***This seed was harvested September/October, 2026.
SHIPPING RESTRICTION NOTICE: Due to quarantine restrictions on chestnuts, we cannot ship these seeds to California, Oregon, and Washington. We are also not shipping them internationally. Orders to these places will be canceled.
Castanea spp. (complex interspecific hybrids)
Origin: Hiram Township, Ohio
Improvement status: Breeding population (cultivated, semi-domesticated, genetically diverse "hybrid swarm")
Life cycle: Perennial
Pricing options:
10 seeds for $22.50 ($2.25 each)
25 seeds for $50 ($2 each)
50 seeds for $87.50 ($1.75 each)
75 seeds for $112.50 ($1.50 each)
100 seeds for $125 ($1.25 each)
200 seeds for $200 ($1 each)
300 seeds for $300 ($1 each)
Bob Stehli is a prolific chestnut grower who hails from northeastern Ohio and is a beloved member of the Northern Nut Growers Association (NNGA) community. It is at the last three annual NNGA conferences where EFN co-founder, Dusty Hinz, has been able to get to know him a bit.
At this time Bob has 220 acres of chestnut in production. He estimates he has planted over 30,000 total chestnut trees since he began in the late 1990s (though he culls heavily at a clip of 90% over time). Bob and Dusty are both big proponents of planting high-density and selectively culling as trees begin to grow into each other as the years go by. This 'Hiram' orchard we are offering seed from was planted at 20' x 4' spacing. At the most recent NNGA conference Bob told Dusty he now plants his orchards at 15' x 12' spacing. Dusty plants his orchard at 30' x 4' spacing.
Here is Bob's description of his 'Hiram' orchard:
"In 1997, with the help of the Northern Nut Growers Association and the Society of Ontario Nut Growers, we were able to get 4,424 seedlings from about 25 chestnut trees that were considered to be the best trees in North America at that time. Some of the selections that we received seedlings from were later named as cultivars (including: Qing, Gideon, and Liddington 12, 15, and 22).
The experimental orchard was planted in the Spring of 1997 in Hiram Township, Ohio: Climatic Zone 5 (until recently). The orchard is on a moderately well drained silt loam soil with an upland oak site index of 85'.
The trees were planted in a random arrangement on a 4' x 20' grid, and mapped out. It wasn't long before Chestnut blight, and -25F winter temperatures thinned the population to about half its original number. Over the next 15 years or so, we continued to remove all but the most exceptional trees in the orchard, reducing the number of trees from 4,424 to about 360.
The orchard has a great deal of genetic diversity: including hybrids and super hybrids of all the major chestnut species. This is important as each species co-evolved with a separate set of pests and pathogens, and developed resistance to them, thus, the American chestnut is very resistant to potato leaf hopper (an American pest) while the Japanese chestnut has excellent resistance to Japanese beetles, a Japanese pest.
The hope is to combine the best genetics from all of these species into one, and preserve all of the genomes albeit in hybrid form.
The Hiram orchard produced just over 2,000 pounds/acre average over a 3 year span. I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but we are at the northern limit of the range for commercial orchards. Also, I often hear these high production figures [from other growers], but almost always they are extrapolations from one lone tree, or the best year they ever had. The 2,000 pound/acre figure is a proven achievement on a 10 acre orchard.
We have used seed from the Hiram Research Orchard to plant over 20,000 trees that we monitor closely, and we have discovered many excellent new selections from these plantings that we believe are better than any of the many cultivars that we have tried here. We hope that you can help us continue this work!"
This Hiram Select seed mix includes three pounds of seed each from 21 of the best trees in the orchard, including one of Bob's renowned trees, Tree Of The North, a seedling of Campbell NC6 or NC9, which consistently produces over 300 pounds of nuts per year. Tree Of The North is pictured in the photo with Bob at the base of the tree after it has dropped its leaves.
We combined seed from all the different 21 trees together in one big mix, so you are sure to get some great genetic diversity.
The average size of these nuts is best described as medium-large.
We are very excited to have this diverse chestnut seed mix in our catalogue and thrilled that Bob wanted to work with us to make it happen. Thanks Bob!
Notes on storing chestnut seed:
In order to germinate in the spring, chestnuts need to be kept cool (32-40F) and moist for 2-3 months.
We recommend storing them in ziploc bags in a fridge. You should put the seed in the fridge immediately upon receiving it. We like the heavier duty freezer ziploc bags. The ziplocs can be sealed and do not need slits cut in them for venting. Just regular ziploc bags already allow some oxygen to pass in and out. Putting them in a sealed ziploc bag makes them less likely to dry out, which is what you should be more concerned with.
We also recommend dunking the chestnuts in water for ten minutes every so often throughout the winter and then returning them to fridge. This rehydrates them. How frequently you do this can be based on how dry they actually look. But getting them wet every four weeks, give or take, is reasonable.
The closer you keep them in the 32-34 degrees Fahrenheit range the less likely they are to begin germinating in the fridge in February or March. If kept at 40 degrees Fahrenheit they are far more likely to begin germinating earlier than you probably want.
However, chestnuts cannot freeze. If they freeze they will die. The generally accepted temperature at which they die is 25 degrees Fahrenheit.
You can add slightly moist (not damp!) peat moss to the bag to help retain moisture, if necessary; this is usually helpful for small amounts of seed.
Notes on planting:
Chestnuts need to be grown in a rodent-proof situation. This usually means protected by 1/4" hardware cloth around the outside of a wooden framed box outside, in a greenhouse, or in a rodent-proof nursery bed. Do not just plant them directly in the soil without protection, they will almost always be eaten by rodents or birds.
