Sunday 11th October, 2009

Set D: sweet chestnuts collected & planted

By Ash

Three sweet chestnuts sitting in an opened cupule. The dead catkin that held the male flowers, still attached to the base of the cupule (which once was a female flower), can be seen in the background. [Photo: 8 Oct. ‘09]

Last Thursday (the 8th of October) I went on a tree mission to Wigtwizzle with my sister. Mission objective: to collect nuts from the massive sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa) there for treeblog Set D.

The Wigtwizzle chestnut. Beast! [Photo: 7 Jul. ‘07]

While a lot of unripe cupules were stillon the tree, a great many ripe ones were lying open on the ground below. While trying to avoid a nettling, I managed to gather a haul of chestnuts with a total fresh weight of 75 g (2 ½ oz). Mission accomplished!

The Set D sweet chestnut haul. Third time lucky?

I collected nuts from the same tree in 2007 and 2008 for Set B and Set C respectively, but I didn’t manage to grow a single seedling. I now know the error of my bad old ways; I erred by waiting until spring before planting, by which time the chestnuts – which lose moisture rapidly and so are unsuited to storage – would have been well and truly dessicated. This time around, with only two days passing between collection and planting, treeblog might finally produce some baby sweet chestnuts.

Come closer…

I planted one hundred of the nuts yesterday in five forty-individual-pockets-to-a-tray seed trays using a special seeds and cuttings compost from B&Q. I ran out of room (and out of compost), so I had about sixty nuts left over. Until I decide what to do with them, I’ve mixed ‘em with some damp compost and popped ‘em in a plastic bag.

One of the seed trays showing forty chestnuts in forty ‘pockets’: a planting action shot.

The final product: five seed trays with one hundred sweet chestnuts carefully picked and planted. This is treeblog Set D(c) - the chestnut part of Set D. Set D(b) – the beech part – was planted on the 30th of September and the rowan seeds – Set D(r) – have just begun pretreatment and are on schedule for a springtime planting.

The 10th of October 2009 = Set D(c) Day 0.

tags: photos + Set D + sweet chestnut

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14 comments for Set D: sweet chestnuts collected & planted

Tom

11 Oct 2009 20:24:18

I really want to plant these this year too! I noticed in the summer a whole host of sweet chestnut trees growing at a local national trust property. I know you're technically not allowed to collect seeds from the national trust, but if I sneakily grabbed a few no one would notice, right...?

Ash

11 Oct 2009 22:31:00

I didn't know that you weren't allowed to collect nuts from NT properties? I can't see as anyone would stop you for it though, and it's hardly a criminal offence - it'd actually be for a very good cause. I'd just go ahead and collect a few!

Tom

12 Oct 2009 11:47:48

(Darn. Forgot the security code)
Yeah, exactly. Haha.
I didn't know you were supposed to either until we saw a sign in a park (which was evidently managed by them - it was adjacent to a national trust property) proclaiming that "thou shalt not..." and the huge list that followed included taking seeds. Most of it was about vandalising and littering, so perhaps it was only added on to help prevent that? I know I've seen plenty of people throw things into trees - often knocking entire branches off - to get tree seeds. Especially conkers.
Anyway, we kinda agreed at the time to pretend we'd never seen this sign.
Wish me luck. Lol.

Ash

12 Oct 2009 19:37:03

I can understand where they're coming from if people are smashing up the trees, but they ought to differentiate between idiotic vandalism and the harmless picking up of nuts off the ground. When I was a kid there were always more than enough conkers under the trees!
Best of luck with your covert op.

Kalle B.

15 Oct 2009 18:49:23

This will be interesting to follow. I tried chestnuts myself last autumn, but I put the nuts directly into the soil outdoors. Seemed like some kind of mouse dag up most of them though, and maybe even the frost killed a few. I only found one single surviving plant, but it's located on a perfect place and has been developing very well.
If this planting of yours turns out well I will try the same method next year. You can never have too many chestnut trees ;)

Ash

15 Oct 2009 20:21:43

One tree is still a result! Fingers crossed I'll have some next year!

Tom

18 Oct 2009 17:57:32

Well in the end I didn't have to go to the NT property. There's a huge sweet chestnut outside my grandparent's house, so my grandad collected a few for me... and when I say "a few" I mean he really outdid himself. Almost all of the nuts were generally the same size as the ones you collected, apart from maybe 5 which were beasts in comparison. They looked like this: http://azcookbook.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/chestnuts1.jpg
only they were obv fresh and not dried out. I planted almost all of them, and I kept the beasts separate just to see if there's a difference in seedling growth... assuming they germinate, of course. Do you have any idea why they vary so much?

Ash

18 Oct 2009 20:41:41

As all the nuts are from the same tree, I suppose it's just down to natural variation.
In the bigger scheme of things, because of the cooler, wetter British climate chestnuts over here don't usually reach the size that they do in Spain or Italy. There are also a number of cultivars that produce only one large nut per cupule, rather than the normal three (two to four).

Reece

28 Oct 2009 17:30:51

Fingers crossed i'll have a forest of beech next year!

GAR

31 Oct 2009 13:21:34

Can you contact me on where sweet chestnuts may be found in the UK.Great blog.I'm hooked

Ash

31 Oct 2009 18:41:51

Reece - Sounds like you've done a lot of planting!
GAR - Thank-you! While sweet chestnut isn't native to the UK, it has been planted widely and is completely naturalised in many areas. It's a reasonably common tree in woodlands and mature specimens cut fine figures in many parks.

Reece

1 Nov 2009 09:09:55

Ash - I have done a lot of planting this year. i have a lot of space to grow tree seedlings, and i manage to fit seeds anywhere possible, so i end up with loads every year. also, it turns out we haven't had many acorns this year after all. there's been loads of everything else but not many acorns, so don't give up hope of growing oaks next year. the oak trees you planned on collecting from might have acorns next year.

Ash

2 Nov 2009 21:43:58

Aye, it's a shame about the acorns. I hope the Lonely Oak makes some next year!

Reece

3 Nov 2009 18:11:11

Like i said, it should get some next year. lets just hope we get the right weather next year. there's been loads of everything else this year - hawthorn, blackthorn, holly, beech, hazel, etc. but not many acorns.

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