You may remember that last Autumn I asked my good friend José for a few Marsol Chestnuts. Marsol is the only variety of Chestnut that can be grown successfully from the sowing of actual nuts; all other varieties need to be grafted.
I sowed three in a pot (above), and one directly in the ground (below).
All have taken, and are looking extremely healthy. I now need to decide whether to plant the three pot grown trees out into the open as well; we do have the room.
If all four trees remained un-ravaged by insects or disease, and grew to produce crops, then between them they could generate an annual income of between €200 and €300 (at today's price). I'm sure a 10 year old Boo Boo would happily spend a couple of days gathering the nuts, in exchange for such a sum.
But; with all the disease around, I really wonder if it's worth it. I'll see what Wills thinks when he returns from his travels.
26 comments:
Great shade trees too...under the spreading chestnut tree, and all that. Knew that was a line from a verse but couldn't remember the rest and just googled it. Longfellow. Quite a 'bracing' sort of poem. Great for reading aloud.
You're right, if grown individually in the open they make great shade trees; they also give you wonderful nuts too.
We would plant them out and then let them take their chances. I would love a chestnut tree here but it would have to be planted out in the field, where it is likely to be eaten by the sheep and cows....this is from experience because we have tried already!
Go on, you know you'll do it..
Our paddock is uninhabited, so any nuts would only be eaten by deer, boar, badgers, or us. It's worth taking the chance, I think.
Of course. There's nothing I like more than tree planting.
Take a chance indeed Cro - after the effort of sowing the things you might as well see what happens next. Definitely protect them from the deer etc. who may very well like the young succulent leaves too.
To plant trees and watch them grow steadily over years is one of my favourite pass times. Let them take their chances.
I'll persuade Wills to let me plant them, he has no other use for the paddock.
Me too Kev. I must have planted hundreds over the years.
It's always nice to have your own trees. If you get fed up with them you can chop them down for firewood.
Are Chestnut trees fast growing?
And we always need firewood.
They would probably start giving nuts in about 7 years time.
Don't forget, Cro, that a seed grown "species" plant is less likely to be hit by disease than the grafted ones which are all clones of an original.
Plant them out as an investemnt in the future, be it for shade, or nuts, or both.
Anyway... it will also be a very good lesson for an infant to watch a tree growing from seed!
I've pretty much decided to plant all four trees, apart from anything it will certainly look good. If they supply plenty of nuts it will be a bonus.
Do go ahead and plant out those chestnut plants. It's great that they have gotten off to such a good start. I hope that you'll give us progress reports from time to time.
Best wishes.
Seven years? That's a blink of an eye. PLANT!
Watch this space.
I will, this autumn.
My grandfather and I used to pick up pecans on his property and sell them. He had three big trees that produced loads of nuts.
Here the two big cash crop nuts are Chestnuts and Walnuts.
Now that I've caught up with your posts and caught up with everything from the heatwave to the economics of buying jeans (even expensive ones to buy are usually made in sweatshops somewhere: the profits rarely go to the labour making them) you have reminded me that I haven't made chestnut soup for a while. That's job for this weekend methinks.
Picked up a bit of information from one of the fruit/nut tree growers on the downsizer forum...." Named cultivars are usually propagated by root layering and species plants are either from seed or layered.
Grafting may happen in the USA where they have huge issues with a disease that has almost wiped out their native species, but not sure."
Hope that might be of a little help!
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looking forward to seeing these trees growing.
a little more info from ds
"Chestnut blight—a devastating disease of the American chestnut tree (Castanea dentata) that in the early 1900s nearly wiped out all of the population in the US. But it also affects the European Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa). But as with our ash dieback there are a number of resistant strains.
In my experience freshly harvested nuts can be sown directly into pots if they are kept in the greenhouse, and they shoot no problem. Watch out for mice. If the seeds are dried, as you go further into the year, they will not germinate. The fact that some are growing now (autumn) normally means they have been kept dampish and in the cool. Unless you can keep them in a greenhouse over the winter, they will die, as the stem will not have hardened.
The other thing to watch out for, is that any new leaves produced must be shaded from the sun, as you will get leaf burn.
If any one interested in different grafting methods of sweet chestnuts have a check at my blog at http://www.gb-online.co.uk/gb-wordpress/?p=1425 "
I think he might be a commercial tree grower, but certainly knows his trees
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We also have that American disease here, so along with the new invasive tiny wasp it looks as if we're fighting a losing battle. Anyway I shall plant mine, and see what happens. Thanks for the info.
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