American Chestnut: Cuttings

[Haines' Trees]

So we have at my parents place a true, blue, American Chestnut (as confirmed by 2 separate Arborist company owners with about a century of experience between them).


From my understanding, American chestnuts were all but wiped out by chestnut blight (?) but a small grove was found in Virginia, blah blah the dawn redwood story.

I have looked about the inter webs and I’m inclined to believe the professionals. Does anyone know anything about these trees, ie whether they can be propagated easily via grafting or cutting? This tree has been in the ground here for about 4 years and is now happy and established, with about 10 inches of growth this year.

No, I’m not gonna say where they live.

 

[Cruiser]

Once upon a time, American Chestnuts accounted for 25% or more of the dominant trees in eastern forests. Obviously, the blight changed all that.
Small/young trees can be still be found and are not particularly rare. Most are trapped in a life of adolescence. They grow to a certain point, usually before they can reproduce, then the blight knocks them back. They resprout and repeat the process. Occasionally you can find some that get bigger than most of the others and may even have burrs.

Most of the large chestnuts you see are Chinese-American hybrids.
Important genetic work is being done to develop blight resistance in American Chestnuts. Check out the American chestnut foundation.

Did yours come from a nearby parent tree?

 

[Cruiser]

Chinese and American Chestnuts | The American Chestnut Foundation

acf.org

 

[19Mateo83]

There is a handful of known genuine American chestnut trees that have immunity to the chestnut blight. The hybrids are quite common. I have about 40-50 dunstan seedlings growing at the moment. If this one is true American chestnut genetics it may never reach maturity. The American chestnut society is doing great work. Not just to develop hybrids but to also try to isolate the immunity found in those few individual trees that have remained unaffected by the blight. Hopefully one day the American chestnut will return in the forests.

 

[Haines' Trees]

Based on what I’ve been reading tonight most of the blight that remains is underground and will metastasize when sprouts reach a few years old. And nearly all of that happens within the natural range, particularly in the humid areas in the southern range where it’s also susceptible to something called ink disease (?). My parents do not live within the historical range and are decidedly farther north and west than what was described as prime time blight zone. I’ve found articles describing stands of a couple hundred mature trees in both Michigan and Wisconsin, which are not identified as it’s native range, pre-devastation. While many of the trees that made it further west than Ohio did get hit and killed, supposedly the blight that’s more this way has been shown to be less virulent.

My dad bought this tree as bareroot stock and it was about pencil thick when he did. I believe he said it came from a nursery in Virginia or one of the Carolinas, somewhere in that area. The nursery owners had supposedly found a small grove in the Appalachians and collected chestnuts, got them tested, so and so. It could all be heresy but hopefully not. Supposedly it is not a graft, I can’t say for sure if it’s pure 100% American without a hook up in a genetics lab, which I don’t have.

I’m not gonna take a leaf and send it to a lab at this point, but I’m gonna take a closer look at it tomorrow in the light. I checked around for some of its unique morphology, but I also don’t know anyone more qualified to identify trees than these two arborists that aren’t a geneticist

I really just wanna take the opportunity to help with conservation if this is the real deal. According to the inter webs (where there is never any false information ever, lmao) they begin fruiting anywhere from 5-8 years of age, but this one was barerooted and shipped halfway across the country. If it is an American I’d have to provide another tree within the genus for pollination. I’d then have a cross, but if I could someday back-cross it again….

Conservation is a long term game

 

[rockm]

You should read this. It is fascinating. As for the "small stand in Virginia" stuff, sounds like mythology. I'm in Va. Immature chestnuts are not scarce.

The Demise and Potential Revival of the American Chestnut

Before a disastrous blight, the American chestnut was a keystone species in eastern forests. Could genetic engineering help bring it back?

www.sierraclub.org

The Virginia nursery might have sourced the tree from here, this is where it came from:

Meadowview Research Farms | The American Chestnut Foundation

acf.org

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Here's a bunch of chestnut seedlings from a mature tree that stands by itself on a farm in VA. A friend of mine asked for and received a large bag of chestnuts from him last fall, and we cold stratified them this winter and planted them up in March. I'm not sure how suitable they are for bonsai, but I'm going to plant them in landscape and see how they do.

