'Thistle Row Precocious' Chestnut Seeds
Regular price
$20.00
Sale
***This seed was harvested October, 2026.
Castanea spp. (complex interspecific hybrids)
Origin: Thistle Row Chestnuts in Spring Grove, Minnesota (grown from seed originating from Badgersett Research Farm in Canton, Minnesota)
Improvement status: Breeding population (cultivated, semi-domesticated, genetically diverse "hybrid swarm")
Life cycle: Perennial
Seeds per packet: 10 ($2 each)
EFN co-founder Dusty Hinz has now planted several acres of high-density (30 feet between rows, 4 feet between plants, thinning as they grow into each other by selecting the best ones), 'hybrid swarm' chestnut trees at his family's farm in Spring Grove, Minnesota. All of these trees came from open-pollinated seeds from the best 20 or so chestnut trees at Badgersett Research Farm, which is also in southeastern Minnesota.
If you want more information on Badgersett chestnut genetics, please check out this link from when we previously sold their seed back in 2023:
This seed that we are offering now comes from two different plantings Dusty did at his farm: a half acre done in the Spring of 2022, and three acres in September of 2023, which amounted to about 1,500 trees total between these plantings.
A small percentage of these trees are now beginning to flower and are producing chestnuts, some of which are already looking like very promising young trees that had a lot of nuts on them. In total, Dusty gathered about a gallon ziploc worth of seed this year, so there isn't a lot.
***Just in general at EFN, we strive to be as transparent with our customers as we can. Oftentimes other chestnut orchards sell seed from selected trees that have ten years of data or more. However, there is some demand in the chestnut seed market for precocious genetics. People make a large investment planting these trees and they are looking to begin making their money back as soon as possible. We just want to be clear that we are selling you seed from young trees that have good potential and are already producing but do not have a proven track record of a decade or more.
The precociousness, coupled with the fact that these genetics all originate from selected trees at Badgersett, which are exceptionally cold-hardy, have high blight resistance, and have other valuable and diverse traits, are enough for us to feel comfortable releasing this seed. Please just bear in mind the disclaimer above. This seed is experimental.
The current state of our orchard with young trees also means that all these nuts are only receiving pollen from other precocious trees, further loading the dice towards trees that will produce nuts when they are young.
The size of these nuts can be considered mostly medium-sized with some slightly smaller than that. The size of a chestnut tree's nuts can get larger as the tree gets older, and can also vary year to year (with the amount of rainfall and timing of the rainfall being a contributor to the size).
Dusty has also started a new project called the Driftless Chestnut Network. Follow this link to learn more:
https://store.experimentalfarmnetwork.org/pages/the-driftless-chestnut-network
Pictured in the third picture is Dusty with his dad, Jack, who paid for all the trees to be planted. Special thanks to Dusty's parents, without whom this would not have been possible.
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.