North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Road's End Farm <organic87@frontiernet.net>]

> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Adrienne Bordo" <beartown@toast.net 
> >
> To: <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Sent: Sunday, January 23, 2011 6:39 PM
> Subject: Re: [NAFEX] pawpaw seed and a new question
>
>
> > The other question I have concerns American Chestnut. To my  
> > knowledge,
> > they were never native in this area (just over the border from  
> > western
> > VT), but maybe someone could confirm that. A company in British
> > Columbia is selling seeds from the West Coast that would not be
> > carrying the blight. Any ideas on what the chances would be for
> > growing Chestnuts here in Zone 4b?

St. Lawrence Nurseries, in Zone 3, is offering blight resistant  
American Chestnut: descendents of trees found near Watertown NY in the  
1970's "which, although blighted, healed over their cankers and  
continued to produce seed for many years. These 4th generation  
seedlings . . . are likely to exhibit even more resistance"

http://www.sln.potsdam.ny.us/

If there was never any blight in your area, I'd talk to Bill  
MacKentley (who runs St. Lawrence) as to whether these seedlings may  
be carrying the blight; as if they are it would seem a bad idea to  
introduce them -- but their existence in zone 3 (St. Lawrence grows  
what they sell) certainly seems to indicate that at least some of the  
original gene pool was hardy through zone 4 and beyond. Whether the  
West Coast strain is as hardy is a question, of course; again, Bill  
might be able to shed some light on this.



-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale