Kitchen Garden Forum

I have a bag of sweet chestnuts which I bought before Christmas. What temperature storage treatment should they have before sowing them - in individual pots?.
Last year I had no luck at all with the thirty or so that I sowed. Most of the lot I sowed in 2005 grew ok.

In the absence of better information I would try to do what comes naturally, that is pot them up and put them outside to get the winter chill to break the dormancy (vernalisation?). Otherwise, maybe some of them you could keep indoors and see what happens when the temperatures rise.

Not quite warm enough here to grow sweet chestnuts - wish we could.

There may be some useful information here (US site).

http://chestnut.cas.psu.edu/Procedures/planting.htm

Go n'éirí an t-ádh leat
Good luck.

Alan, you surprise me. I know for sure of them growing in Surrey, surely in your position you would get help from the Gulf Stream.

Allan

They grow but don't fruit - which is the important bit. Wish they did. It would be great for my wife who used to collect them to supplement her boarding school diet in Godalming Surrey many years ago.

Alan

A couple of years ago I sowed three of them in 3 inch pots when they were freshly picked up from a neighbour's verge just after they had fallen. I just left the pots outside during winter sheltering under some shrubs. They all germinated and as my garden is sadly too small for them to grow adequately, I'm going to sneak off somewhere in the nearby countryside and plant them. The tree from which they came, as well as the house, have now sadly been destroyed and built on by a developer, so hopefully a little memory of what used to be there will soon be living on elsewhere.

The sweet chestnuts we picked up in Esher woods were usable but not all that big, not like the chestnuts that one buys. It is a famous spot, there is a preserved signal tower there from the old days if the chain between London and Portsmouth for Naval purposes.

Thank you all who replied to my query. All points noted. I'll let you know later in the year how many of the nuts I sow grow.

Dear All,
I grew some chestnuts from seed a couple of years ago and they are now about a foot high. Alas I haven't room for them. The tree they came from was around 20-25 years old and the fruit were full sized. If anyone in the Cambridge area would like one or more of these, they are more than welcome to them. Please contact me off list.
Regards Sally Wright.

I am also surprised that Alan Refail cannot get the fruit to cropping size. My mother lives in Nottinghamshire and her parish has Sweetchestnut trees planted along the parish boundary...there are four or more within 500 yards of her house. These fruit wonderfully every year and they colder winter and regularly get snow, however summer are drier and warmer than in Wales. Also the trees are ancient...no idea of their age but some could hide the whole Robinhood gang...and probably did!

Most of the shop bought Chestnuts come from Italy and are bigger than the UK grown ones....If these are used as seed I don't know whether they would fruit as well as a native Chestnut???

Following on from my message to the forum in January,I sowed about twenty sweet chestnuts.
About fourteen of them are growing - in individual pots. The tallest is eight inches tall. I would have more plants but I fear the pots were robbed by some animal or bird. The pots were outside and uncovered.

Hi Sammy,
As Sally quite rightly says they will commence fruiting in about 25 years time. There is a Sweet Chestnut tree in the centre of the next village to me and it is sure to be best part of 100 years old and I always have about 10lbs for Christmas. I only take that which I will use and the tree must produce a few hundred pounds of nuts and plenty for those who want them.
There is another tree in a garden closer to me which is just beginning to produce nuts and that is about 25 years old. So lets hope you are around to benefit from your labours.
JB.

Hi Sammy

Last winter I planted 30 seedling chestnuts (for coppice poles in 20 years time!) which I bought as bare root transplants (3-4 feet high) for 50p each from our local forestry nursery. I expect that these will mostly have poor quality nuts.

I also planted, (and intend to plant many more this year) 7 grafted chestnuts - named varieties, which are guaranteed to have good nuts. These will fruit lightly within five years, and will havve decnt crops by 15 years. The named varieties tend to have single large nuts in their case, as opposed to 3 nuts (1 medium 2 small) which is usual in the seedlings.

Last october I went to see 14 year old grafted trees which were cropping well - a bucketful a day for 2 weeks plus).

If you definitely want nuts, I advise buying a grafted plant - the variety 'Marigoule' is recommmended (and sold)by Agroforestry Research Trust.

Mole

Hi Mole,
How interesting. I take it that the BR transplants would be large enough or may even be too large to take a graft. It should be therefore possible to take scions from the young fruited plant you viewed and have a crack at grafting some of your own. All you have to do is to talk the owner of the fruiting tree into allowing you to take a few scions. They may even be budded. Certainly I will have to read up as to the best method of grafting. If you know which method is used you might tip me the wink so to speak.
Thank you.
JB.

Hi Johnboy

Alas, the man with the cropping trees is the man who sold me the grafted trees. I don't think he will give me scion wood for obvious reasons.

I did actually try to graft 5 of my br seedlings with wood cut from side branches of the grafted variety. Unfortunately they failed, although one did shoot from the scion for a while. Both scion and rootstock seemed quite chunky to me. I tried a basic whip graft as is used for apples (the growers I know don't bother with tongues anymore since the advent of stretchy grafting tape). This type of graft is advised by the recent RHS book I have. Most other books (and the internet sources) seem to advise on side veneer grafting. I have been told by one grower that chestnuts work well if the graft is kept warm, but also are best grown in the soil - conditions which seem to be almost mutually exclusive to me!

I have been told of relatively cheap a source of grafted chestnuts in France - I will let you know when I find out more.
I intend to plant many more, as 3 of our 12 acres are south facing slope which is almost too steep to cultivate.

Have you done side veneer grafts before? My experience of grafting is restricted to fruit trees - whip (and tongue) and cleft/rind grafting.

regards

Mole