Hey man. It’s September here in south eastern PA. Your videos have been very helpful as a reference. This fall I have began collecting nuts of various trees, acorns, black walnut, chinquapin x Chinese chestnut , and butternut. I want to say thanks again as our hunting cabin lies in the hardiness 5B zone and you have been one of the few channels that has provided information on these trees that are in the zone!
So after harvesting the seeds from the nut trees in autumn, you leave them in a moist sawdust and biochar mix, in a cold room (like a root cellar). And when some of them are sprouting top early, you would plant them in these air prune beds that you leave to wait there in the root cellar until the soil is heated up? Did i get the diferent steps of the process right? I live in France and i want to create a small scale permaculture nursery here. I have not found such a knowledgeable you tube channel in France. So i have watched almost all your videos and i have to tell you: you are a true inspiration for me, si many great ideas, shared in a humble way. Thank you so much
Hoping you just washed the mold off and put them back or planted them... I should have mentioned in the video, but mold is a lot of the time just superficial and can easily be rinsed off and the seed is still very much alive. Glad you checked!
@@edibleacres most were just superficial. But the shelled stone fruit seeds that were infected were defo rotten. Actually that's a good question: Do you shell your stone fruit seeds?
Thanks for sharing! I have done black walnut and butternuts in a metal coffee can when I could get them from other people. I layered them like you, but planted in my garden over the winter. I had pretty good luck with that. The root cellar would be another way too and to get a jump on the 'growing' part.
I'm guessing you don't have insane chipmunk/red squirrel pressure where you live... If we had an open field we could potentially plant in the fall and let them just grow, but with the woodlands all around we'd be 100% robbed if we did that.
I can understand that anything we plant they find. The animals seem to forget where they planted it. I had to correct my previous post. We have black walnut and butternut trees. Brain fart....... blah We have chipmunks (raid the chicken food in the house), grey, and black squirrels. I have not seen red squirrels on our place, but they are here in MN in the more 'people' populated areas. It does depend on the year, but the metal coffee can buried in the dirt (old folks mentioned to do this)seemed to help with that problem or I had not done it enough to attract attention. haha You guys have a lot of nuts it looks like you work with makes a difference. We do have a lot of oak trees that might off set the raiding. My nut trees have suddenly quit producing after only 3 years of getting started and it has been several years since we have gotten any. I have theories on the issue besides the trees are marginal for up here.
Just found some chestnuts starting to sprout. I guess they could go into the air prune boxes early and be set out in with much over top? What are the odds they will get killed by frost? Or do they typically just keep making tap root for a long while until it warms up?
Definitely worth planting... Protect from rodents and if you are concerned about deep freezing put mulch all around the box to keep them safe until mild weather.
I don't worry about the details much and just try my best. But air root pruning seems to make some really beautiful, fibrous root systems that transplant beautifully.
What I meant to ask, does a taproot die when you transplant? Here in the Mediterranean water table drops in the heat of the summer.I experiment with both direct seeding vs transplants, but direct seeding has major downsides, most of what I plant end up in the belly of a vole, and I have to walk the distance to water,...Is that taproot worth the extra work? Some say it always dies when you transplant, others say thats bullshit...???
Would you please explain what makes this variety of chestnut super. Are they a cross between American and Asian? Are they blight-resistant? Are the fruits sweet and tasty? Do they have a higher protein content? Are they fast Growers? I'm quite interested in the work you've done with chestnuts over the years. Please help me understand why these tburg. Are considered super?
'Tburg Super' is just a silly name I gave them. Someday we'll have a proper name. BUT... They are two trees in someones yard planted in the early 1970s. For the last 10 years, the owners of the land have collected every nut from the two trees (as best they could), and weighed them. The trees have averaged 175lbs of nuts per tree pretty much each year this whole time. Small, but incredibly sweet and lovely nuts, with no blight on the trees and wide, open, powerfully branched 'yard tree' form of the tree itself. Somehow they don't get weevils much at all, either. In some ways, the perfect chestnut for us! It's super!
i have tried raising oak trees from seed numerous times in small cups or replant on my property. had some growing, but every winter over the years I end up with fewer and fewer. last year I just threw a bunch of acorns into the maple leaves. I did not find, yet, 1 sprouted oak tree. when I grew them in cups I would use soil and sand. they like a sandy soil. I think ill try your idea with a deeper base.
