July 4, 1946. From G. S. Jones, R 1, Box 140, Phenix City, Lee County,
Alabama.
My trees (Chinese chestnuts) appear to be healthy and grow vigorously.
(They were given me by the Bureau of Plant Industry in 1934.) They began
bearing in 5 or 6 years and have now been bearing quite large crops for
3 or 4 years. There are 22 trees in the orchard, and the approximate
yields have been: 1943--550 pounds; 1944--450 pounds, and 1945--950
pounds. The enormous increase in 1945 was due partly, I am quite sure,
to mineralized fertilizer (Es Min. El.) which I began using in 1944.
As my trees are seedlings they vary considerably in productivity and in
size of nuts. Most of the nuts are of good size and quality when first
gathered. This is where the trouble begins. The keeping quality is very
poor, sometimes half of them spoil during the first month after being
harvested. Since this is the case, you can see that germination may be
very poor, unless they are handled in a special way. Refrigeration helps
for a short while only. During the last two years, I have had good
results in germination by stratifying the nuts under the trees, just as
soon as they fall. In this way, the nuts are not allowed to become too
dry as they are not exposed to the hot sun but are kept in the shade.
Our falls are usually dry and our soil is sandy so there is little
danger of the nuts becoming too wet during the winter. The danger of
spoilage does not seem to be so great by the time winter rains set in.
By this plan, I have had from 60 to 90 per cent germination during the
last two years. I dig the nuts just as soon as they begin to sprout in
late winter and line them out in nursery rows where they are to grow
during the first year. Sometimes the sprouts become from 4 to 6 inches
in length before I get to do the moving, but they transplant easily. I
believe the micorrhiza from the soil of the old trees helps the young
ones to grow better.
December 11, 1946--My chestnut trees this fall produced slightly over
1,722 pounds. The nuts seemed to keep better than usual which I
attribute to the cool rainy weather which we had during the ripening
period. Hot, dry weather causes the nuts to begin spoiling quickly. My
records show August 7th as the beginning of the ripening period and
October 3rd as the ending. So one can see that this is often a hot and
dry period in our section.
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