have chestnuts......best way to plant?
Whitetail Deer
was given a large bag of chestnuts. Whats the best way to plant them and then transplant later? thanks in advance
This is a pretty open ended question, as there are ALOT of other considerations that come into play.
Starting from nuts, you can go with 2 routes:
1) Directs seed in the spring in their final location
2) Start indoors, or outdoors if the the weather is warm enough, in smaller pots and babysit the first summer...then transplant later.
I have grows hundreds of trees and have settled on starting them indoors in my basement about now. They will live there until about mid-May when they will be planted translated to larger 1 gallon pots for the summer. It's important to use pots that will prune the roots as the trees will push a deep tap root and circle badly....which is a problem when you go to plant them later.
I'll post some pics of my process.....
Thanks that looks very good
I planted 84 seeds under lights four weeks ago. 72 are up in various heights. The balance appear to be dead. What and when is the best time to fertilize?
I like to do both: direct seed and start indoors. When starting indoors I don't like to transplant until fall dormancy.
Regardless of the method you use, you should probably protect the seedlings from rodents and deer with screen and tubes, or cages.
pandlet.......I fertilize when I see top growth, but I use slow release fertilizer as a shot a "full strength" can kill them when they are young. I use Osmocoat Plus for the fertilizer and just sprinkle a 3-5 pellets at each tree (depending on pot size). When I transplant them, I will give them some more and I will also start to fertilize with the "good" stuff!
I will say that you don't want to fertilize too late into the summer as it can make the trees push new growth that wont properly harden off before winter.....this stresses the tree out and can cause some die back of the tree or even kill it.
CAS_HNTR what are the tubes you have in that picture? I have trees I will be planting in the fall and need something to protect them.
I have been using Blue-X tubes due to their cost......I think there are better tubes out there, but when you buy a few hundred of them, the costs adds up!
plant in pots and transplant in fall, damb squirrels or deer will eat what nuts you plant. use low nitrate fert, these trees have low requirements . And don't laugh but sugar is a good choice for fert for these trees as it wont burn them , you can expect near 4 ft growth first yr with sugar
And as always I have 30 or so free seedlings to any local guys willing to pick up. I am in Charleston sc area, not willing to mail them.
