increase supply. I have another tree come into bearing this year, and it produced FOUR nuts, grin. it will take a little while for the supply to increase.
|
|
|
|
Post by jocelyn on Feb 18, 2023 10:04:04 GMT -3.5
Another thing we can do is send twigs for grafting in the mail, as chestnut grafts a bit like apple, which is to say, fairly easily. Grafts may produce pollen the year they are placed, and folks with a single tree can have nuts within that year or the next one. Keep in mind though, that storms break grafts, either by breaking it at the union, or just tearing away the main branch the graft was put on. Consider them temporary, due to storms. You might get a few nuts though  |
|
|
|
Post by chrisgreaves on Feb 23, 2023 7:37:02 GMT -3.5
Folks can get nuts out of all provinces except Ontario, which protects chestnut under both the Species at Risk Act and the Endangered Species Act. Ahhah! This makes it a great deal clearer. So now I understand that any (chestnut) seed producer who wants to trial germinating seeds in Bonavista Newfoundland can legally send, say, three seeds for me to sprout and document without hassle. It is only the island of Ontario (grin) that would be deprived of this service. Is that correct? And this may reduce opportunities for trial. After all, if someone's trees are still too young to produce hundreds of nuts, there would be reluctance to send seeds away to someone says "I can't possibly have adult trees on my house-lot". Although, of course, I can always find someone local (as in Bunyan's Cove) willing to start their own clutch of trees on a larger lot, so it's not necessarily true that such seeds would go-to-waste. It just so happens that I know a responsible 76-year old in Bonavista who is dead-keen on growing trees. I bet he would love to get a copy of the db. (He's pretty good at computers and databases, too!) Very Good :clapping: That's four more nuts than I produced last year. Cheers, Chris |
|
|
|
Post by chrisgreaves on Feb 23, 2023 7:47:40 GMT -3.5
Another thing we can do is send twigs for grafting in the mail, as chestnut grafts a bit like apple, ... Speaking as a tree-grower looking ahead to 1,500 apple tree seedlings this May-June, should I contemplate grafting American Chestnut tree twigs onto an apple tree stock? The apple trees are hardy, by a selection process. Only the ones that have germinated naturally from cores planted the year before and grow strong enough to produce seedlings, and survive the process of transplanting, one seedling at a time to large post, appear on my plot. I have retained for my own indoor amusement three trees from last year's crop, and have some dozen potted seedlings waiting outside to prove their health next May-June. My selfish and greedy (and cheap!) plan is to take out the fifteen weedy Aspen trees on the house-lot and replace them with better-placed apple and pear trees. I'll plant the fruit tees this spring, let them grow for a year or two, than start lopping back the aspens and allow the fruit trees to establish fruit-bearing growth. I reason too that even if none of the trees bear ripened fruit, the apple blossom alone should be a distinct improvement on the drab and boring weedky aspen leaves. My mouth has now stopped watering and I am drooling. This sounds as if one could create a near-instant harvest by grafting, instead of hanging on to life for ten years for a glimpse of one's grandchildren's future. If a graft can produce fruit, why do we need two normal (from seed) chestnut trees for pollination?
(signed) "Curious" of Bonavista. |
|
|
|
Post by jocelyn on Feb 26, 2023 12:24:31 GMT -3.5
Grafts are temporary, as storms break them. If they produce a few nuts, and you plant those, you have captured the genetics and a broken off seedling will just resprout.
|
|
|
|
Post by jocelyn on Feb 26, 2023 12:36:55 GMT -3.5
Try this, from a photo hosting site. It's a new graft just starting, and if the wind doesn't break it, and the mice/rabbits don't eat it, it will be a clone of the parent tree.  |
|
|
|
Post by jocelyn on Feb 26, 2023 12:42:36 GMT -3.5
Chestnut will graft on oak, red or white, but not on apple. Grafting onto a seed that is sprouting is OK, so is onto a main branch of an existing tree. It might graft on beech, but the best graft unions are on chestnut.
I should mention that my kid planted an apple seed when she was 3, and we now have a huge sprawling tree whose fruit is scab resistant, sweet, non browning, and yummy.
|
|
|
|
Post by jocelyn on Feb 26, 2023 13:05:42 GMT -3.5
Grafts are not as hardy as seedlings. You might want a graft though if you have a tree old enough to bloom and no pollinator for it. This photo is a graft (see black tape) that is blooming and will provide pollen for a few nuts after hand pollination.  |
|
