Anyone plant Dunstan Chestnuts for deer?

[Tedd]

I ordered a bunch of Dunstan Chestnut trees for fall planting. They are pretty close to an American chestnut according to what I read. It sounds like they really produce. I'm just curious if anyone has planted them. They really market them to hunters.
 I do have 3 chinese chestnuts I planted 20 some years ago and when those produce, deer love them. There are some walnut trees leaning over the chinese chestnuts keeping them from thriving. I should cut down the walnuts.
Tedd

[Hackbow]

Tedd, I believe Tim Antoine did several years back. You may want to contact him and see how they've done.

[KentuckyWolf]

Dunstan is just one hybrid variety....and it’s usually way over priced. There are several species of chestnut and lots of hybrid varieties out there.  There are lots of good nurseries out there that carry different varieties...do some research and you can find them reasonably priced.

I have planted lots of trees (fruit and nuts) on my place and my dads....and not broke. The bank doing it.

[Pat B]

I bought some of the early hybrids(about 20 years ago but lost them the first winter to voles. I never replanted but would like to.
Chestnuts are a good nut tree to plant because they bloom later in the spring making it less likely to be affected by late frost unlike most oaks. I'd check with the American Chestnut Society  for their recommendations for yfoundationour area.
At one time American chestnuts were 40% to 70% of the canopy of the Eastern US. They say, back then deer and bears were 100# heavier due to the regular supply of chestnuts.
We still have chestnut stumps that sprout every year here in the Southern Appalachians but the shoots are short lived because of the airborne fungi that affects them. I know where 1 chestnut tree is along the Blue Ridge Parkway that blooms every spring and I've heard that there is a grove of chestnuts in an isolated valley near Pine Mountain GA that have been used in the hybridization of the new hybrids.

[Zwickey-Fever]

 I planted 25 Dunstan chestnut trees here in southern Iowa. They never produced and never survived passed the third year. I also had a few neighbors plant them with the very same results. Would never waste my time, energy or money on planting Dunstan chestnut trees. I done soil testing and even spoke to the people I bought them off. I done everything humanly possible for the trees survival and nothing. To me, they are not suited for the Iowa climate, (which I was told different by the company), or a gimmick.

[KentuckyWolf]

Dunstan variety was developed in Florida....try a different hybrid.

[Pat B]

Google American Chestnut Foundation to see which variety is best for your area. They are responsible for the hybridization.

[Sam McMichael]

Will any of these hybrids survive in the South or will the fungus get them, too? How expensive are they? How long until they produce?

[KentuckyWolf]

Yes. There are varieties that can live in the south. There are resistant varieties...no fungus worries.

Time to production, size, quantity and quality of nuts vary by variety.

Some trees produce in as few as five years.

[Pat B]

The hybridization was developed to replace the American chestnut by hybridizing American chestnuts with Chinese chestnuts that are resistant to the fungus. I think they have gotten back to about 95% American chestnut resistant to the blight now. Chestnut lumber from China in the late 1800s or early 1900s brought the fungus in and within a few years most of the American chestnuts were gone. Like I said above they were 40% to 70% of the tree canopy in the Eastern US before the blight was introduced.
Sam, Pine Mountain GA is southwest of Atlanta near LaGrange in Harris County. Somewhere near there is where a wild stand on native, blight resistant American chestnuts has survived.

[KentuckyWolf]

There are several species of chestnut; American, European, Chinese and Japanese.

Many, many hybrids out there...in just about any combination you can think of.

[Tedd]

I'm specifically asking if anyone planted the Dunstan chestnuts for deer and do they get nuts and attract deer?

[KentuckyWolf]

Yes.

However, they are way over priced. You will be paying for the name.

I have planted A LOT of fruit and nut trees...not willing to give out my sources (some only normally do whole sale), but never paid more than $12 a tree for anything....usually much less.

[KentuckyWolf]

Most site advertising Dunstan are asking $20 to $30 for a tree (size/condition) that shouldn’t be more than $8....if it wasn’t for that name.

[Skwerl58]

Why not contact your states Department of Forestry to see if they have Chestnut trees available. In VA our DoF have saplings from a variety of trees available at a reasonable cost. I ordered some a couple of years ago and all my chestnuts lived. It may take 3 -5 years to see any nuts but the costs was right.

[Eric Krewson]

I saw an article where they had made a GMO blight resistant American chestnut in a lab and bypassed the years of cross breeding that was normally necessary to get a blight resistant American chestnut.

I walk an exercise trail that has a couple of saplings planted from nuts from the American Chestnut Foundation. At first they didn't protect the saplings very well and I think one got cut off by a weed eater but two are surviving now protected by wire enclosures.

I thought about buying a few from ACF to put on my hunting land but 3 nuts cost $300. I lost the land last year so it would have been a waste of money.

[gregg dudley]

My buddy planted several some time ago ( 5-8 years?) and they are producing.  I planted five in march and they are doing well.  They were potted in 7 gallon pots.   I went with the larger size to hopefully minimize time to production.  They have put out a lot of growth.  I need to clear more canopy in a few spots to get them some more sunlight, but they are doing well. 

[Tedd]

Eric,
If you come across that article, please post. That is interesting. I actually have some American Chestnuts that sprout from ancient stumps right beside my house. I once found a 10" tree that had just died and sold it to a turkey call maker. The mantle in our house is a chestnut log that came from a log house built in the 1700s. The tree was growing in the 15-1600s! I know the story well about chestnut trees. I didn't mean to come across like I am a novice at planting trees and growing cover for deer. I just never bought those particular chestnut trees and I have a new location to plant some and could use a couple dozen of them. I just didn't know if they were all hype of not. I don't mind spending a little  too much if they do make good trees.
 I just walked down to check 3 chinese chestnuts I planted 20-25 yrs ago. And man are the deer hitting them! I put up a blind and brushed it in. Season starts saturday. If the trees are still dropping it should be a good spot. From past experience it is about a 2 week window until the deer clean them all up.

[Tedd]

On another note - My osage trees took off this year. One of them has a single growth of 6'. And the trees really only get 1/2 sun. It is really dry now but I think osage handles that fine. These were planted from hedge balls that were clooeced in the fall, frozen over winter, mushed up into a slurry and poured into a trench. The saying about hog tight and horse high is true. A NFL fullback couldn't get through these without needing a lots of tape to stop the bleeding.  I plan to get a lot of  these balls this fall. I have a couple hundred yards where I'd like to make a fence row.
 The trees we scarf the balls from are enormous and very straight trunked. I figure I'll disc the grout, cut a small trench, pour in the seeds, then top it off with orchard grass seed to keep big weeds from taking over right away.

[Eric Krewson]

http://inthesetimes.com/rural-america/entry/21968/American-chestnut-GE-biotech-Chestnut-foundation-SUNY-esf-trees-arborgen