Why does no one use Sweet chestnut for bonsai?????

[Carapace]

I have seen a lot of oak bonsai, I have seen TWO sweet chestnut bonsai and one of them was for sale on 15 different sites. I am wondering why I don't see this tree used more, it has a nice leaf shape, the leaves get fairly small, the bark is really nice on older chestnuts.

Is this like a disease issue, or have people just not thought of using this tree.

 

[sorce]

You'll hear excuses and encouragement just the same.
Listen to your own inner voice.

Sorce

 

[Carapace]

You'll hear excuses and encouragement just the same.
Listen to your own inner voice.

Sorce

I am currently growing a chestnut in a pretty tiny pot (3 inch width and 2 inch depth) and I am trying to make it a literati, I gave it a LOT of movement when it was sprouting and I imagine that quite a bit of that movement will disappear with age because of the bark. The leaves are quite big right now because it was it's first year and it still had the chestnut attached which gave it quite a bit of energy.

 

[CrippyFreaky24]

I think the same about black gum and sassafras. I haven’t been able to find people using these trees. Far as I heard, I’ve seen people say sassafras don’t like anything done to roots but nothing on black gum. Both those trees, especially sassafras there’s tons of out here. But I can’t find much on using them.

 

[Carapace]

I think the same about black gum and sassafras. I haven’t been able to find people using these trees. Far as I heard, I’ve seen people say sassafras don’t like anything done to roots but nothing on black gum. Both those trees, especially sassafras there’s tons of out here. But I can’t find much on using them.

I've grown quite a bit of chestnut trees, not for bonsai but for some land I own, and I was basically cutting half it's roots when planting it because I've noticed that the response in spring was a bit stronger.
Sweet chestnuts seem to do quite alright with root work.

 

[rockm]

I think the same about black gum and sassafras. I haven’t been able to find people using these trees. Far as I heard, I’ve seen people say sassafras don’t like anything done to roots but nothing on black gum. Both those trees, especially sassafras there’s tons of out here. But I can’t find much on using them.

Black gum (black tupleo, nyssa sylvatica) isn't used much because it is very hard to collect. Doesn't like root reduction, like sassafras. There are some very nice black gum bonsai around. Guy Guidry had a huge one a while ago. Don't know if he is still doing bonsai at this point, however.

As for chestnut species here in the U.S., it's difficult because of the chestnut blight. They're not readily available either in nature or at nurseries. There is some promising work being done with American Chestnut to build a blight resistant strain.

 

[Carapace]

Black gum (black tupleo, nyssa sylvatica) isn't used much because it is very hard to collect. Doesn't like root reduction, like sassafras. There are some very nice black gum bonsai around. Guy Guidry had a huge one a while ago. Don't know if he is still doing bonsai at this point, however.

As for chestnut species here in the U.S., it's difficult because of the chestnut blight. They're not readily available either in nature or at nurseries. There is some promising work being done with American Chestnut to build a blight resistant strain.

Ok, that finally makes as to why there are like no sweet chestnuts used for bonsai, over here in Romania they are virtually everywhere, you can even find bare root chestnuts in small supermarkets in the dormant period.

 

[rockm]

Ok, that finally makes as to why there are like no sweet chestnuts used for bonsai, over here in Romania they are virtually everywhere, you can even find bare root chestnuts in small supermarkets in the dormant period.

It is a lot hotter here in the U.S. during summer that provides better conditions for the blight. The blight fungus is also entrenched in local chestnuts. We still have the old remains of huge American chestnut trees that still sprout new growth, but once that growth ages a few years, the blight kills it.