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American chestnut tree in Centreville is the 'holy grail' for conservationists

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Re: American chestnut tree in Centreville is the 'holy grail' for conservationists

#121

Post by wyclif »

mattegan wrote: post #38

Cool to see this here and people talking about it. I volunteered with the American Chestnut Foundation during my summers in high school. Usually spent a few weeks on the Meadowview research farm collecting catkins off trees, “processing” the catkins to bottle the pollen, bagging trees to prevent uncontrolled cross pollination, and pollinating trees by hand. My uncle and I also usually took hikes in NC to try and find…

I grew up on a farm near Media, Pennsylvania. We had quite a few American Chestnut trees. One of my first childhood memories is picking up the nuts off the grass. I doubt those trees are still there. I should go back sometime and see.

Re: American chestnut tree in Centreville is the 'holy grail' for conservationists

#122

Post by greenonions »

billfor wrote: post #120

Every year around this time we seem to get somebody posting Chestnut tree articles that imply that it's impossible to grow an American chestnut tree or that somehow American chestnuts are rare. My Dunstan Chestnut tree is doing tremendously well after 5 years, and it has a circumference of more than a foot. They even sell them in Walmart now. What am I missing? Here is the link if you need one: https://chestnuthillou…

Not certain, but that Dunstan is likely a hybrid species of American with Chinese chestnut for blight resistance.

The genetically pure American Chestnut tree was nearly eliminated by this blight. So backcrossed hybrids and genetically modified varieties of the American Chestnut are exciting, because there's a hope they could return to their former glory in the ecosystem.

This particular tree is a large specimen of genetically pure American Chestnut, growing in the east coast region as well, so a great find for conservation.

In all, hybrids may be great for individuals, but this movement intends to be more selective for restoration purposes.

Re: American chestnut tree in Centreville is the 'holy grail' for conservationists

#123

Post by lettergram »

cpfohl wrote: post #52
lettergram wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, I can’t buy them yet. Driving me nuts

You can buy the backcrosses, as far as I know...it's the modified ones from SUNY ESF that you can't buy yet.

You can actually buy them for 2023 - https://support.acf.org/membership/new-seed-level

But they still have to pass the FDA, EPA, USDA - https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/08/06/2021-16...

Re: American chestnut tree in Centreville is the 'holy grail' for conservationists

#124

Post by lettergram »

culi wrote: post #5

Saw this really amazing video[0] the other day about American Chestnut Foundation's breeding program in Virginia to revive the American chestnut Basically they hybridized it with Chinese/Japanese chestnuts (which are blight resistant). Then they take the offspring, test for blight resistance and rebreed those back with purebred American chestnuts. Then they repeat the process. Take those offspring, select for blight…

You can actually buy some of those seeds now - https://support.acf.org/membership/new-seed-level

Though, they are still going through the FDA, EPA, and USDA process...

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/08/06/2021-16...

Re: American chestnut tree in Centreville is the 'holy grail' for conservationists

#125

Post by billfor »

greenonions wrote: post #122
billfor wrote: post #120

Every year around this time we seem to get somebody posting Chestnut tree articles that imply that it's impossible to grow an American chestnut tree or that somehow American chestnuts are rare. My Dunstan Chestnut tree is doing tremendously well after 5 years, and it has a circumference of more than a foot. They even sell them in Walmart now. What am I missing? Here is the link if you need one: https://chestnuthillou…

Not certain, but that Dunstan is likely a hybrid species of American with Chinese chestnut for blight resistance. The genetically pure American Chestnut tree was nearly eliminated by this blight. So backcrossed hybrids and genetically modified varieties of the American Chestnut are exciting, because there's a hope they could return to their former glory in the ecosystem. This particular tree is a large specimen of ge…

I agree with you and know that the Dunstan is "debatable" to its origin. imho it's American, going by https://acf.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/leafcard.pdf. I know I have a chestnut tree. I know it has lots of teeth and no hair. My point is more a point of having periodic postings about Chestnut trees. I think once every 5 years would be enough on the same exact subject. It has been a trend every year. OK so more people are just discovering the issue every year I guess.

