I have good news and bad news. The good news is that my American Chestnut trees produced what appear to be a few viable nuts. The bad news is that the number of viable nuts is much smaller than I had hoped for. American Chestnuts are monoecious, so although the largest tree produced many catkins and many seedcases, only one of the other two trees produced catkins, and not very many. (The second tree was topped by a moose a few years ago, setting it back a year or two.) So the second tree produced one solitary seedcase, compared with probably fifty for the main tree, and was not efficient in pollinating the main tree. I was only able to recover three viable nuts from both trees.
American Chestnut leaves and nuts (Wikimedia)
Not much else to report, except to say how annoyed I am with the Black Bears up at the cabin (near Crystal Lake). They have completely destroyed a beautiful hawthorn tree and almost completely destroyed another while removing the bumper crop of haws. The 5 cm long thorns didn’t seem to be a deterrent at all. After he wrecked this tree (I have a mug shot of him – a BIG male) he revisited the yellow jacket nest he dug up earlier in the summer. No pain receptors I guess.
Michael Doran
