Chestnut
(Castanea spp.)
Beautiful, large spreading nut trees, Chestnuts feature long, tropical looking, glossy green foliage and showy cascades of fragrant, yellow male catkins. In the fall you can harvest abundant crops of sweet and nutritious nuts encased in unique, spiny, golden brown balls. Unique among nuts, Chestnuts are high in starch and are delicious roasted or boiled. If you do not eat your nuts shortly after harvest, it is best to refrigerate them in plastic bags to keep them from drying out.
Spacing: most sources recommend planting 35-40' apart. To get higher early yields per acre, they can be planted 20x40 feet apart or even much closer such as 10 feet apart followed by gradual removal of inferior trees as they grow.
Pruning: For best nut production, there should be some space between adjacent tree crowns. In other words when the branches of adjacent trees begin to overlap, it's time to do some pruning or tree removal. When trees are young, it's best to do little or no pruning - let the trees develop as many leaves as they can and grow as fast as they can. As trees get older and start to bear nuts, lower branches can be gradually removed to allow mowing and harvesting. Also, trees should be pruned down to one main stem.
Spacing: most sources recommend planting 35-40' apart. To get higher early yields per acre, they can be planted 20x40 feet apart or even much closer such as 10 feet apart followed by gradual removal of inferior trees as they grow.
Pruning: For best nut production, there should be some space between adjacent tree crowns. In other words when the branches of adjacent trees begin to overlap, it's time to do some pruning or tree removal. When trees are young, it's best to do little or no pruning - let the trees develop as many leaves as they can and grow as fast as they can. As trees get older and start to bear nuts, lower branches can be gradually removed to allow mowing and harvesting. Also, trees should be pruned down to one main stem.
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Colossal Seedling, Chestnut
$14.00 - $19.00
Sold out
These seedlings come from a cross between the Japanese and European Chestnut which makes a beautiful, large (20-25 ft. in height), broad-spreading nut tree. It is prized for it's showy cascades of yellow catkins in June which are followed by abundant crops (50+ lbs.) of large, sweet, high-quality nuts in late September. Colossal is considered to be one of the the highest quality chestnut varieties.
Plant at least two trees within 50 feet of each other for nut production.