I would encourage the deeper base, with a mesh at the bottom. 6" deep or ideally 8-12" deep with a mesh to 'air prune' the tap root. Keep it cool but not frozen all winter and set out in the spring with protection from squirrels and the like. VERY worth the repeat effort!
Seems reasonable, especially if you are in a more mild winter climate. We can get to -15F or colder once in a while in the winter which is pretty rough on a lot of seeds... If you have a mild climate and good protection you could save a lot of fuss just keeping them outside but protected.
you're saying if you plant in a plastic pot the roots will spin, but what happens when those roots hit oxygen from below?? do the roots tangle around the mesh??? also i am so thankful for all these videos on nuts!!!
They do not tangle around the mesh, they 'air prune' (definitely worth searching online so you can understand the concept more fully). It's a neat idea, and it works wonders.
That is the idea. Basically getting them oriented and in the soil they will grow in for the season and back into refridge type conditions to keep their progression very slow and steady.
So just a quick question about this air-pruning young trees this way, don't they want to develop a deep taproot (I know walnuts do, for example), and doesn't this prevent that from happening? Will they further grow their taproot once they are in the ground proper?
What I understand of it, and take it with a grain of salt, is that they have a tap root mainly when they are young to out compete other plants and get a 'foot hold 'in the landscape... Once they are growing and happy they tend to shed that and focus on a more fibrous root system. This helps facilitate that. We've had great success so far with this approach, but thats maybe just us :)
@@edibleacres Ahhh, thanks for the info, I did not know that, I can do some reading up of my own but at first glance that would make sense. I'd always assumed the taproot was the tree's main, long-term means of finding water deep down, but maybe that is not quite right.
How would you generally speaking store seeds? Some say that if the seeds are properly stored then they'll last couple of years but some claim that they'll last a lot even longer than that? Thx. Keep that ChickenTV going and you'll be a millionaire some day, I'm sure of it!
So many different types of seed, no real answer that I can easily provide... Tree seeds I think for the most part woudl love to be planted in the fall and deeply mulched, but then wildlife may rob them before they get a chance. Whatever conditions you can provide that are closest to that, but protected, will be ideal. But soooo many variables!
Can nuts be a good replacement for grain as an everyday food? I feel like people are adapted to have some sort of staple starchy food in their diet. Grain just seems bad because without tilling its like impossible to grow, and I dont want to till. I just wondered about the digestibility of nuts and how well nut flour can mimic bread.
I would encourage you to look into: "Tree Crops: A permanent Agriculture" by J Russel Smith. Your instinct here is excellent and well supported by many cultures and researchers...!
@@edibleacres I mostly definitely will check it out. I recall hearing that acorns were a staple food for indigenous people in the northern hemisphere, but it seems like all the modern research is trying to say that nuts arent healthy. Im going to try eating nuts on a regular basis for a while and see how my body likes it. How often do you and Sasha eat them?
Do you think it would work to cut bottoms out of big plastic pots (we have tons of them!) and replace the bottom with wire mesh or fabric for air pruning?
That seems possible. Or make a frame/rack that you can sit a bunch of the pots with the bottoms cut out onto? Give it a shot, let us know how it works!
I don't have a root cellar but i do have a single car closed garage. It's cold in winter in there and hot in summer. Damp all the time. Where else can I place tree nuts to start growing. I do have pecans from neighborhood trees that start growing as little trees in my yard. The pecans are left by squirrels that bring the nuts into my yard to crack and eat. Where should I place containers like yours? Help please!!!
You may do well to consider burying crates of seeds outside a little... I take containers that are rodent proof but have a little bit of holes in top and bottom and semi-bury them outside and then cover all that with mulch like leaves / wood chips. Tends to work nicely over winter and doesn't take up indoor space!
Why not just store them in the air-prune beds with the appropriate spacing etc. right from the start? Sure you'd use/lose some air-prune bed space for non-viable seeds but I feel like that's a reasonable trade-off to save half the work and you wouldn't have to worry if they start sprouting early.
