Whats a sea urchin doing in the woods?

[Splinter]

 Neighbor was walking his woods and found what looked like a sea urchin.

Guess what he has growing..........

[mad murdock]

????? ??? ??? ???

[HousewrightVA]

American Chestnut

[Splinter]

Housewright got it.

ACF was out to see it and will be pollinating in the spring.
9" dbh. No sign of blight.

Pretty cool. Have to keep an eye out on my place for one. Cause there is one on another abutter as well.

Southeastern NH .

[HousewrightVA]

9" is pretty big. Thats a very good thing to see. We have a good number of them but they are all very small.

[Okrafarmer]

That is exciting. That means there is hope. We took down some Chinese chestnut earlier this year.

[SwampDonkey]

Beech could fit the bill also. But, I'm sure they know what tree species it is. I was just giving my guess. ;D




Beech spreads like burdocks around here. ;D

[Splinter]

Housewright,

Make sure they don't get shaded out and they will keep sprouting and dying.
Might need some of that genetic diversity down the line, even if its not blight resistant. Some work being done inoculating chestnut trees with a virus weakened blight which doesn't seem to kill the trees and will allow them to get to seed-bearing age.

D

[cutterboy]

I have quite a lot of Chestnut on my farm in north central Massachusetts. The roots send up shoots that grow nicely till they get to be 2-4 inches in diameter and then they suddenly die. The roots send up new shoots and the cycle goes on. I never saw any of them produce nuts. I guess they die too young. One of them got to 6 inches in diameter and about 25-30 feet tall and I was getting excited but it died without producing nuts. :'(

Splinter, it's really nice to know there is a producing tree within 50-60 miles from me. thanks for your post.
           RALPH

[Splinter]

http://www.accf-online.org/Blight/Control/integrat.html

hypovirulence article