Growing chestnut trees from seed - 94% Germination Rate - 2019 Seedlings 

Burying the nuts will prevent multi stem growth seedlings. One inch of compost covering the nut will encourage it to send a single shoot skyward to find light and the root will be in a slightly more stable place as far as water is concerned. Makes for a better stronger tree.

About 10 years ago I read "American Chestnut: The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree." It's actually a fascinating story about the importance of the chestnut to our country, and the blight that destroyed it. You, of all people, might enjoy the book if you're into reading at all.

You can also plant seeds in the ground, at the spot where you want them to grow. Plant them out in late fall/early winter and they will stratify naturally in the ground. Plant 2 or 3 per hole, then later you can thin them to the strongest one.

You did a great job with the chestnuts and the best germination rate of the three guys I have watched grow chestnuts.

This is the best demonstration of how to grow Chestnuts from the acorn that I’ve looked at! Straight forward, perfect. I have a five year old Chestnut Tree. Last year it produced probably 75 acorns, this year only 30. I have a short heartwarming story about these Acorns I’d share if you’d like to hear. Let me know and thank you for the video!!

Our 10 trees have dropped all their nuts. I selected 20 for planting. It is getting cold at night and used old pots to plant. I will leave out for the winter. Remember to plant flat side down. In the spring, I will choose our back 8 acres to give room to spread out. I like the summer when chestnut trees have a unique smell and lighting bugs surround the trees. Pollination is critical. Few weeks later, the pods show up and grow. Good luck everyone.

Wow this is so-o-o interesting.bI bought a jar of shelled chestnuts at my local Whole foods grocery and amazingly meaty are those chestnuts. I am so glad to see so much attention to regrowing this valuable food source. Thank you for sharing how you do your technique, so it can be duplicated by others. To see fifty days growth was so exciting, to see how amazing it was the chestnuts had leaves!

My neighbor was selling fresh Chestnuts. I bought 8 pounds. Instead of eating them all I decided to try to germinate some. Probably a 2 pound bag. I'll never live to see them fruit but I know what it is to leave something behind for the next generation. Yours was the first video I found. I'll watch other videos as I have questions that may or may not be addressed in your video. I hope I do it right :)

I hope your chestnuts trees all grow to successful maturity! And as for letting the pigs forage on the nuts, PLEASE DO!! I've heard that the American settlers all did that because chestnut was the dominant tree in all our eastern and midwestern deciduous forests, and those pigs supposedly did great. The pigs of Spain are allowed to forage on oak trees/acorns and their meat is the best in the world.

enjoy your video , have watched it many times and get something new each time !

Thanks for this helpful video. I have 83 Dunstan trees 7 years old and I look forward to cold stratifying some this fall. Thanks.

You have a new subscriber. Love your enthusiasm.

What size tree tubes do you use? I've been using 4-foot tubes, but I find the deer can still reach the top and basically eat everything that comes out. Also, can you link to where you get them if it's not too much trouble. Thanks!

Nice work!

I did as you showed placing the acorn and tap root, but the acorn settled down and got covered up....They took forever to come up...I am now in end of may and have 1/2" tall seedlings....next time I am gonna make sure the potting soil is packed and ensure the entire acorn is above soil.....only tap root under!

doing this today brother!! My dad sent me your video lol....small world!

Great vid. Very well done.

Can you take us on a progress check on your first nut tree planting?

Your place of living is amazing. Hope one day to have lake or river in front of my house

You are a great-looking farmer.

awesome job

Hello! Question how moisty did you make the soil for the cold stratification?

Perfect demonstration

This is so cool thank you for sharing I am going to try

Hi..... Thank you for sharing your video homestead 👋 bye 👋 bye 👋 bye 👋 🎥👍👍👍

Great video I just bought some seeds and needed an explanation of how to put them in pots. Do you know if you can take cuttings off an existing tree and get them to grow. I have a couple hybrids growing in my food plot now and was hoping I could make little ones from them. But I have no clue how to do it.

Can you germinate them in 3 weeks if it's a little warmer out?

