The Growers Guild for Farming Chestnuts

This page serves as an index to the entire chestnut growers guide. The guide is organized by the life cycle of the chestnut tree with one exception. The exception is killing chestnut trees. This is provided first so you will get a feel for what not to do if you want to grow chestnut trees so they live for many years. When comparing the life expectancy of a chestnut tree to other trees, you will find the European chestnut trees out living oak trees (oak 400 - 600 years compared to chestnut 1000 years plus). A chestnut tree planted today in the right soil conditions will out live all dictators in the world, most nations, almost any drought, and all wars. If you want to leave a legacy then plant chestnut trees.

Your first step, even before planting your first tree, is find a chestnut tree cultivar that delivers chestnuts to fulfill your needs and the needs of your customers. Selecting your primary chestnut producing tree is the one thing has the greatest impact on your success of your efforts. Start by reading Chestnut Tree Perfection: The Selection of a Cultivar where your find the perspective of a commercial chestnut producer's reasoning for selecting the perfect chestnut tree.

Most of these chapters are works in progress. Some are complete but will be updated when research results can provide additional information to the chapter.

Chapter 1: Killing Chestnut Trees

Chapter 2: Starting Chestnut Trees from Seeds

Chapter 3: Orchard Design and Layout

Chapter 4: Tree and Orchard Maintenance

Chapter 5: Grafting Trees Using Green Woods

Chapter 6: Other Grafting Methods

Chapter 7: Harvesting and Post Harvest Handling

Chapter 8: Eating Chestnuts

Chapter 9: Myths of Growing Chesnut Trees

References for Chestnut Growers