Mossy oak sent me an Email. They are having a 50% off rapid mast blight resistant chestnuts. 12 for 59+ with 9.99 shipping. Must take by March 1. They are plugs that you can pot up and plant in fall . Or pot up and plant in spring. Now I've bought mine in 3 gal. Pots . That cost 39.00 dollars per plant. They actually have a burr or two at planting. These little plugs will grow fast and fruit early if planted well and protected. If you dont have tubes a hard ware clothe tube wrapped in burlap with protect the seedling.just cap in a piece of hardware cloth to keep mice from nesting in the tube,then fence against deer. So good time to buy I can't link from this but mossy oak nursery Trees on rt are chestnut hill and mossy oak and have been producing well for 2-4 years
So I called and put in my order. Got some info on repotting . They use a mulched pine needle medium porus. No water retention crystles and on the acidic side, tip to have. So a rhododendron type medium. But remember they will need watering regularly. These are coffee cup sized dormant plugs. You can transplant in one to three gal. pots to keep to your best planting time. If you plant good luck and enjoy. These may take two to three seasons to produce well.
I have taken your advice and ordered as well from Mossy Oak. I will try and keep them alive better this season. My property is 4 hours away, so I will need to keep them in pots for the first year. Do you have experience with how much direct sunlight and water is recommended as young trees?
When I called today I went to the nursery and spoke with a very nice guy tbere. I wish I'd written down his name. He answered all my questions and said one was a very good one . " What medium did you start them in? " That's when he told me a shredded pine needle/bark that is porous and on the acidic side. That is the type you want to pot in not miracle grow type commercial . Thus the rhododendron type mix . I have the utility line guys drop their dump trucks of chopped trees much of it pine, off on our place. I allow it to cook for 3-4 years and use it to mulch my blue berries. Free mulch. They will need regular watering. Remote can be many gal milk jugs with pin hole or two. Heat from sun expands the air in he bottle allowing the water to be forced out. Mulch away from trunk, keeps evaporation down. . This said, that least weekly deep watering is important to develop a deep root system for a healthy tree. My trees are in a sandy loam that is on the lower PH side. NOT very low now because I do lime. But not the 3000#'s per acre suggested. A few bags of pelleted lime each year for shallow plants. So if you can put them in 3 gal. Pots and baby them at home until fall you should have much more success. Fall is a cool down of air and soil, less evaporation they are starting their natural dormancy proccess. If your lucky a bit more rain that eventually goes into snow. Definitely much more night/ morning dew despite rain fall. Oh. I live in the woods so they get filtered light most of the day but with it being winter I have a picture window that is bright but not direct in winter even though facing south west. Usually I do my starts on a large coffee table there ..looks like the trees will take most of that space lined on either side by 2 fig trees I winter inside, one has figs. You never want your pots to get over heated being usually blk. Geez one more thing. Never count your trees out . Tops can die back but roots still be viable and send up shoots some time later.
Thanks for the heads up on this! Just placed my order for two dozen. I am anything but a green thumb, so I'll be researching how to best keep them until I'm able to plant in the spring. Looking to do quite a bit of planting on our property this year, with a mix of chestnuts, oaks, and some fruit trees, so I better learn quickly! Appreciate all the insight and knowledge that you guys are able to lend on here.
I'm sorry but you're saying in two to three years these plugs will produce....you sure about this or are these a hybrid variant of chestnuts I've never heard of? (very possible, this is not a claim you're wrong).
Well lets put it this way for you. The 3 gal. Trees I normally buy are just two years old and they have chestnuts nuts on them before I plant. The following year they have a dozen or so then after that many. I believe I have pics on one of these devices . I'll check. BTW they are hybrids with chinese, japanese, Korean, and European,American, genetics. I have 12 trees on our place. pure Chinese, Dunstan from Chestnut hill, Dunstan from Realtree nurseries and the Mossy oak hybrids. All except the pure chinese have produced early.
I checked devises and can't find those pics but will check my camera and computer as well. Though, this is I believe a second year 3 gal tree so 4 years old . Need to add taken last year and last year all chestnuts had a light production year. Not sure why there were so many things that could have caused it weather wise.
OK not happy I had to look for these and I'm a crazy picture saver,thus the rest of the week will be spent deleting. Those fuzzy catkins turned into tiny husks by the time I planted in the fall. These pics were taken in April of 2017. . Any ways these are pics taken in April and I planted them in the fall by then those catkins had tiny husks.
Thanks, I was thinking on this and these 3 gal. planted chestnuts could very well be only a year old. I honestly can't remember what Chestnut Hill and Mossy told me on their 3gal. . I said 2yrs because I figured it would be questioned and was, no biggy, so leaned on the safe side. These nurseries are really ,really good about answering questions if you call . They also promptly return e-mails
Holy cow! What was I thinking! LOL Today I prepped the pots for the chestnuts. I bought the pine mulch,which was a local towns mulch. I also bought 2 bags of natural potting mix. It's a mix of peat, I believe a sandy loam and the only fertilizer is worm castings. Dollar General had totes on sale at 50% off. So I bought a 3.00 tote and mixed 2-1 pine mulch to potting mix. Put paper towel over pot holes and filled all pots 1/4 way packing it. Set them where they'll live until the weather changes and covered the tote with rest of mix. Tree plugs ship the 24th so should arrive a couple of days later. As I did this then looked at all those pots in the picture window, it hit me. I have to dig 12 holes to plant these pots once the roots fill in. When I plant I dig it's a " $100 " hole 2x's as wide and 18" deep. My next step is to make grow tubes. I've bought ones in the past and reuse them, but the prices are now too steep. So I will take 1/4" hardware clothe make a 36" high tube. They will be wrapped in burlap, but need to keep mice from climbing up and into the tube to girdle the trees. I buy tinted vinyl for blind windows part of the tube will be wrapped in a piece of that so the mice can't climb. Cheap on sale. Things I already have on hand. Now the other thing is the welded wire cage from deer and either purchased bamboo to keep the trees growing straight until they are strong or ones I make from 2 x 4's cut into 1 x 1 x 4 ft they need to be place in pot at planting . Look at the pic I posted of potted ones I had bought.
One thing guys. Yes these plugs were a good price. This said if you arent looking for this many trees the potted ones are a very good value. Consider the cost of pot, the cost of soil, then the cost of bamboo stake then the time to grow to that size. The tree it's self becomes reasonable. I paid or the kids paid 29 to 39 a piece.
So they arrived today and within 15 mins they were all potted up. I had prepped the pots days ago so it was a simple unwrap hold and back fill with a good pessing. All looked in good shape and hopefully never frozen ,they were shipped to Buffalo before getting to my part of the state. Right in the middle of some really bad weather there. They were cold but well packaged. Just need to stake and good to go for a few months.
Hey guys my trees are just on the cusp of budding out I'm seeing green. So far so good! For those of you that ordered, how are yours doing? When they get leafy I'll post pics.
Nothing yet. I'm hoping that mine are getting enough light. They're on a table in my garage, near a window. Not a ton of sunlight, but south facing and never below 45 degrees. I'm hoping over the next week or so, I can move them to a table on the deck and allow them to get full sunlight as I prepare to plant them in the next month or so.
All mine sprouted but temps too cold to put out.if nights stayed in 40's I'd have them hardening off on the deck with brassicas and blueberries. Just too many to carry in and out. Trying to get hoop house done but digging those holes 12 for wall post is slow go for me. Any how here are some pics. I have them scattered all over getting window time,as you see Lots of plants. e
