You ordered our Chestnut Seedling Trees, Now it’s time to Plant them!
Open your box as soon as it arrives, don’t let your chestnut roots dry out. Your trees are dormant and it’s time to get them planted in the ground.
Bare root trees do best when planted while they are dormant, we ship in spring and fall. Both fall and spring are great time to plant dormant chestnut trees. Our chestnut trees are between 1.5-2.5 feet tall with healthy vigorous root systems. They are ready to be planted as soon as the soil can be worked in the spring and before the ground freezes in the fall.
Soil Conditions
Chestnut seedlings do best in well drained soil. In you have too much standing water or very heavy clay soil consider amending the soil or planting in a different location.
We have used mounding to plant in wetter areas. Build a small mound, 6-12 inches is usually big enough and plant your chestnut trees into the mound. This usually elevates the tree just enough to get the roots out of soggy soil.
Planting Hole
Dig your planting hole slightly larger than your chestnut trees root ball. Most people use a shovel if planting on a small scale but you can use a post hole auger works if you have a lot of trees to plant. Put the root ball into your hole and back fill with your native soil. Take care to spread out the roots and point the ends of the roots down in the hole as you fill the hole up with soil.
Watering Your Trees
After planting, water your chestnut trees in. Water in thoroughly to allow the soil to settle in around the roots. Use wood chips or around type of mulch around the trees to conserve water and limit weed growth. Wood chips should not be touching the trunk.
Chestnut trees can be fertilized in the spring after they break dormancy. Apply wood chips to control weed and vegetative growth around the trees. Water trees as needed during the first growing season. Water heavily once per week or every other week depending on rainfall.
Plant Spacing
Chestnut trees should be planted at least 15 feet apart, ideally 20 to 40 feet apart to allow room at maturity for maximum nut production.
This spacing will ensure proper cross pollination between trees to get a good nut set. Typically, any 2 or our chestnut seedlings will pollinate each other. Seedling chestnut trees usually begin to bear within 4-5 years after planting and will produce for generations.
Get your trees planted right and you will be harvesting chestnuts like these in no time!
Wildlife Protection
We need to protect our chestnut trees from deer here in Hunterdon County New Jersey. If we didn’t our chestnut trees would be eaten or run over by deer almost immediately.
We use 5-6 feet tall tree tubes to guard our young trees until they grow big enough to take a little deer browse. You can also fence in individual trees or fence in your whole property.