CHESTNUT CULTIVAR EVALUATIONS IN TENNESSEE: ORCHARD ESTABLISHMENT AND EARLY GERMPLASM CHARACTERIZATION

More than 50 named cultivars of Castanea crenata (Japanese Chestnut), C. dentata (American Chestnut), C. henryi (Henry’s Chinkapin), C. mollissima (Chinese Chestnut), C. pumila (Allegheny Chinkapin), C. sativa (European Chestnut), and cultivars of Castanea interspecific hybrids are under evaluation. We started planting in April of 2003. We purchased commercially available, grafted nursery stock of as many cultivars as we could locate. We grafted plants of those cultivars we could not buy. Twenty of the cultivars were planted in a randomized complete block design with twenty trees of each cultivar planted in four five-tree plots. The remaining cultivars and species accessions were planted in single-tree plots, completely randomized, with one or more trees per cultivar, in guard rows around the main blocks. In the first two years of the trial, cultivar differences have been observed for vigor, survival, precocity of bloom, onset of anthesis, full anthesis, ripening date and harvest date, tree form and habit, insect attack and incidence of fungal diseases.