Planted some on my farm in Southern Michigan in tubes but had very little luck. Had an arborist tell me not to use tubes because chestnuts are very fickle when it comes to temperature, and the greenhouse effect of the tubes will cause them to come to life quickly if the weather gets mild for a few days in the winter. Then if it gets cold again, which it definitely will, they will freeze out and die. Started planting without tubes and have had much better luck.

My Daughter used to work for the American Chestnut Foundation. Restoring the King of the forest. If you think of how prolific these trees were, and how much wildlife they supported. Bring them back for future generations would be awesome. Good luck with all your efforts.

Cool. I use tubes and now I'm replacing the tubes with chicken wire and rebar stakes. Much cheaper and works great.

I think you're the first person I've come across who's raising chestnuts!

In the Winter my dad used to place a few handfuls of chestnuts on his truck engine. The family would drive somewhere and we ate warm chestnuts. So good.

You can roast chestnuts and eat them like potatoes. Thanks for a nice channel. Greetings from Sweden

Hi Evan, there’s so many things you can make with 🌰 chestnuts. Chestnut flour is a wonderful alternative to wheat flour for baking, and in northern Italy and France at Christmas time candied chestnuts are a wonderful treat, there’s also chestnut spread which is absolutely delicious not to mention risottos, soups and a plethora of other uses, so don’t let the deer and pigs eat them all. I really enjoy watching all the work you and your wife do on your property, good luck with everything, much love from Melbourne Australia 🇦🇺

Great work - maybe a bit close I have 106 dustan chestnuts in western nc on 40 foot centers - they will get big quick - we are hoping to also sell ours looks like we are very similar in size and years of growth - we also have 40 acres

Hi..... Evan nice to see you , thank you for sharing your video homestead chicken farmer garden 👋 bye 👋 bye 👋 bye 👋👕🐔🐓🐥🐕🐖🐈🌱🐐🎥👍👍👍

Not only are chestnuts great for feeding livestock. Within permaculture chestnuts as well as acorns are considered the sustainable and far more nutritious replacement of grains in our own diet. So keep them growing!

Im planting a 22 acre orchard, currently have 400 trees in the ground Looking good i plant the same way with tubes

Wow, That's a great video. I will always cheer for you in Korea I'm looking forward to a great video. Have a nice day.

Great job Evan, thanks for sharing and caring . 👍👍👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Love what your doing we got 350 American Chinese hybrid tree orchard and I like seeing other people get into it to

In my state of Pa. in my county in 1911, when the state tree inventory was done....42% of all trees were American chestnut. Can you imagine.... It started in NYC and spread south, by 1950 wiped out.

Wow, you go all out. We have a farm nearby that started a u-pick chestnut business just a few years ago. They quickly sell out.

Planted about 35 throughout my hinting property this year, same tubes you have...North Carolina, so got about a third that grew out the 5 foot tube. Planning on planting another 30 this spring, seeds in the fridge stratifying. Good luck, looks great.

Thank you .

You can get long pieces of rebar and cut it to length and use that and it's lot easier to deal with....

In Europe a Chestnut tree is a very large tree with a big crown, so I was at first surprised to see how close the trees are planted together. But yours must be smaller.

It'll be beautiful! I once lived in a chestnut forest and it was full of life - mostly they were coppiced for the wood - another great product from these trees.

Good for people too.

Any updated videos on the chestnuts. I'm curious how they a holding up after 4 more years. Awesome orchard. Thanks for your efforts in restoring the American chestnut.

Looking good. Those larger ones may produce catkins next year. I would put wire hardware cloth around your pile of chestnuts that you’re over wintering to prevent mice, voles, and rabbits from damaging them over the winter.

Don't be afraid to do some pruning of those seedlings and the one in the tubes. Even a small branch or leaves near the ground will be diverting food & water from the trunk and the crown that you are trying to grow.

Awesome. I love chestnuts. They're pretty rich, but roasted up, they are very good. I don't know how long it takes for them to produce. Another species you might want to plant is white oak. Deer love the acorns and they'll produce a mast within 6 years usually. You can also go out in your woods and cut unwanted trees like maple, sycamore, and others that don't produce a mast and plant your chestnuts there. By the way, a little late, but you want the crown of your trees an inch or so above grade to prevent rot, and tease the roots a little so they don't girdle later.

I love that you are planting trees. I won't be around, but in 50 years someone will have some beautiful lumber when they are thinned. In my area, it is the custom to plow a furrow down hill and plant in the dead furrow. This removes competing sod and provides a trench to hold water. Plus it's easier digging. Just a thought

SUPER !!!

Post hole tool Couple scoops and that pot size should fit perfect Mound dirt to hold water and you are done I would drop a little bit of starter fertilizer in there as well

Love this series.

Interesting as usual. Thanks Evan.

