North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Gene Spears" <Spears@LMC.edu>]

On Thu, 17 Jun 2004 09:56 , 'Gene Spears' <Spears@LMC.edu> sent:
Gene, I have a few questions if you have a moment:

>       The goal of the breeding program is to develop a resistant tree that 
> has the
growth characteristics of the American Chestnut, that can be reintroduced to 
the
eastern forests. 

Q1- Does each region have to breed its own resistant chestnuts or will the 
results of the VA project be useful from Maine to Wisconsin? What are the
theories on this? Are the Parent lines from many different regions already?  
I am
asking due to the semi-hardiness of Chinese to Zone 5 and colder, depending on
the seedling and the native range of Chestnut. What would you define as the
native range of Amer. Chestnut? I have read different information in different
sources.
Heron Breen      
>       

        TACF considers the original range to be essentially an Appalachian 
range, though 
the tree also occurred in the Piedmont, too.  There are records of trees from 
southern
Maine, down to Georgia.
        The hope is that the trees produced from the breeding program can be 
widely planted,
and will interbreed with existing, native sprouts, which do sometimes produce 
nuts, or 
with trees produced by the various state chapters that have some adaptation 
to the 
local climate.

gene
spears@lmc.edu