Were the ones that had multiple stems actually multiple trees? There are supposedly varieties that produce what the call polyebryonic seeds and those seeds produce more than one plant. What variety did you get to grow were they an heirloom variety or a hybrid variety? Have those started producing nuts for you yet? Thanks

I commend you for doing your part in bringing back the American chestnut. For all you viewing, if you don’t know about the near extinction of the chestnut tree during the turn of the last century, please educate yourself.

you could coppice the multi stem ones.

Thanks for the video! The leaves of my seedlings have started growing dry and brown. The soil in the pots is nicely moist. Any idea what that is? Thanks.

What's your opinion on the Miracle Grow Garden Soil ? I want to start my corn tomorrow and amend the soil where the seed is going. I have read a bunch of reviews saying it's nothing but mulch basically and not much soil as promised. Yours looked pretty good. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, ASAP ! Lol Thanks again and great video.

Thanks for sharing. Can one just pick up seeds from the park area - or do you have to buy them. What is the difference? Thanks.

At what temperature did you transplant your chestnuts? What is the recommended high and low temperature?

During winter or cold weather should they be put inside and if yes should that place be heated up? Thank you in advance

When putting the chestnuts/or acorns in containers to stratify and placing them in refrigerator, do you just leave them in fridge and forget about them for 2-3 months or do they need removed periodically and checked.

how are you keeping squirrels out of the pots? Can you root the pieces you cut off?

Can u do a update on this video every couple of months been thinking of doing this on my property great video

Also if you use air pot/ fabric pots on an elevated mesh shelf so air space is also underneath, the roots including the tap root will stop soon as they are close to air and produce more root growth and get bigger tree and can stay longer in pot before putting in ground . I have 1 gallon pots with 3' trees .

The multiple branches are not branches, but actual separate trees. They result from polyembryonic nuts. In a recent batch of chestnuts I consumed, probably a third were polyembryonic. The trees can be teased apart if done carefully.

Question, I just picked some fallen chestnut seeds off the ground near the tree. It is March and I live in cold Utah. Can I plant them now or what do you recommend?

Hi there, we are new to Missouri, any ideas at this time of year where we can get some nuts to winter? Any help or leads would be appreciated.

Did you poke holes in the Tupperware lids or no? Sorry if you went over this in the video, I didn’t watch all of it. Thanks

the multiple stem ones are polyembryonic seeds. Unsure of the type of polyembryony, but many polyembryonic seeds produce a "true to type" clone of the mother plant (apomictic), while the others will be a result of pollination/ outcrossing.

Can you do an experiment with bio vermicompost as your growing medium and record your finding compared to miracle grow?

Where did you get the chestnuts from? Did they sprout into trees?

We used citrus pots for them to grow out. We covered the nut completely then we grafted to the tree went another year then planted. Wm

Soil looks like compost. Is it? I mean I do have moss but it definitely look different

We're hoping to start a small chestnut grove here in South Australia (turns out it's a great place to grow them - there's chestnut groves around this region and into Victoria), just wondering how long it takes a tree grown from seed to produce? Have read anywhere between 3-7 years, but have also seen some comments saying it can take up to 20 years, some have said they have to be grafted, others have said no, grafted doesn't produce as much... Just a lot of conflicting info out there. I realise there are different varieties of sweet chestnuts and their growing conditions/production rates may differ, but just want to know how long it'd take to see a reward for all the effort!

Were are you getting the chestnut. How do yo knw what kind.

how often are they supposed to be watered?

How much water do they need, and how much direct sunlight? My seedling is 5 months old and grew a main branch with about 4 small branches grown onto it. The leaves grew big and dried quite a few times. Could it have the chestnut virus already? I water it every second day after the soil dries. It gets about 2 hours of direct sunlight and it's inside near a window facing East. The branch colours are fine and it looks healthy otherwise. Last year, I planted an apple tree and the one main branch grew 4 feet tall with many large leaves. Last Winter, I made the mistake of trimming and transplanting it all at the same time. This Spring, it shot many new small branches starting from the top but they never grew like last year and just dried up and this continued downwards along the trunk. It's now bare and only the trunk looks okay and it did get a bit thicker compared to last year. Later, I was told never to do both, but either trim or transplant once per year. Another person told me it will rebound next year if I leave it as it is. I guess I'll just have to wait and see...

