walnut and american chestnut

[W]

Is it possible that walnut protects chestnut from the blight?  We were working in Rocky Hill, CT amongst a ton of walnut trees and we noticed that there were 5 or 6 american chestnuts around us.  We used three tree id books to confirm that it was A.  chestnut.  I've heard of herbicidal properties of walnut, and it occurred to me that maybe they were protecting the chestnuts.  Any thoughts?

w

[WDH]

Never heard of such a thing.  I think the fungal spores that attack the chestnut are airborne and are also carried by critters that visit the chestnut trees.  Interesting theory.  How walnut might help in such a case is hard to figure.

[W]

Fungi tend to grow in the soil and the walnut is well known for killing competing trees in it general area.  A different customer told of an orchard that couldn't survive until he cut down the walnut tree uphill from the orchard.  After that the orchard grew successfully.

w

[Dodgy Loner]

Walnut produces the chemical juglone, which is an effective herbicide on many plant species.  It doesn't act as a fungicide as far as I'm aware.  Also, like WDH said, the spores that cause chestnut blight are airborne and can affect trees over very long distances, which is why it spread so fast.  I don't think walnut would have any protective effect on chestnuts.  There are thousands of locations from Georgia to Maine that still have many chestnuts around, though they are rarely more than 8" in diameter and 40' tall.  How big are the trees you found?

[W]

two closest to us were 12-14 " dbh, maybe 30-40 ft tall.  they branched out low at 12-15 ft.  we didn't walk the woods, but you could see quite a few out there.

w

[Phorester]

As other foresters have said, I don't think the walnuts are protecting the chestnuts.  If they don't yet have the blight, there has to be another reason.

[Dodgy Loner]

A group of American chestnuts that large is rare and special, regardless of why they are still there.  They might have a hypovirulent (less destructive) strain of the blight, they might have a small amount of natural blight resistance (though it's never been proven that any American chestnuts have natural resistance) or they might just be lucky (that's my guess.).

If you are certain that they are American chestnuts, and not Chinese, Japanese, or European chestnuts or Allegheny chinkapins, then you might want to report them to the American Chestnut Foundation.  They are always looking for mature trees from which to collect pollen to use in their breeding programs.  Their goal is to introduce a blight-resistant American chestnut to introduce back into eastern forests, and they are well on their way.  You could be a part of something special by helping them out!

[Phorester]

"they branched out low at 12-15 ft"

Do you mean branches came out at this height and the tree remained a single trunk, or do you mean the trunk forked into more than one trunk at that height?

[Ron Wenrich]

I have seen American chestnut that is 12-14" dbh, and have seen the stump of one that was probably 20-22" dbh. 

I remember sitting in a meeting with one of the higher ups in the state forestry department.  Their feeling was that the American chestnut would eventually develop resistance to the blight, on its own.  They also felt it would take about 4-500 years. 

What you're seeing is some of this resistance that is building up in areas that have had blight for quite some time.  Eventually most of these trees will develop the blight and die.  The next generation will just be bigger.

Back at the turn of the past century, there were lots of European and Chinese chestnut orchards around.  A lot of the native stock has crossed with these strains.  Chestnut pollen will travel a very long way.

What the American Chestnut Foundation has done is speed up the progress through genetics.  I think they're pretty close to having trees available. 

[LeeB]

Will chestnuts grow in Arkansas and is it far enough away from the diseased areas to help the tree's get established? I wouldn't mind leaving something good for the future generations.

[Ron Wenrich]

The range map shows that Arkansas is out of the natural range.  But, it also shows that Wisconsin is out of the range, and it grows there, as well as the UP of Michigan.  There are also specimens that are growing on the west coast.

I don't see any reason why you couldn't grow them there.  They are in the oak family (Fagaceae).  But, I would wait for the more resistant stock to become available in the next 5-10 years, just to be on the safe side.

[farmerdoug]

A MSU professor Dennis Fulbright and staff have successfully introduced a virus from Europe that weakens the blight and allows the chestnut tree to contain its wounds and heal over it.  He started work on it in the 80's thru the early 90's but could not see an improvement so dropped the program.  This last summer a researcher from Wisconson was interested in his tests so they met at the site.  Much to the Professor amazement the trees were growing quite nicely and many had overcome the blight.  This is on the Lake Michigan shoreline.  So there is good hope quite soon for the American chestnut. 8)

Farmerdoug

[Larry]

Will chestnuts grow in Arkansas and is it far enough away from the diseased areas to help the tree's get established? I wouldn't mind leaving something good for the future generations.

The chestnut blight also killed off ozark chinquapin, so are area does have the disease.

Interesting article about the chinquapin here.

Ozark Chinquapin

I believe I stumbled on some stump sprouts about a month ago.  Thought I would go back with the camera to let you guys prove me wrong...or maybe right.   I thought I found some about two years ago...and was wrong.

There is a mill over in Farmington that has chinquapin lumber...some 12" wide.  Not for sale...he just keeps it on hand to make people like me drool.

[pineywoods]

Got a small one in my back yard. A few years back, the state forestry people found a grove that were either immune to the chestnut blight or had escaped the disease. they planted a bunch of seeds and sold the small saplings.  I got 3, only 1 survived. It is big enough to bear fruit, but the bush-tailed rats got the crop this year

[WDH]

Larry, I enjoyed the article.  Never new about Ozark chinquapin.

Pineywoods,  is yours the Allegheny or the Ozark chinquapin?

[pineywoods]

Pineywoods,  is yours the Allegheny or the Ozark chinquapin?

I don't have the foggiest idea  ??? didn't know there are 2 kinds

Of the 3 seedlings I got, one was a scrawny deformed mess. That's the one that survived.

from the looks of it, I'm guessing it was a graft.

[SwampDonkey]

A MSU professor Dennis Fulbright and staff have successfully introduced a virus from Europe that weakens the blight and allows the chestnut tree to contain its wounds and heal over it.  He started work on it in the 80's thru the early 90's but could not see an improvement so dropped the program.  This last summer a researcher from Wisconson was interested in his tests so they met at the site.  Much to the Professor amazement the trees were growing quite nicely and many had overcome the blight.  This is on the Lake Michigan shoreline.  So there is good hope quite soon for the American chestnut. 8)

Farmerdoug

Apparently the research that led to that hypovirulent strain of the blight was done by a couple French scientists who sent it to the Connecticut Station in 1972. And by a series of steps, new strains were developed that arrested the growth of the fungus on American Chestnut.

[Source: Textbook of Dendrology 6th Ed, 1979 in reference to Jaynes, R. A. New Hope for the American Chestnut. Conn. Woodlands 40:3-5, 1975-1976].

Subscription and back issue information for Connecticut Woodlands Magazine

[Dale Hatfield]

We have 2 pretty large  Am. Chestnut trees here in my home town. That have 2 Butternuts  next to them . They will recieve a award this year as being the largest A.C. in the state . Poor things have everything against them.  growing in an alley  between to buildings. Power/phone/cable lines run  amuck  in them. I took them on as a class project fo my students to clean up after. The home owner contacted me to remove them because of the mess they make.They are safe as long as we clean up after them each year.
dale

[letemgrow]

Will chestnuts grow in Arkansas and is it far enough away from the diseased areas to help the tree's get established? I wouldn't mind leaving something good for the future generations.

Arkansas was the natural range of the ozark chinquapin.  They look just like chestnuts, but only have one seed per bur like the Allegheny chinquapin  You can get more info on the tree from:

www.ozarkchinquapin.com