Chinese chestnut

“ Chinese chestnuts are hardy from Maine to Florida. I think they winter kill because of unhealthy condition of the tree. The place that I did live, at McLean, Virginia, was low in a frosty place, and the first spring they killed back three times before they took off. Where I live now in the Blue Ridge Mountains, which is orchard country, the Chinese chestnut killed back in the spring, but there is nothing the matter with their winter hardiness. They stand winter cold as good as a walnut tree. ”

“ Being isolated and outside of the native chestnut range, they have not blighted.
Since 1906, the Government has imported many thousand seed chestnuts from China. Later, it distributed little trees among the nut growers in an effort to re-establish chestnut growing in this country. This Chinese chestnut is blight-resistant. The best Chinese seedlings have been selected for propagation and have been named; of these I have Stoke (a hybrid) , Hobson, Carr and several others. They are very prolific and often set burs the same year set out. ”

“ Private nurseries and State game and forestry departments are now growing these chestnuts and the Division of Forest Pathology has discontinued general distribution of trees to cooperators.
Chinese chestnuts have proved to be the most valuable for forest, orchard and ornamental use. The Japanese chestnut is being discriminated against because of the poor quality of its nuts. Orchardists having mixed plantings containing Japanese chestnuts are advised to top work the trees or remove them, if the seed is to be used for plantings. ”

“ In the Gulf States and northward along the Atlantic seaboard the Chinese chestnut tree is vigorous, healthy, and productive, coming into bearing at a fairly early age and thereafter producing regular crops. The trees grow to be rather large in size, developing a somewhat rounded form with a spread of branches about equal to the height. Without pruning when young many sprouts usually develop near the ground so that the mature tree has numerous trunks of about equal size, with the lower lateral branches resting on the ground. ”

“ I'd like to point out that research work is being started in Europe that is going to be very valuable to us. They are now working on the Chinese chestnuts on a very large scale, starting in Yugoslavia, France, Switzerland, and they are already doing quite a bit of breeding work in Spain and Portugal along these lines. The things that they develop, will be Chinese chestnut hybrids so they are going to have the same problems in Europe working with the chestnuts that we have here. In the past they have been working entirely with the European chestnut. ”

“ The Chinese chestnut grows well throughout the southern part of the natural range of the American chestnut and southward to the Gulf Coast, and possibly even into central Florida. Farther north it apparently grows and produces better crops along the Atlantic Coast than inland, thus indicating the need of this species for a long growing season and freedom from late spring and early fall frosts. In the plantings in Georgia, from Atlanta to the southward, no loss of crop from late spring frosts has ever been noted. ”

“ All Asiatic chestnut species that have been tested have failed at Orange, Massachusetts, where the American chestnut grew in abundance. In southeastern South Carolina, where the several species of native chinkapin thrive, some of them attaining a height of 20 feet, the Asiatic species have largely failed. On the other hand in northern Indiana and southeastern Iowa, entirely outside the botanical range of the American chestnut, a few Chinese strains have done remarkably well. (2) The Chinese chestnuts have a much wider range adaptability to site than the Japanese chestnuts ”

“ The Chinese chestnut should be planted on sites with good air drainage as it is very susceptible to injury from early-fall or late-spring freezes. Many persons think their trees have been killed by the blight when the primary cause of the trouble was injury to the trunk by freezing followed by growth of the blight organism over the injured parts. This fungus may grow for many years in the outer layers of the bark without doing any material damage to the tree. An important factor in resistance of the Chinese chestnuts to the blight is to keep the trees growing vigorously. ”

“ The most hopeful indications for chestnut in North America in the future lie along the line of breeding experiments. Since the blight is our worst enemy, work on the development of varieties immune to this is of the highest value. It has long been known that certain Japanese forms are somewhat resistant to the blight, and the disease is comparatively inconspicuous on the Chinese chestnut, on which it has recently been found. [20] Fortunately work on hybridization of chestnut species had been started long before the blight was discovered in this country. ”

“ Speaking of breeding material, we have six sorts for breeding purposes in the shape of seeds of this very species of Chinese chestnut on which the disease occurs in China. The nut of that tree is of very high quality and good size, and, so far as I can tell, quite as sweet as the American chestnut. If there is no more disease on the trees in this climate than there is in China it would be a very practical tree to grow, as far as we know. ”

“ So far these have shown themselves to be quite tender varieties. I do not consider the chestnut worthwhile because of the constant threat that if a grove should be started it might soon have the blight in it.
I have several Chinese chestnut seedlings which are making a fairly good growth and in time may become productive trees.
We have one hybrid white oak which has an edible kernel but out of about one hundred nuts you might get one wholesome one free from weevils. The tree is very old and is rapidly declining. The nut is small but the tree is quite prolific. ”

“ Very few of these first seedlings of the Chinese chestnuts showed much promise although a few of them were fairly satisfactory.
Several old Japanese chestnut trees have been observed. One of these is estimated to be 50 years of age with a trunk diameter of 18 inches and a height of about 50 feet. It is growing in a very fertile spot and heavy crops in the past have broken its limbs. Chinkapins growing nearby appeared to have supplied pollen. Recently the nearest chinkapins were cleared away and hence at present the nuts fail to fill well. ”

“ They call them varieties. They are not varieties. That's the situation. Most all of them are different, but they have accomplished the fixing of certain characteristics.
Now, in South China the nuts are larger in size, they are stronger growing trees than they are in the North. I think that we will find that that's the situation in this country. The Chinese chestnut is one that does have a high heat requirement, just like pecan, and grown under conditions where they have high heat they are bigger in size and make more growth and probably they come into bearing sooner. ”