Looking good! I remember when you first started all of this ❤️ The trees will be so nice and mature for your retirement years. Thank you for sharing

Can’t wait for the snowy vids 😍

Good job Evan on the chestnut trees .

And once they start producing you can roast them and offer them as a product of the farm as a profit crop. Good gravy, that's a lot of trees!!! Ya did good son!!! Thanks...Peace!!! Bill

Nice...!

Congratulations on planting trees!!! It's awesome to see others doing it. We planted restoration American Chestnuts that we got from the Chestnut Foundation. The American Chestnut was hit by the chestnut blight over 100 years ago, and they have been trying to restore them for that entire time. It would be awesome if you planted at least a few Restoration Chestnuts. Most chestnuts sold these days are a breed that is mostly Chinese chestnut. We planted our chestnuts 5 and 6 years ago on our property, and 3 out of nine seeds made it to trees. Don't overlook bur oak for attracting deer, they have massive sweet acorns and attract lots of wildlife!

The old saying , plant them high they won’t die plant them low they won’t grow !!

Those trees look great! So happy for you and Rebekah, having a successful outcome on your homestead project. You two work so hard, you deserve it! Thanks for sharing.

Plow the grass in and replant with clover or other shorter ground cover for the trees to not have grass competing with them. Yes the cover will attract deer but the tubes will protect the saplings from them.

Great video it will look even more beautiful when they come in I cant wait to see them

Hi Evan? I found myself watching KZfaqs today because of a stomach ache. I thought I could pass on some good info to you. First, Chestnuts prefer acidic soil so you should be testing your soil and amending it if necessary. Secondly, Chestnuts like a loam, as most plants do, but they really don't like to have their feet wet. So standing water will kill trees - particularly Chestnut trees. Chestnuts are very susceptible to root diseases and other fungal diseases that enter from splits and cracks in the trunk and graft wound. This is important for you to know even though you are using seedlings. Using the tree tubes probably helps with preventing such nicks. Also the current recommended method of planting trees that do not like standing water on their roots/prefer good drainage is to "Mound the trees when planting". It's fine to dig a hole in the ground where you want to plant the tree but then you want to backfill the hole with all the loosened (& amended) soil, placing your rootball above grade (above the ground level) because the soil will compact from gravity and watering. Yes, this would leave you with exposed roots but you need to go dig up some more native soil and bring it over to the new planting and mound it up around it. Always make sure that the crown is soil free and up hill from any water collecting mini berm / hill you create. Lastly, clear the weeds and grasses around your tree trunks. Why are you supplying the competitors with water and nutrients that could be used by your tree - not to mention providing diseases places to hide close to your prized Chestnut specimens. If you follow these advices you will see great improvements in building your orchard's health. Start learning about beekeeping and be ready to have some bees in your orchard before you need them. Enjoy the miracles of Nature (helped by man & woman)

You can also sell those chestnuts at Christmas great when roasted over a open fire or even in the oven, peeled and chopped and mixed with sausage meat and stuffed inside the turkey or rolled into a sausage and steamed or baked jn the oven

Love your videos go bless you and your!

Persimmon trees attract deer like magnates too! Hope you get professional help when you topple that widowmaker tree! That one is dangerous my friend! Great vids! Keep them coming! TY

You can try planting while blackberries around the chestnut trees. The thorn we'll be a natural barrier. Leaves an entrances for maintenance and future harvest. Add mulch to protect newly plants tree.

A good idea when planting trees is to make the hole much larger than you need to, that way that soil is turned over and easy for the roots to take a hold. It would also be a good idea to mulch around the tubes so that the tree isn't competing with the grass for water or nutrients. Good work mate, looks good, love the videos

We have an American Chestnut on our property!

Great to see the results of your labors! Those trees from 2017 seem to be doing great. Long-term planning coming to fruition. Been sighting in the rifle yet?

Maybe you could do a chestnut tree update when your trees start to bud out

post hole digger on the tractor!

awesome. im going to look into the seeds

Chestnut are also medicinal

Plant some where you keep your pigs you will just have to fence them off till they are big. Regards Billy

Maybe you should mulch them all with a shovel or 2 of compost

Looks good. That's a lot of work! You could probably sell seedlings on Facebook or Craigslist too. I read the American Chestnut in the Southern US mostly have all died out from blight and the southerners should all plant Chinese Chestnuts that are blight resistant. I am in NE Florida so maybe I will look into planting some Chinese Chestnuts. We have lots of deer around.

I’m doing sawtooth oaks for my "deer orchard" and I've always heard plant low, tree won’t grow, plant high, tree won’t die. I try to make the hole just slightly shallower than the pot it’s in, and mound some of the soil from the hole around it before watering. Sawtooths are supposed to grow quickly and drop acorns after only a few years. We’ll see! 🤞

I had no luck with Chestnut trees. Good luck, i hope you have better luck then me.

