Cheap Sweet Chestnut Trees

[TwoDo]

Just thought I would provide a report on how to obtain sweet chestnut trees inexpensively.

One day just before Christmas I was wandering about in the produce section of the local grocery store and saw some sweet chestnuts for sale. They were easily the largest sweet chestnuts I have ever seen - bigger even large horse chestnuts. I thought "I wonder if they will grow"? "Might be handy to have some nice sweet chestnut trees around - especially post SHTF".

So, I bought a handful and then dug around on the intertubes for some propagating information. It turns out that sweet chestnuts are what is known as "recalcitrant fruits". Basically this means that if they dry out they die - they have to be kept moist and cool till the spring. For most seeds this is not the case - the dryer they are stored the better. I did not know how well they had been treated before I got them - but they were cheap enough so I mixed them in some damp sand (ordinary builders sand with a bit of extra water) stuck them in a container, wrapped the lot in an old bread bag and put it in the fridge for a couple of months stratification. This all happened shortly before Christmas.

Today, I took them out (the space in the fridge was needed) and had a look. Turns out the things had sprouted in the sand in the fridge and nearly every nut had a root about 1 inch long protruding. I have now planted them in pots. If they take (and they should - the things were prepared to sprout in damp sand in my fridge) I should have about 16 sweet chestnut tree seedlings going.

Sweet Chestnut trees sell for about £20 to £30 in pots from the garden center or online. Growing them from nuts is a bit of hassle but much cheaper. Now that I have so many (assuming they survive) it is even realistic to plant them in various out of the way locations as part of my guerrilla gardening scheme.

Just thought I would let people know the results of my little experiment in case you want sweet chestnut trees and want to grow some from seed.

[Hamradioop]

well done, perhaps you would be better to find some woodland to Guerrilla plant them.

[northern bloke]

Good job, I once got some walnuts fallen from a tree and knowing the trees are quite rare round my area I thought I would have a go at growing one I stuck one in a pot and left it outside and was surprised to see it sprout and actually got to about a foot high until the dog noticed it

[Arzosah]

Good for you, TwoDo, thats really interesting - I found a couple of sweet chestnut trees while scouting last year, I could try the same thing. I suspect there's many a slip and all that - they don't seem to proliferate in the same way that horse chestnuts do, not at all. But great to know the way forward.

[the big fly in]

MMmmmm well done , will have to give it a go as well