**UPDATED** How to Grow a Chestnut Orchard - 10-years of Experience!

You’ve inspired me to start my own acre plot of chestnuts just to see how they do! 2 years in, thanks for all the great content!

This guy has such great info for us. Glad I'm doing this at 23 years old instead of 40.

This is a damn good overall assessment of growing chestnuts! I too have been planting and growing for 10 plus years. I’ve had all of the same issues you’ve had. Bravo on an excellent presentation!

Right on! I planted 800 trees in 2022 on the Idaho-Canadian border, spaced at 15' rows with 10' spacing between trees. I'm expecting losses, hence the close spacing. Your video is helpful, especially the part about trees galled by the tube tops. Next year, I will have trees exceeding the 6' tubes (we have elk, so 6' tubes were chosen). Our orchard is a test case, and if chestnuts work in the northern-most part of Idaho, we'll have another useful crop. Thanks for the video.

Two questions. 1. What about growing gideons? 2. What about marketing / selling said chestnuts the pain of growing and keeping them alive doesn’t mean much if you can’t market the product? Look forward to your update on that.

Thanks John, I just planted 20 chinese chestnuts here in southern nj, great info. I planted all 20 last weekend, 3/18/24, they're 3'-4' bare roots in 48" miracle tubes in slightly acidic soil.

My family owns a farm in New England, and apparently my great grandfather was very involved with helping to fight the Chestnut blight. Watching your videos makes me think we could take a crack at running a chestnut orchard. Should be less annoying than shoveling out cow pens!

Thanks John! I appreciate all of your videos that you do. I’ve been following you for about a year. I’ve got about 130 trees planted. I get a lot out of the info that you pass on. Thanks!

excellent, informative video....i just planted 3 fruit tress & want to plant maybe 20 Chestnuts, but have to clear the area of big cedars & red oaks......You say, the best time to plant is early to mid April, I'm in Southern Ohio....& i'd probably plant bare root plants, not from a seedling....bare root is probably easier...& i'll use wire cages as i have a lot of deer around me...thank you !

Spring is coming. I am about to plant 130 trees next spring. Additional 200 walnuts.

Great video and thank you for the knowledge you have shared. I have planted over 40 trees and add more every year in not so perfect soil. It's 5years in now and it seems to be going well.

Thanks for the info. We are about 7 years behind you and in N IL. Keep on growin

Interesting video & I agree with you on the wire screens vs tubes. I live in central NYS and as a tree growing novice, I planted 5 American Chestnuts 18 years ago. 2 died within a few years due to , my guess, high pH. A third was rubbed out by a deer around year 8 and other species shaded out its resprouts. The 4th was hit hard by frost around 10 years ago but it resprouted from the ground and grew very fast ( 3 stems now ) because i started giving it some Miracid and or Ammonium Sulfate around May 15th every year. Unfortunately 4 years ago one of the stems which was 20' tall got blight so i cut that one off. Two years ago the next stem, which was a beautiful 25' 6" dbh sapling got blight and i cut it. Now i just noticed the orange bubbles on the remaining stem. Too bad because it is at least 30' tall and 7" dbh. My last tree has produced chestnuts for a few years now which the squirrels get way before they fall. Its around 25' tall and 6" dbh. I am sure its days are numbered however.

I literally 1) almost moved up to Erie (Corry area) this month and 2) am a TACF member and plan on owning a chestnut farm AND 3) my name is John!!!! I feel like I am watching what I could have been if I wasn't stuck in Philly lol

Thanks John hope to see the next 10 years growth

Great video John! Been following you for years and the orchard is looking awesome. All that hard work is paying off

I am located not far from Columbia, MO where that Agroforestry paper was published. I’m currently year 3 into 3 acres of black walnut. I’m looking to do another 8-10 acres in chestnuts. Great info. I agree with the wire vs tubes as well.

Great video John , You have been a wealth of information to me . 2nd year in for me and Im very satisfied with our progress . Starting some more seed this winter to replace next years stinkers ! Thank you again for teaching us !

My mortality has mainly been from planting in very wet and shaded places. The higher parts of my property are also the wettest. There is adjacent land that is higher than mine and it took me awhile to understand that the water was moving underground and on the surface. Everything is on a slope. I did accidentally mow my native local chinquapin, but it has grown back. Relative to rabbits, they seem to leave my trees alone and my dogs chase them. I shot two rabbits this summer from the tractor with a .small .38 loaded with shot intended for water moccasins. The deer stay on the other side of the fence and so far no bears or feral hogs have trespassed that is likely because of the dogs. We are warm enough in NW FL zone 8b for asian persimmons and several trees with fruit are being decimated by birds and squirrel that the dogs rarely catch. I also have native local persimmons and also grafted american persimmon. All of asian persimmons were grafted to local rootstock. I do not have a cat any more after little guy did it in. Little guy is not little as when he was a puppy He never liked the cat but he will not chase a deer. He is traditional southern farm dog that were called white english and are being replaced by american bulldogs and foreign LGD. So they are not pure with each region or family with their own strain and he is a mixture of several strains. Long oversize mastiff head, but a long thin big boned body. He is sleeping at my feet; in an hour I will put him and his mother miss piggy out to guard the property and keep the third dog that has injuries inside tonight. My current adult three dunstans and unknown chinese like the soil where they are located and that area seems not to be water logged. We get about 60 inches of rain here.

Thanks!