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greenstormYesterday I ordered 15 chestnut seedlings from Zero Fox Tree Crops. They're descended from the Kelowna Gellatly chestnuts; basically someone planted a bunch of European and Chinese chestnuts there maybe 70 years ago and the trees have been thriving in close quarters ever since. Kelowna is harsh winters and very hot summers so it's different than the Cor, but it's a good start.
There's a second place I'll be getting trees from, called Nutcase on Denman Island, who have a mix of European, American, and I believe Japanese chestnuts. They've been doing some selection on them. Those trees may be able to wait on June though, or even getting seed from them this fall rather than seedlings.
If this sounds like a lot of trees, it is! Here's the thing: chestnuts are wind pollinated. They like to be close, and in groups. Given my experience with them in Agassiz, they like to be on slopes. Behind the house there's maybe 1/6 of an acre of steep slope with alder (a very short-lived) on it currently that really needs stabilizing, and that strip is a total of 3.5 or so acres of hill. I haven't been up there but it's older trees with what may be some gaps. Chestnuts may not produce so much in the shade but they can grow closely shading each other and a little bit shaded by other trees; rhododendrons and pawpaws (which also won't produce much in the shade) and loquats (which would love the shelter) can live at their feet. My plan, at least on the slope, is to make a relatively dense chestnut forest.
Pawpaws are super hardy here but are marginal in their ability to ripen fruit in our cool climate. I need super early ones for this, and I'm approaching this in two ways: I've acquired seed through a Canadian charity drive for the Ukraine, and I'm going to order grafted known cultivars like Pennsylvania Golden and KSU Chappell.
In all cases where I'm planting seed or seedlings I'm anticipating a long wait for a lesser individual return; that is, many of the trees will not do well in the climate, will not fruit appropriately, or will not taste good. 15 trees might be 3 or 5 good ones; likewise 40 pawpaw seeds may give me one or ten or twenty individuals who will grow here by the time they're seven years old and producing fruit. On my fiftieth birthday I can cut a bunch of them down and plant seed from the ones that did well, beginning another ten year cycle.
I'd really like to run some grapes and kiwis of various kinds up these trees -- one of my favourite plant memories is a nice regular fuzzy kiwi climbing fifty feet into a cedar tree at UBC Botanical Gardens in Vancouver -- and also keep some kiwis down where I can monitor and actually harvest them (hey, I wonder if squirrels will be distracted by kiwis and leave me some chestnuts?). I plan on nailing down some grapes soon, but maybe waiting on the kiwis unless I find something really unusual. Or maybe not? There's going to be such a big nursery full of pots for awhile as the property is prepped. Even the back hill I'm planning here may or may not get a retaining wall put up, and that needs to be done before the bottom part gets planted.
I do know that I need to grab muscat-type grapes while I can; it's pretty hard to import grapes into the province from the rest of the country, for disease prevention reasons, and nothing can get in from the US. So, if it's rare I snag it. If it's less rare I can pick it up locally and not have it go through the trauma of mail. Tonight it will be Jupiter and Osceola muscat/Es 8-2-43.
And maybe some kiwis.
And maybe also some plums.
There's a second place I'll be getting trees from, called Nutcase on Denman Island, who have a mix of European, American, and I believe Japanese chestnuts. They've been doing some selection on them. Those trees may be able to wait on June though, or even getting seed from them this fall rather than seedlings.
If this sounds like a lot of trees, it is! Here's the thing: chestnuts are wind pollinated. They like to be close, and in groups. Given my experience with them in Agassiz, they like to be on slopes. Behind the house there's maybe 1/6 of an acre of steep slope with alder (a very short-lived) on it currently that really needs stabilizing, and that strip is a total of 3.5 or so acres of hill. I haven't been up there but it's older trees with what may be some gaps. Chestnuts may not produce so much in the shade but they can grow closely shading each other and a little bit shaded by other trees; rhododendrons and pawpaws (which also won't produce much in the shade) and loquats (which would love the shelter) can live at their feet. My plan, at least on the slope, is to make a relatively dense chestnut forest.
Pawpaws are super hardy here but are marginal in their ability to ripen fruit in our cool climate. I need super early ones for this, and I'm approaching this in two ways: I've acquired seed through a Canadian charity drive for the Ukraine, and I'm going to order grafted known cultivars like Pennsylvania Golden and KSU Chappell.
In all cases where I'm planting seed or seedlings I'm anticipating a long wait for a lesser individual return; that is, many of the trees will not do well in the climate, will not fruit appropriately, or will not taste good. 15 trees might be 3 or 5 good ones; likewise 40 pawpaw seeds may give me one or ten or twenty individuals who will grow here by the time they're seven years old and producing fruit. On my fiftieth birthday I can cut a bunch of them down and plant seed from the ones that did well, beginning another ten year cycle.
I'd really like to run some grapes and kiwis of various kinds up these trees -- one of my favourite plant memories is a nice regular fuzzy kiwi climbing fifty feet into a cedar tree at UBC Botanical Gardens in Vancouver -- and also keep some kiwis down where I can monitor and actually harvest them (hey, I wonder if squirrels will be distracted by kiwis and leave me some chestnuts?). I plan on nailing down some grapes soon, but maybe waiting on the kiwis unless I find something really unusual. Or maybe not? There's going to be such a big nursery full of pots for awhile as the property is prepped. Even the back hill I'm planning here may or may not get a retaining wall put up, and that needs to be done before the bottom part gets planted.
I do know that I need to grab muscat-type grapes while I can; it's pretty hard to import grapes into the province from the rest of the country, for disease prevention reasons, and nothing can get in from the US. So, if it's rare I snag it. If it's less rare I can pick it up locally and not have it go through the trauma of mail. Tonight it will be Jupiter and Osceola muscat/Es 8-2-43.
And maybe some kiwis.
And maybe also some plums.
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Date: 2022-04-22 12:09 am (UTC)At a farmers market here I bought a jar of paw paw jam (from local fruits, naturally! they don't ship well...) and it was really nice. That general "tropical fruit" flavor was still present, but the cloying note was reduced, so I suspect it would have more positive reception.
...I wonder if I could grow one in a pot, or convince a neighbor to grow one.
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Date: 2022-04-23 12:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-04-23 12:11 am (UTC)I hadn't heard about the gasoline taste, but just yesterday I was looking at Peterson's website and there's a long bit about someone who had theirs tasting like bleach until they remedied some kind of nutritional deficiency: https://www.petersonpawpaws.com/growing-conditions/
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Date: 2022-04-24 06:22 pm (UTC)I just... hope they ever ripen. I may need to travel to eat some in the meantime.
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Date: 2022-04-24 06:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-04-24 09:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-04-24 09:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-04-24 10:06 pm (UTC)