I personally believe them to be Chinese chestnuts (based on what the nuts looked like), but we are going to send in a sample to have them checked.



I also have American elms, but the American elms are cuttings from a known cultivar - Ulmus americana 'Princeton'

 

[NaoTK]

I just acquired some seedlings from a nearby tree here in Oregon. Apparently Oregon is one place not impacted by blight so we have a population of old trees. We think this particular tree is about 100 years old.
I was reading about these last night and understand in their native range there is a lot of genetic intermixing with chinquipin and more recently Chinese chestnut. https://acf.org/resources/identification/chinese-american-chestnuts/

I like the leaves and plan to bonsai these. I see that they are backbudding on lower nodes which is a good sign. I will cut the tap root and grow in the ground stating next year.

 

[NaoTK]

So we have at my parents place a true, blue, American Chestnut (as confirmed by 2 separate Arborist company owners with about a century of experience between them).

Your stipules look Chinese-y, are they still attached? The serration is finer too. https://acf.org/resources/identification/chinese-american-chestnuts/

 

[Haines' Trees]

Your stipules look Chinese-y, are they still attached? The serration is finer too. https://acf.org/resources/identification/chinese-american-chestnuts/

Upon further investigating I found some good resources pointing out morphological differences between Chinese and American. I came to the conclusion that the one pictured above is likely a hybrid. They are still attached to answer your question.

I did find a nursery from which I bought a small number of saplings. I can’t say for sure if they are pure American but they are certainly much more American; more prominent and consistent serration, stipules have fallen off, white speckles (lenticles (sp?)). They tick far more of the boxes

 

[stu929]

There is a handful of known genuine American chestnut trees that have immunity to the chestnut blight. The hybrids are quite common. I have about 40-50 dunstan seedlings growing at the moment. If this one is true American chestnut genetics it may never reach maturity. The American chestnut society is doing great work. Not just to develop hybrids but to also try to isolate the immunity found in those few individual trees that have remained unaffected by the blight. Hopefully one day the American chestnut will return in the forests.

What is your early impression on dunstan ? My Home Depot has about 30 of these trees on clearance for 7 bucks a piece and I was debating grabbing a few to throw in the ground and try to fatten them up and layer them down the road. Wasn’t sure if they would be a decent Bonsai option.

 

[penumbra]

I was to understand that all the blight resistant chestnuts were a result of multiple crosses with Chinese chestnut in an effort to minimize the habits of the Chinese and encourage those of the American chestnut. Even in the case of the Dunstan, I have to wonder if it is a natural cross. I mean this blight has been with us now for 118 years.

 

[stu929]

Like I said I’m a sucker for clearance trees and they had a lot of dustans so I was debating if I should grab one or two.

 

[Veebs]

I just acquired some seedlings from a nearby tree here in Oregon. Apparently Oregon is one place not impacted by blight so we have a population of old trees. We think this particular tree is about 100 years old.
I was reading about these last night and understand in their native range there is a lot of genetic intermixing with chinquipin and more recently Chinese chestnut. https://acf.org/resources/identification/chinese-american-chestnuts/

I like the leaves and plan to bonsai these. I see that they are backbudding on lower nodes which is a good sign. I will cut the tap root and grow in the ground stating next year.

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Would you be willing to sell one of these? I’m getting sketchy results from online vendors. Pretty sure a tree I’ve been growing all year for bonsai is actually a hybrid.

 

[Veebs]

So we have at my parents place a true, blue, American Chestnut (as confirmed by 2 separate Arborist company owners with about a century of experience between them).
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From my understanding, American chestnuts were all but wiped out by chestnut blight (?) but a small grove was found in Virginia, blah blah the dawn redwood story.

I have looked about the inter webs and I’m inclined to believe the professionals. Does anyone know anything about these trees, ie whether they can be propagated easily via grafting or cutting? This tree has been in the ground here for about 4 years and is now happy and established, with about 10 inches of growth this year.

No, I’m not gonna say where they live.

There’s a project funding request out of Clemson you can find online that refers to American Chestnuts as “notoriously recalcitrant” to rooting from cuttings.