WD, so about 7 years for Whitten to bear, same for BdB and Primato.  Interesting about starting new ones via layering.

I planted a seedling of Marrisard, from Burnt Ridge, last week.  I have grafted starts coming from Raintree, Marsol and Maraval, those shipments are delayed.  I think that's the last of big trees for me to plant now.  We'll see if they bear in 7 years or, I hope, sooner.

Thanks Viron for the info.  Now I'll know what to do if/when mine start bearing.  Here is my Maraval after one season of growth.   The fencing is 6 feet tall.  One of the two leads will be pruned off during winter. 

I'm being very diligent about deer fencing.  This year, deer learned to pull tree leaves and branches through bigger mesh welded steel fencing, and knocked over finer mesh plastic fencing, so I'm doing a double layer of the two.  Since I'm anxious to get them going as well as possible, the extra effort was worth it.

I bought two from Raintree - grafted  Marigoule and Maraval.  Then I bought one from Burnt Ridge - a seedling of Marrisard  The names are similar, I get them confused.  The Marrisord seedling was a mistake, because the parent tree doesn't make good pollen and I wanted mine to all be mutually cross pollinating.  Plus I wanted grafted, I didn't mean to order a seedling, but somehow did.  It's growing nicely so I'm keeping it.  Maraval and Marrisard were 2 foot tall on arrival this early spring, and now are 6 1/2 feet tall.  Marigoule was about 1 foot tall, and only put on about 6 inches of growth, if that much.  

 

Marissard seedling

Since the Marigoule didn't grow much, I moved it last month to a less important spot, and ordered a Precose Migoule from Burnt Ridge.  Those supposedly start producing in 2 or 3 to 5 years.

I did a lot of researching about chestnuts, so know more than i did a year ago, with a lot more to learn.

This year I tried grafting chestnuts.  One of my trees was a bad choice on my part.  I didn't realize the tree was a seedling until I planted it - be careful reading the nursery sites, so you don't get a seedling thinking it is a graft.  There are challenges with seedlings - you don't usually know who the male parent is, even in some cases possibly what species; the seedling might not bear for a decade, if it does at all.    On top of that, I made a mistake because the parent variety, Marisard, is not a producer of pollen.  The third mistake is I planted it West of the other chestnut trees.  My prevailing wind blows from West to East, so I should have planted a known pollen producer in that spot.  Oh well.

So I decided to try grafting from the other three varieties in my yard, all of which are known to produce pollen.  That way, if this tree never produces it's own chestnuts, I still have potential production from the grafts.  Plus, a triple variety grafted chestnut tree should at least be self pollinating, as well as pollinating the trees downwind.

The potential negative is that there are reports that chestnuts are often not graft compatible with other cultivars.  I read that it's best to graft a scion onto a seedling of that particular variety to get best compatibility.

I grafted scion from my Marivale, Marigoule, and Precose Migoule onto branches of that tree.  I'm really not confident about cutting a big branch or the lead from that tree, and bark grafting, so I used small branches and did whip-and-tongue.  I did four grafts, two of them from one variety.  I did my usual wrap, 1/2 inch wide tape made by cutting strips from a freezer zip-lock bag.  That binds nicely over a wide area.  These grafts are up high - I had to stand on a step ladder to make them.   All of these varieties are hybrids of European X Japanese varieties (Castanea sativa  X C. crenata)

All took, with from six inches to a foot of growth on each.  I was ham-handed and when I removed the tape from one of the grafts, I broke the graft.  I thought it didn't take, but it hung on by a thread and the leaves stayed green for a month afterwards.  I splinted it but I don't know if it will survive the winter.

I know there can be delayed compatibility, but I felt like it was 75% if not 100% for this first year, and they look good.  If they continue to grow they will be the major scaffold branches on that tree, although the center  will still be the original seedling.  I noted there is potential for a couple more scaffold branches so ordered two additional varieties to graft this winter.

I thought it might be good to report here.  There isn't a whole lot about hobby grafters for chestnuts.  These might actually grow and be productive in a year or two.  In fact, three of the grafts had male flowers this Spring, the same calendar year that they were grafted.  Time will tell if these make it through the winter, but they look good so far.

Here are a couple images of the grafts.  I did make long slices of the whips, thinking the extra surface area might make for a stronger graft.

Thanks John.   I wondered if they would take, because as you state there is a reputation they are hard to graft.  I just did the same as I do for apples.   We'll see if they survive the winter and continue to grow.  So far they seem as healthy and vigorous as any other kind of graft.

Another comment about chestnuts - My three year old  Maravale tree made about 2 dozen nuts this year.  It's a vigorous and tall tree already.  The two year old Precose Migoule made about a dozen - the problem with that one is the husks break open and drop the nuts before the husk falls from the tree, so animals get all of them.  I knocked some off with a long stick.  Don't stand under the tree while doing that!  They are like porcupines!  The Maravale nuts fall from the tree with the husk intact, so I get to eat those.  The little Marigoule had a branch with a female flower this spring, and I bent it to pollinate.  The branch broke off.  That's the third time I've done that.  The point of attachment for those young branches is quite brittle.  This time I have learned