That's a back breaker. It's a good idea though . I've heard of a lot of people planting Crabapple trees also, deer love them and they may produce faster for the deer. That may be something to try so all your eggs won't be in one basket.

20 years from now you can inoculate roots and grow truffles. Have a good one..

JudithB I like to use a shovel to cut and remove grass, then dig hole with post hole digger. I fill and then turn the grass plugs upside down around the hole. Mowing the area would make it easier too! I think I would rather have a few chestnuts planted around the house rather then pines!! LOL

Plant them high they won’t die Plant them low they won’t grow

It all looks good Evan, the pond looks good. Have you had snow yet ? Always looking for you. Love you and Rebecca. God bless you. I heard that pigs love black walnut ,do you have any of those on your farm ? I just went back and watched your past videos on chestnut trees. In a few years your farm is going to be awesome with trees.I sure hope the deers don’t do a number on them.

I would love to plant them

Chestnuts roasting on a open fire, Jack-frost nipping at your noise.

😊❤️🐾

That’s a lot of chestnut trees. Why do you want so many? Ok. You answered that question. Deer and future feed. It still seems like a lot of trees. Do the tubes spread as the tree grows ? How old of a tree produces nuts? Oh wow! You are starting your own from seed. Thanks for sharing! Nice work 👍

I never see these orchards using weed mats for some reason. Those trees would grow so much faster if that grass competition was eliminated. Silt fence would be perfect.

squirels will raid them too you might end up having to shoot them to slow them down, i love chestnuts too

👍👍

Love chestnut trees! Why don't you use your post hole digger?

The five foot tree 🌳 that is out check the soil their.

its an interesting project for sure, thanks for syharing do you know if similar has been succeful in the past? i mean the plastic tube - grow faster thing thanks from Sweden

Over time, it could be fun to graft your trees over to varieties that bear as late as possible, closer to deer season. We grow a few here (100?) in Mid Missouri and the Variety "Eaton" ( early) is dropping a month before "Black Satin" does, so it would be a longer period to train them to stop by if you add some variety. Don't do what I did and ignore the trees growing nearby, because one day they will be much harder to deal with. I now have black locust 30 feet tall on the west, blocking the sun. They looked so far away when they were little, some 30 years ago. What is your spacing on these? I went with 20 x 20 thinking to remove them over time, but then the wrong tree would grow in the wrong spot, where the one you were going to use long term, looks like hell and the expected cull tree is doing great lol

keep trying different varieties - the blight could come through and wipe most of them out if you don't have some genetic diversity - am sure you know this, take down more native trees to give the chestnuts a chance within a few years they will start to grow above everything, the ones that survive

Looks like they are planted too close, but I don't know how big they get.

👍 👍

doesnt keeping the tubes on for so long hinder the width growth of the tree trunk??

Hi, Thank you for putting out these videos on growing Dunstan chestnut trees here in Central TX. Not sure how well they will do, but I'll give it a shot. May I ask how far are you spacing your trees from one another? Thanks! Dave

congrats sir, enjoyed v. much.are those chest nuts addable?

How much do you have to water them that forst year? Looks great btw.

Would the landscape material work around your trees 🌳

I have about 42 Chinese chestnut trees planted mainly to attract deer... I may kill the orchard grass and other grasses/forbes in the orchard and plant a clover chicory blend. The deer will eat all the dropped chestnuts by early October. My thinking is the orchard will also become a traditional food plot for the rest of October/Novembber... Your thoughts? Thx, Dave from SE Ohio

First I seen this. Great job! I am watching this and was wondering if you have an update on your Chestnut grove. Also what type and where did you purchase them if you dot I’d sharing.

Love ur videos do u fertilizer your chesnut trees?

Please plant some of the NON HyBRID Original American Chestnut

👏👏👏👏✔

Good luck with the trees. Where do you get the tree tubes? I was looking on Amazon and they ranged in price from $4-5. Seems a bit expensive.

Dratz, they are sold out of seed chestnuts already....

Do goats like chestnuts? 🤗

Pecans are profitable

Evan, do you have porcupines in the area. They love to chew on various trees.

Why do you choose not to scratch up the roots after you remove them from the pot? This may result in stunted growth or dead tree later.

Hard to guess watching on TV wondering what is the distance between the chesnust trees?

It's ladies and gentlemen not just guys we have women also that watch it

Do you have any input on what to do with seedlings started indoors? I'd would suspect that the chestnuts started around Nov 1st would be ready for pots sometime in February. Do you have any input on basement temperatures/lighting conditions if I was to use fluorescent light in the basement?

I'm not caught up on all the ecology of it but, will the chestnuts effect the pond water in 10 years when they are all dropping and decomposing at the bottom?

Why are you not using the post hole digger on the tractor to dig the holes

Do you fertilize? And do you have problems with voles eating the roots

do you use the stun method?