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Hybrid Chestnut Seedling main item image
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Hybrid Chestnut Seedling

bare-root trees
Choose an item size to add to your cart.
$26.00
Item: 7545-A
stock details: 2½–5' bare-root trees
$117.00
Item: 7545-B
stock details: 2½–5' bare-root trees
Castanea

40-60' × 30-40' Seed collected from orchards with potential crossings of C. crenata (Japanese), C. mollissima (Chinese) and C. dentata (American).

Great flavor and high annual nut production averaging 20–50 lb per mature tree. Typically begin flowering at age 3–5. Produce well even during harsh droughty conditions. 

These seedlings are sourced from some of the oldest chestnut plantings across the Midwestern U.S. and from a huge diversity of seed sources, climatic conditions, and selection criteria. Selections are made from the most resilient, earliest dropping, and consistently heavy bearing trees. 

Prefers loamy well-drained acidic soil and full sun. Two or more needed for pollination and will cross-pollinate with American chestnuts. Zone 4. 
ships in spring
Quick Details
Hardy to Zone
4
Compare
Compare with other Chestnut
Variety Product Type Hardy to Zone
American Chestnut Seedling bare-root trees 4
Hybrid Chestnut Seedling bare-root trees 4
Chinese Chestnut Seedling bare-root trees 4
Additional Information

Nuts

The nut seedlings we’re offering are grown from nuts harvested from the most productive specimens. Like all seedlings, each one is a little different, and nut quality may vary.

Chestnuts

Delicious sweet chestnuts are an important food for both humans and wildlife. Use them for roasting, stuffing and soups, or dry them to make flour for baked goods. The tree’s profuse fragrant white blossoms feed the pollinators. Lustrous dark green foliage is ribbed and sharp-toothed. Yellow fall color.

Before 1900 the American chestnut was one of the most important deciduous trees in the eastern U.S. Chestnut blight showed up in Brooklyn, NY, in 1904; within 50 years it killed virtually every chestnut tree in the eastern U.S. The blight does not kill the roots however, and rare stands of stump sprouts can still be found. Hybrid chestnuts and Chinese chestnuts are resistant to blight

Chestnuts prefer loamy well-drained acidic soil and full sun. Two or more needed for pollination and all three chestnuts we’re offering this year will cross-pollinate with each other.

Breeding for Blight Tolerance

Learn more about different perspectives on traditional breeding vs. genetically engineered chestnut trees as a strategy for blight tolerance.

Shipping

Items from our perennial plants warehouse ship from early March through mid-to-late May, weather depending, beginning with warmer USDA zones.