Resilient Chinquapin Chestnut

Resilient is the most vigorous selection of chinquapin chestnut showing natural immunity to chestnut blight even on the largest of canes. It tends towards producing larger canes free of chestnut blight having nearly the double the caliper of other nearby seedlings. Chestnut blight is much less likely to attack the stems and weaken the plant. Resilient chinquapin is not a hybrid and is more tree like than other seedlings. Its bark is smooth. No blight has been found on the trunk for over 25 years. The branches of Resilient are rarely damaged and appear not to shed due to over yielding like some seedlings do.  This shedding is done as the tree matures which forces more growth into the dominant limbs. Although not entirely immune to chestnut blight, it appears this is one of the most resistant seedlings from the groupings I have at my farm. One of its seedlings also has this same growth habit and good resistance to blight for over a decade despite having blight in many nearby American hybrid chestnuts.

This variety can be grown from grafting. Grafts onto Chinese chestnut is the best rootstock to use. Seedlings from it may also show excellent resistance but not enough is known on a population level yet. Small nuts ripen starting in mid August. Seeds need to be planted immediately for propagation. Roots emerge without dormancy. Yields are heavy. Cross pollination is needed with another chinquapin chestnut otherwise no nuts will form. Any seedling chinquapin will work for cross pollination but not another species. Tree can be managed as a shrub while replacing diseased canes with new sprouts near the base similar to a lilac bush. Removing old canes improves the yields of the plants over time as the root system grows. Natural seeding occurs with this species. It happens surrounding the shrubs when the nuts hit the ground and are pushed into the soil by deer or humans harvesting. 

A population could be created from this seed strain beyond grafting. Seedlings from this group appear to have a similar trunk characteristic but more need to be grown to see what the outcome would be on a larger scale.