North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Donna &/or Kieran" <holycow@cookeville.com>]

Jerry,  Over in east TN there are supposedly some older plantings of nut trees.  UT Knoxville has a Scott Schlarbaum who has something to do with butternuts and chestnuts, and Hill Craddock down at UT Chattanooga has been planting hybrid chestnuts for several years.  Then there is a guy with an African name at some college in Nashville who is supposedly working on dwarf walnuts.  And lets not forget that in addition to the Am Chestnut Foundation, there is the Am chestnut cooperators foundation, looking for pure native chestnuts to graft and cross pollinate.  There are some trees in the area around Cookeville, some on Short Mountain and   Center Hill Lake to the south, and some to the North in Overton county.  I haven't seen any of these... well actually someone showed me a native chestnut on Short Mountain that is NOT the tree shown online on the website... but I have been shown a peice of land in Overton county with a lot of chinkapins on it.  They crop too, but the hard part is getting there at the right time.  And the second hard part is keeping the critters from getting them after you get them home, and the third hard part is getting them to grow.  All my chink seedlings from Mike Cartright pined and died in the garden - probably because of too much lime there - but the 1 year plants he sent me  have done well on our unamended acid clay (on a slope) and some have little burs for the first time.   

    There are some big websites showing Am chestnuts and the guys getting scions, the ACCF I think is the group, great photos.  I'm trying to remember the names of the local guys in these organizations, ah yes, Clint Neel.  Donna

 

Recent chestnut photos taken on Dec

Jack Torkelson and Clint Neel (the arboreal one) are obtaining scion wood from a small branch of ... TACF and the ACCF are working hard in that direction. ...
www2.volstate.edu/jschibig/Recentchestnutphotosfall2002winter2003.htm - 26k -

 

RESURRECTING THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT

The ACCF is intercrossing only selected pure American chestnut trees showing .... Clint Neel's great slide show proves chestnut people know how to have fun; ...
www2.volstate.edu/jschibig/resurrectingthechestnut.htm - 60k