Blight Free American Chestnut in TNF

[todd150hp]

Thought ya'll might find this interesting

http://www.dailyhome.com/news/2009/dh-localnews-0809-0-9h08v0520.htm

[Joshua Szulecki]

Cool! I've certainly never seen one.

[Pathfinder]

Very cool!  And you might be interested in this document: 

http://216.226.177.78/PDFs/Champion_Trees.pdf

[jaybird]

I had a professor at Auburn who had devoted his entire career to trying to come up with a disease-resistant American Chestnut.  This was being accomplished by crossing with the Chinese Chestnut -- which is resistant to the blight.  Scientists had to figure out how to take the best properties of the American variety (tall, straight, edible nuts, etc.) and merge it with the best properties of the Chinese variety (disease resistance).  The Chinese variety is substantially shorter and wider, and the nuts aren't as tasty.

The American Chestnut Foundation sells non-disease resistant seedlings for $7.00 each.  In 10-15 years, many years of research and genetic crosses are expected to result in the first blight-resistant strain of seedlings.  I find it painfully ironic that the tree presents itself towards the end of this work.  The article does mention that scientists from the ACF collected pollen from this tree to possibly use in their research.

The ACF website has a picture of a large blight-free American Chestnut from Adair County, Kentucky, and says it is the largest surviving American chestnut in the southeastern United States. It stands approximately 60 feet tall and has a diameter of nearly four feet.  The Alabama one is 74 feet tall with a diameter of 3 feet, 5 inches.  I think they need to update their website!!!  The Alabama discovery was over 2 years ago according to the original article.

Many of the giant felled trees on the AT that you must step over and around are old chestnuts, which once occupied 1/4th of the Eastern U.S. forest.  You can only imagine what an economic blow the chestnut blight was to the forestry industry.

http://www.acf.org/seeds_seedlings.php

http://forestry.about.com...cs/treeid/a/achestnut.htm

[Uncle Wayne]

I had a professor at Auburn who had devoted his entire career to trying to come up with a disease-resistant American Chestnut.  This was being accomplished by crossing with the Chinese Chestnut -- which is resistant to the blight.  Scientists had to figure out how to take the best properties of the American variety (tall, straight, edible nuts, etc.) and merge it with the best properties of the Chinese variety (disease resistance).  The Chinese variety is substantially shorter and wider, and the nuts aren't as tasty.

The American Chestnut Foundation sells non-disease resistant seedlings for $7.00 each.  In 10-15 years, many years of research and genetic crosses are expected to result in the first blight-resistant strain of seedlings.  I find it painfully ironic that the tree presents itself towards the end of this work.  The article does mention that scientists from the ACF collected pollen from this tree to possibly use in their research.

The ACF website has a picture of a large blight-free American Chestnut from Adair County, Kentucky, and says it is the largest surviving American chestnut in the southeastern United States. It stands approximately 60 feet tall and has a diameter of nearly four feet.  The Alabama one is 74 feet tall with a diameter of 3 feet, 5 inches.  I think they need to update their website!!!  The Alabama discovery was over 2 years ago according to the original article.

Many of the giant felled trees on the AT that you must step over and around are old chestnuts, which once occupied 1/4th of the Eastern U.S. forest.  You can only imagine what an economic blow the chestnut blight was to the forestry industry.

http://www.acf.org/seeds_seedlings.php

http://forestry.about.com...cs/treeid/a/achestnut.htm

I hope that works.  I know of one American Chestnut just outside the FS boundary on private land that is thriving.  Thanks for that info.