Re: American chestnut tree in Centreville is the 'holy grail' for conservationists

#126

Post by joecool1029 »

peteradio wrote: post #117
joecool1029 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have one that's not a hybrid. It's a stressed tree in blight range (Hunterdon, NJ) but it soldiers on. Last year I got a few dozen chestnuts off of it. Normally I can only get a few. (I also have two seedlings sprouted from chestnuts I gathered a few years back)

How'd you get your tree originally? Do you think it has some resistance? How large is it now?

See my other more recent comment for more details. It's old. I'm not so sure it has resistance other than it was likely a strong adult when the blight came, and the blight had an easier time killing trees that were not so massive.

Before I made last comment I tried to wrap a measuring tape around but it was only a 36 inch measuring tape and circumference of the two halves coming out of the base are at least another 6 inches after it. Height is harder to measure, maybe 30-40ft, it grows at the edge of the forest with multiflora rosebush around it, some hickory and tulip trees over it in height. Some branches have been cut off over the years and the bark is kinda gnarly.

Everytime I walk around here there's some new discovery of something new or old. Today I fished a live rusty female crawfish out of the pool and I'm pretty sure it's one of the first sightings of this invasive in this county. Nothing like looking down and going 'Oh I guess we have pool lobsters now'.

Re: American chestnut tree in Centreville is the 'holy grail' for conservationists

#127

Post by mrjudgejoebrown »

JohnTHaller wrote: post #112
tsol wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Simple, yet effective. I've heard it said modern fruits are relatively tasteless compared to their older counterparts because they are bred for size and hardiness. I wonder if these can be backcrossed as well to produce more flavorful fruits with similar sizes

For an example, the red delicious apple. 75% of the Washington state's apples in the 1980s. It was bred for color and shelf life and, in the process, they bred out the taste. In 2000, a congressional bailout was approved for the growers that had lost $760 million dollars over a 3 year period due to the now-worthless apples.

Hawkeye is what Red Delicious used to be. You can still find it grown by smaller orchards around the country.

Re: American chestnut tree in Centreville is the 'holy grail' for conservationists

#128

Post by eyelidlessness »

daniel-cussen wrote: post #105
Cupertino95014 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. I love nuts of all types, but not the chestnut. It's really more like a small potato than a nut. I wonder if the old ones tasted better.

Dude I have just the recipe for you. Come on down to Chile and ask for puré de castañas. The really oppressed Chilean women make it the best, it's highly unique, I actually thought I could eat a chestnut because I used to eat this dish, kept biting into absolute bitterness. But bitter isn't bad, now that I'm addicted to something bitter (an undisclosed stimulant) I prefer bitterness to sweetness, but not everyone can…

> The really oppressed Chilean women make it the best

Actually fuck this.

Re: American chestnut tree in Centreville is the 'holy grail' for conservationists

#129

Post by astrange »

audiodude wrote: post #108
audiodude wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a joke, but I do have questions in general about "Certified Non-GMO" versus "Modern day bananas, corn and tomatoes look nothing like they did 400 years ago". There are some types of genetic modifications that are considered "natural" and "OK" and somehow there are others that are "artificial" and "scary", but damned if I know which are which.

To play devil's advocate to myself and possibly answer my own question: I imagine there are ecological effects of GMO (some of your corn SHOULD get killed by insects). Not to mention the fact that GMO seeds are probably mostly sold by god-awful Monsanto.

“No GMO” labeling isn’t because of any of those issues though; it’s just marketing to Green Meme people, upper class Whole Foods shoppers who are big into naturalistic fallacies.

Re: American chestnut tree in Centreville is the 'holy grail' for conservationists

#130

Post by Maxion »

joecool1029 wrote: post #82
mattegan wrote: post #38

Cool to see this here and people talking about it. I volunteered with the American Chestnut Foundation during my summers in high school. Usually spent a few weeks on the Meadowview research farm collecting catkins off trees, “processing” the catkins to bottle the pollen, bagging trees to prevent uncontrolled cross pollination, and pollinating trees by hand. My uncle and I also usually took hikes in NC to try and find…

It's too late this year but would they want me to mail catkins from a chestnut producing survivor up in NJ? I also have chestnuts collected from prior years and 2 seedlings growing from some of the prior collected ones that were planted. The survivor has 2 branches coming out of trunk each roughly 42" in circumference, it is not as tall as the one in the article but it's probably got similar girth. The tree is at lea…

From the sound of your description, I would get in touch. You can probably find an email by googling.
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