“ The Chinese chestnut cannot withstand a high water table, or free standing water, but appears to be somewhat resistant to drought injury when once well established. The chestnut trees have not yet reached an age at which their largest potential size has been attained, but trees of 50-foot spread have been observed. It appears likely, then, that orchards should be planted at 50 to 60-foot distances on the square, unless closer planting and subsequent thinning is resorted to in order to build up high nut production per acre at an earlier age of the orchard. ”

“ Though many people dislike the Japanese chestnuts, they are at least productive and hardy (at my place) . Their chief attribute is their possibility as food for stock and wildlife. Some of the same people who dislike them (among nurserymen) recommend planting oaks which certainly do not compare with C. crenata. When a very "sweet" acorn is found it is proclaimed to be "as good as Japanese chestnut."
The Chinese chestnut has its faults here. It is not very thrifty in growth here and as a rule doesn't bear until late. It is not very productive and the nuts spoil easily. ”

“ The Chinese chestnut is largely, although apparently not wholly, self sterile; more than a single seedling or grafted variety should be included in any planting. Several seedlings or several varieties would be better. In seedling plantings, all trees that produce inferior nuts should be removed in order to avoid danger of undesirable pollen influence, either on nut characters, or on the genetic makeup of the embryos if the nuts are to be used as seed.
Harvesting and Curing
Chestnuts should be harvested daily as soon as some begin to ripen and drop to the ground. ”

“ The chief aim of this breeding work, which has been carried on now without interruption since 1930, is to develop a tall timber type of chestnut by breeding the American species with the blight resistant but comparatively low-growing Japanese and Chinese chestnuts, Castanea crenata and C. mollissima, respectively. Practically all trees of our valuable American chestnut of any appreciable size have now been killed to the ground by the blight fungus, Endothia parasitica. ”

“ Site and Soil.+ The most successful trees from the standpoint of growth and production were those growing on fertile, well drained soil in which moisture was plentiful. The Chinese chestnut tree appears to be shallow rooted and to require good growing conditions. Dry ridges were unfavorable for growth, and in bottom land the trees frequently were subjected to late spring freezing of tender shoots.
2. Blight injury to the trees and weevil damage to the nuts seemed to be the most serious enemies of chestnuts. Seedlings varied considerably in their resistance to blight. ”

“ If is encouraging to note that many of the present new plantings in the Southeast are being made by orchardists rather than hobbyists. Many home owners are planting a few trees but the acceptance of the Chinese chestnut for commercial production by men already growing other orchard crops portends the future success of the industry. The hobbyist has been of great service and should be given full credit for his far-sighted interest in a crop that now has commercial promise, especially in the Southeast. ”

“ Thus Carr, which has presented incompatibility with certain stocks of C. mollissima at other places, grew on these trees, and Colossal, compatible on another C. mollissima tree, failed on trees which are apparently compatible with Carr. The Chinese chestnut species varies in its graft-compatibilities possibly as much as in other characteristics (growth, productivity, size and quality of nuts, etc.) so that nut nurserymen should begin to select their seed for chestnut understocks with a view toward getting strains with a greater degree of compatibility to the leading scion varieties. ”

“ No summary of disease injury has been taken, but probably over 80 per cent of the trees show [Pg 19] infection many of which are making attempts to heal which are often very successful. This species is native to Eastern China and has long been accustomed to the Endothia fungus, developing in the course of time a very considerable degree of resistance to it. From present appearances the Chinese chestnut may be grown in orchard form with no greater loss from disease than the pear from its particular form of blight. ”

“ Some of these trees are still growing and bearing good crops of nuts and have reached rather large size. The distribution of trees produced from nuts imported at subsequent intervals was continued by the U. S. Department of Agriculture until rather widely scattered planting of several species under varied soil, climatic, and cultural conditions was attained. As time passed it became clear that only the Chinese chestnut had promise as a commercial crop for the production of nuts. As a timber tree none of the introduced species has as yet shown outstanding merit. ”

“ There are thousands of people in the United States who are spending good money for seedling trees, and some of them are going to get stung. We in the Northern Nut Growers Association are going to have this thing backfire on us, just as true as I tell you. I know there are some nurserymen today that are planting unknown chestnut seeds, and they are selling the trees as Chinese chestnut. ”

“ Named varieties are difficult to propagate, the nursery plants expensive, and stock-scion incompatability may occur; but the trees and nuts are uniform. Seedlings serve a useful purpose in developing new varieties; but with more planting of superior varieties and a fuller understanding of propagation methods, and of cultural care, chestnut growing on a commercial scale may be more likely to become a reality.
+Future Prospects+
For the present, at least, it appears that growing Chinese chestnuts may be limited to small specialty plantings rather than any large commercial enterprise. ”

“ Chestnut trees from China are generally light producers; but out of the total of several hundred at Bell, several this year have borne good crops. The flavor of the nuts is sometimes sweet, but oftener, otherwise; yet the average is superior to that of the Japanese chestnuts produced in the same orchard. Fortunately, it happens that the nuts from some of the trees of Chinese species which have been most prolific during the past season, have proved to be of high quality, comparing favorably in this respect with the native sweet chestnut. ”

“ In handling chestnuts that you people handle maybe in small or large quantities where all of your time can be devoted to that particular thing, you probably have a lot of things that you do that we don't have time to do because at the nursery in West Virginia we are interested primarily in producing conifers and other forest trees for the reforestation of abandoned land. So in handling this Chinese chestnut as a game food we are working on a sideline. We have to pick it up as fast as we can do the job and do as much as we can and learn about as much as we can. ”