Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 44th Annual Meeting: Rochester, N.Y. August 31 and September 1, 1953
Science
Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 44th Annual Meeting: Rochester, N.Y. August 31 and September 1, 1953
Northern Nut Growers Association -- Periodicals; Nut trees -- Periodicals; Nuts -- Periodicals
MR. PEASE: I want to throw in something a little bit aside. I think we
kid ourselves and the public in assuming, tacitly, that Chinese
chestnuts, no matter how narrow the strain, are going to breed true or
anywhere near true. Any one lot of seedlings are likely to show great
variation in hardiness, disease resistance and other characters. There
is a great difference between resistance and immunity. I speak this way
because I have seen plenty of people selling Chinese chestnuts who
actually believe they are immune, and I have seen customers mad enough
to shoot them when they have seen half of them die of blight.
MR. MILLER: When considering hardiness, climate is one thing and air
drainage is another. In any climatic zone the exact location or site,
particularly air drainage is important. I have my orchard on a southwest
slope with perfect air drainage. I have 250-some trees that are six or
seven years old growing very nicely, and I have not had any loss, even
with English walnut, the Carpathian or any of the other trees. I think
that many of us are overlooking the fact that air drainage and location
of the orchard is one of the main things. I don't think this has
anything to do with the particular seed or the varieties, but I think
that is one thing that we must consider.
DR. CRANE: No question about that. Chinese chestnuts are like peaches,
and they start pretty early in the spring.
MR. GIBBS: Chinese chestnuts are hardy from Maine to Florida. I think
they winter kill because of unhealthy condition of the tree. The place
that I did live, at McLean, Virginia, was low in a frosty place, and the
first spring they killed back three times before they took off. Where I
live now in the Blue Ridge Mountains, which is orchard country, the
Chinese chestnut killed back in the spring, but there is nothing the
matter with their winter hardiness. They stand winter cold as good as a
walnut tree.
DR. GRAVES: I want to make the point that it is in part a question of
age, to my mind, as to whether these trees get winter killed. I know we
had some trees from the Department of Agriculture, Division of Forest
Pathology, back in 1925, and in the very cold winter, 1933-34, they
killed back almost to the ground. Again in the severe winter of 1943
Chinese chestnuts were killed. But I feel that when a tree is of good
size with its roots down in the ground, it's not so liable to winter
kill as are the small seedlings.
DR. CRANE: We have spent enough time on this matter. The question of
growing seedlings as compared to grafted trees is up for discussion. Mr.
Wilson is a big operator growing chestnuts in Georgia. I would like to
have him tell what he thinks of this matter of seedlings versus
varieties for nut production.
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