Legacy trees: David's chestnut

The chestnut that was given to us from David over at True Blue Sam on his visit a couple of years ago.

It now stands over 2 feet tall. Surrounded by chicken wire and fencing, the rabbits and deer have been kept out.

I'm ready for a Stihl commercial

If it would get me a new trimmer or chain saw, then I'm ready!

I've gone through many gallons of gas through this Stihl FS130 trimmer. It hasn't failed me yet going into our third summer.

While trimming close to one of the trail cameras, this is another one of my mug shots. I'm not making an effort to get these shots but I'm not making an effort to turn off the cameras either.

Along with cutting weeds, I planted another 18 chestnuts in a small section on the east fence last Sunday in time for the rain on Monday.

Chinese Chestnut update

How's the Chinese Chestnut tree that David over at True Blue Sam gave us last fall?:

I was a little worried after our harsh winter but it's doing well. I didn't measure it but it's about 16+ inches tall.

Chestnut update

We planted close to 80 Chinese chestnut seedlings this year and here's one that is doing well:

From nuts that David gave us last fall, I set aside about 100 for planting this year. We had a nearly 100% germination rate from nuts in a peat moss and sand mix that was in a plastic bag left in the bottom of a spare fridge.

In March, I took the now-rooted nuts and planted some in star trays and some in used #2 plastic containers from earlier planting projects. Both types thrived and I've transferred nearly all down to our new "grove" and among the walnuts.

With the number of seedlings that we're planting this year, we haven't caged all of them. Some seedlings were clipped by deer and/or rabbits and some others suffered through the drier weeks. After some timely rains that have come the past couple of weeks, most have responded back with new growth. I'm constantly impressed when a seedling bounces back from the dead.

In a few years, we'll be roasting chestnuts. Thanks, David, for sharing your largesse with us.

Get to work - planting more trees

We received a couple more apple trees from Stark Brothers on Friday and we rushed to get them planted on Saturday before a storm front passed by.

Suncrisp - a cross between golden delicious and an orange pippin, this is supposed to be cold hardy and should store well.

This more than doubles our apple trees, honeycrisp, red and golden delicious, gala and now suncrisp.

The question has been asked of us regarding why planting this many different varieties of apple trees. The short answer is before we invest in dozens of trees for our orchard grove, we want to find out want grows best.

Also on Saturday, we added a couple of concord grape vines next to the neptunes we planted a couple of weeks ago.

Of course, cages all around which is putting a strain on our depleted fence post inventory.

Four more chestnuts were planted on Sunday to bring that total to 13 (so far).

In between planting, weeds needed cutting and I had to oblige. I'm way behind in the weed management department. But the upcoming 3 day weekend might be dry enough for us to get ahead.

Replacements - Pawpaws

We planted 9 pawpaws last fall and we were hoping the harsh winter did not do them in. We were hopeful but cautious since we potted another 12 or so at the homestead and buried them in the garden. I gave up hope this past weekend and nearly dug them all up but we found one of the nine survived. The root structures were pretty much dead.

Not a good survival rate, 1 in 9.

We planted 6 pawpaws over the past couple of weekends as replacements and have two left to transplant. We traded a couple of them to neighbors and lost some to the winter.

Three more chestnuts have been transplanted this week as well.

Our tree count is going up slowly but more could be planted if the weather cooperated. Only 1/10th of an inch of rain during May and we are regularly hauling water to this year's plantings already.

This could be our third season dry season and our concern is growing faster than the wild parsnip on the acreage.

Spring planting update, 3/16/14

As of 3/16, we have 35 chestnut sprouts from 55 nuts potted on 2/22:

And the red oak are breaking ground after initial planting on 2/22 and 3/1:

Our small "forest" numbers about 200 acorns and nuts planted so far in the basement. As the frost is below 6 inches at the acreage, I planted 20 black oak acorns (10 on 3/9 and 10 on 3/15) and 5 coffeetree nuts on 3/15.

No signs of white oaks or chestnuts that I planted in the ground last fall. Yeah, I know it's way too early, but I'm impatient and want some progress.  

Spring planting - getting ready

In the crisper tray of a basement refrigerator is where I have acorns, chestnuts and a few other seeds, some of which were stored in bags of peat moss. While always in the back of my mind, I haven't made a habit of peaking in our stash.

On Saturday I discovered that a good majority of the red and black oak acorns had germinated:

Now it's time to think about getting them in the ground soon, except the ground is frozen down to 24". The next best thing is to put them in dirt in planters. I was impressed with the star trays that we received the aronia plants in, and I purchased a few for this purpose. The trays that came with the aronias are currently in the garden filled with white oak acorns (with hardware cloth covering to keep the critters out.)

I put the nuts in a peat moss/sand mix and gave them a good soaking. These are placed under a south facing window near a heat vent.

Since nearly all of the chestnuts germinated as well, some with an inch plus root, I planted some of those in a tray and a few extra pots. Those 32oz drink cups from the convenient store work very well for planters. 

Potted this past weekend: 45 red oak, 38 black oak, 52 chestnut.

2013 Fall Planting Update

In mid-October we planted all the seedlings that David aka Sam delivered up to us. A couple of swamp white oak, a couple of catalpa and what ended up with 5 Kentucky coffeetree (a few volunteers were in the pots). The chestnut is planted in what is our new grove. I planted 5 more chestnut nuts so I think that qualifies as a grove.

The catalpa are framing the cedars as "bookends" on the west and the coffeetrees were added to the row with our showcase tree and to a couple of other rows with smaller coffeetrees. The swamp white oak were planted in the last row next to the willows.

Of course. all were caged with woven wire and chicken wire or hardware cloth to prevent the large and small vermin from doing damage.

Catalpa:

Swamp white oak:

Tree number one of the chestnut grove:

I planted 51 swamp white oak acorns up the bottom three rows using an old brass planting stick. I have 100+ planted in planters in the back yard of the homestead.

50 black oak acorns are planted in the northern three rows at the farm. Another 190 black oak acorns are in a bag of peat moss in the bottom of a fridge in the basement.

I have a couple of tubs buried in the garden that I sowed aronia seeds and planters that have paw paw seedlings and hard maple seeds that fell this fall from my neighbor's tree.

After a few more chestnuts get in the ground, I think I've just about finished with the fall planting.

Acorn and chestnut inventory, 10/08/13

Last week I received about 500 red oak acorns from Acorno.com. They're supposed to have come from Iowa, but I'll have to take them at their word. I still ended up with about 500 after floating them and at a price less than what they currently list. The reason for ordering was that my local trees had none. Not a single acorn from any of the red oak trees that I know of that are easily accessible.

About 300 swamp white oak acorns from a local college campus. Floating was about 80-90 percent successful. The four trees had a good crop this year and I've been battling the squirrels to get at them. A couple of the locals aren't too happy with me taking their food supply.

The black oak inventory nearly doubled to 39 acorns on Monday after I stopped to pick up #2 son on campus and I went to my source. This one tree sits very close to a linden and I picked up a few dozen of those seeds to try my hand with. Only about 5% of the acorns have been viable after floating. I've been checking this tree for the past month to try to increase my numbers and only getting a couple of good acorns on each visit.

I get some strange looks as I pick up acorns and seeds from around campus. I'm thinking of wearing a tuxedo while picking but someone is sure to call security and I'd rather not be chased about by net-carrying guys in white coats.

David aka True Blue Sam and his mom, Bea, stopped by and dropped off at least 2 gallons of Chinese chestnuts. With a very good flavor, some of them will not make it to the tree farm. But I have a planned spot where the chestnut grove will be and I'll be getting some in the ground this fall. With his generosity, I have several to experiment with to see what works best for my ground.

Here's the inventory:

 From left to right - swamp white oak, Chinese chestnuts, red oak and black oak.

We have a good supply for this year's fall planting and for spring. An old fridge in the basement now holds our inventory and the "crisper" drawer is a little full.