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[Bill Jones <billj AT harborside.com>]

SISU! wrote:

> Bill Jones wrote:
>
>  
>
> > I don't know about chestnuts, but in general it sure does.  That's
> > why I was crowing when my little English walnut seedling had 8 whole
> > nuts this year.  I guess that's the reason for doing grafting (for
> > trees whose cuttings won't sprout directly), so that the top part is
> > genetically identical to a known cultivar that bears lots of nuts.
> > If your original tree was not a graft (or cutting -- harder to tell),
> > then chances are that the new seedlings will perform similarly well.
> >    
>
> It was not a graft.
> Lemme make sure I understand...you are saying that cuttings would make
> better nut trees than the seeds, but that it is more difficult to get
> them started?  I'm not talking about grafting, just rooting the cuttings.
>  
>
>
> Bev
>  
Well, no.  In general, trees that sprout from a seed in situ are 
probably stronger and healthier than all others.  Bust most people find 
that impractical, even if they did fruit.

I guess you said that chestnut cuttings grow fine.  Some species of 
plants cannot be started easily from cuttings, so grafting is a 
preferred way to obtain a clone of the original, but that's not the only 
reason.  They tell me black walnut roots are more resistant to root rot, 
etc.

See, having lots of fruit or seeds is a trait that is not necessarily 
passed from tree to seed.  So a walnut tree might bear well, but its 
seedling children, of an entirely new genetic make-up, may not.  
However, I think I did read once that of all trees, chestnut seedlings 
are among the most invariant, and almost always fruit.  How else could 
farmers in Corsica use the wild chestnuts as a reliable food source, 
since they all sprouted from seed, no doubt?

But you sure can't count on any old filbert to bear.  Some cultivars are 
just pollinators, and don't bear anything, but you still need one or two.

Anyway, the cuttings will fruit exactly like the "parent" tree (since 
they're clones), if they take, and will probably do it much faster than 
a seedling, but their root systems tend to be poorer than those of 
seedlings.

One year they were selling rooted cuttings as tomato plants at the local 
feed store, unbeknownst to us.  These plants developed blight almost 
immediately and were the worst tomatoes I ever had.

Bill
S. Oregon coast