My two chestnut trees were planted in 2017 and one tree produced this fall and gave me about 90 fertilized nuts 🌰 and about 100 unfertilized nuts if not more. I have the nuts 🌰 in stratification till March. Hopefully both will produce this fall

Do i have to cut the chestnut before refrigerating??

2 questions, 1 how long would i have to keep them in the freezer and 2 would i be able to use nuts that i buy from the store? Also thats a sweet pond you have right by your house 👍 and nice video

I hope to get some someday

10:20 is that a frog?! Even if you get the blight and the nuts suck the trees and wood are beautiful. I just picked up a sack of huge nuts to germinate and eat. Thanks.

@County View Acres How long Chestnut seeds should be cold stratified in the refrigerator? How long they should be cold stratified? How long?

How much watering fo you do for these pots? Just a quick watering each day?

There is always a step to planting them, but I saw others that the nut fell from its tree to ground, and they germinate itself without any planting step, I also saw ther people have different planting step too, so which way is the right way of planting?

My chestnuts germinated already in fridge. What now? its january, outside its frozen, what should i do now? put em in pots? where to store em? Leaving em in fridge is ok? roots are 3-5 cm long now.

Why do you refrigerate? Would it not work as well to leave outside for winter?

Great job on the chestnuts. How is the grass doing?

Where did you buy your seeds?

Just a total guess but perhaps these chestnuts are some kind of cross with japanese chestnut? I believe they have more of a shrubby growth tendency... this is very weird for sweet chestnut I have never seen them grow like this (I mean the multiple stem ones... most of these look great!)

During they're still a sprout how cold can it survive outside

Couldn't you have just put these containers out on the back deck for the winter?Or does it have to be in the fridge?

I planted 50 seeds in my garden, one year later they are all now young trees up to 10 inches high, what do I do now? I haven't got the room for 50 trees.

Should have explained when to start what soil and liquid to use and how long it takes for each step by step

Hi! Thank you for the video, could I leave the chestnuts on my balcony outside over winter instead of in the fridge?

⁠ I have a different question, do chestnuts require Scarification in order to germinate? Do they require Scarification? Or no? Do they need to be scarified (nicked) before germination? Do they need to be scarified? Or no? It is hard to tell when chestnuts require Scarification or not because they have a very hard outer shells on them. Some gardener told me that chestnuts do not require Scarification. Please answer my questions about if chestnuts require Scarification or not. Please answer my questions.

Can we get an update on the trees?

10:20 Where did the crazy frog come from?

Do you know of a source of blight resistant American Chestnut trees? I thought of starting a Chestnut Tree farm for my retirement. I really need to get going. Janice

Did you raise the nuts you used for seed

When do you plan to the seed,?

HOW tall does the tree grow ??

How long do they have to be cold for before they can be grown?

I have two chest but trees but they do not provide fruit and one provide fruit but like just like mustard seed size

What kind of chestnuts? Any American genetics or hybrid? blight resistance?

But are they blight resistant?????

Are they American, Asian or hybrid chestnuts?

That soil in your containers looks awful dry was they wetter when you started stratification

I have been searching for chestnut seed ,and i saw your video.can you please give me a links to buy chestnut seed,

☑️☑️

do you eat deer?

Can you use a growlight doing this?

Does anyone know where I can get Chestnuts?

Can the tree produce fruit when we grow from seeds? Or it is going to take many more yrs to grow fruits?

Where can I buy nuts that'll work?

Chinese Chestnuts? Virginia Tech has a project trying to reestablish the American Chestnut that you may want to check out.

What type of chestnut is it ?

Next time don’t buy miracle gro my friend and the trees will thank you

Who else saw the frog at 10:20?

I need a timeline for planting the seeds and then planting the tree.

Are these true American Chestnuts or European imports?

Any updates?

can I buy dunstan chestnut seeds from you?

a toad has come to see your little saplings... did you notice? 🤣😂

10:20 theres a frog next to the pot