I will be trying this in the future. The challenge, though, is air prune beds are de-coupled from the earth so I would have to figure out ways to deeply mulch and protect/keep warm these beds through our deep/harsh winters before spring. The smaller 1x2' boxes in this video would be easier to simply store on the ground under a DEEP layer of leaves and then come spring put up on rails to grow out. Thats the plan moving forward (at least to test)... Great thought here, thanks.
@@edibleacres I know it's been 3 yrs...but did you try what you were planning & have any success? I don't recall that you have mentioned it one way or the other.
What is your moisture content like for your potting soil mix when you begin the air prune stage? At this point of taproot development does it also make sense to start using a grow light to start indoors (assuming one accepts the idea of using a light)?
Thanks, understood, I think come middle to end of February my chestnuts will be ready for germination but I wouldn't be able to provide natural light indoors. Either I would need to wait to transfer to pots til I can do it outside when it warms up or under a light
does anyone know if you can grow that seed in Sacramento California? it's sorta hot but it does get a cold snap for winter. Or a better nut seed choice.
I would suspect there are a good number of nut varieties that are best suited to your area... I don't know them, but do others want to chime in with suggestions?
Some of our chestnuts sprouted in the fridge about a month ago. I currently have some ~1' chestnut seedlings under grow lights. The pots are only 7" deep and I'm thinking about repotting into some 14" deep pots I picked up. I'm really worried about them getting root bound before it warms up enough here to plant them out (Northern Michigan, 5B). Will these seedlings survive a little frost or will I have to wait until mid-May to plant them out? I also have some large air pots (fabric type) that I used for some dwarf banana trees for our sunroom. Would I be better off moving multiple seedlings into the large air pots vs. moving them into the 6" wide x 14" deep pots?
Thats the tricky part of storing in cool but not cold conditions, tree seeds wake up early! You'll definitely want them in tall/deep pots to let the roots develop. Once they are actively growing and leafing out inside consider them like Tomatoes... You'll want to ease them slowly into outside conditions as it warms up. Shady/cool outside with no frost, then a little sun, no frost, then full sun and hopefully frost free until fall. If you play your cards right and ease them into the season you could very well end up with 5' tall trees! But it's a lot more fuss and worry. So glad you are trying and please let us know how it goes! I bet you end up with at least a few wonderful beauties!
@@edibleacres Thank you for the info. The tomatoes analogy is exactly what I was thinking - and worried about - haha. I usually don't have tomatoes in the garden until the end of May. Should I limit the amount of light they get inside (12 hrs currently), or just let them rip? I'm pretty excited to see how these do in our climate. I got them from an orchard outside Grand Rapids, MI which is 6A. They were recommended because they have a relatively short growing season and he thought they would be dropping nuts before our early/mid-October frost. Most importantly they were delicious. No idea how cold hardy they are though. :)
Hey man. It’s September here in south eastern PA. Your videos have been very helpful as a reference. This fall I have began collecting nuts of various trees, acorns, black walnut, chinquapin x Chinese chestnut , and butternut. I want to say thanks again as our hunting cabin lies in the hardiness 5B zone and you have been one of the few channels that has provided information on these trees that are in the zone!
Thank you
I've done this - they're now lovely 1.5 metre trees which I'm growing for extra pollen for my Bouche de Betizac tree. I just LOVE roasted chestnuts!
Thanks for taking the time to share your ideas with deliberate explanations easy to put into action. cheers!
Truly our pleasure, thanks for watching!
So after harvesting the seeds from the nut trees in autumn, you leave them in a moist sawdust and biochar mix, in a cold room (like a root cellar). And when some of them are sprouting top early, you would plant them in these air prune beds that you leave to wait there in the root cellar until the soil is heated up?
Did i get the diferent steps of the process right?
I live in France and i want to create a small scale permaculture nursery here. I have not found such a knowledgeable you tube channel in France. So i have watched almost all your videos and i have to tell you: you are a true inspiration for me, si many great ideas, shared in a humble way.
Thank you so much
Checked my seeds a few days ago. 1/5 had mould in some baggies. Woulda been worse. Check your seeds indeed!!
Hoping you just washed the mold off and put them back or planted them... I should have mentioned in the video, but mold is a lot of the time just superficial and can easily be rinsed off and the seed is still very much alive. Glad you checked!
@@edibleacres most were just superficial. But the shelled stone fruit seeds that were infected were defo rotten. Actually that's a good question: Do you shell your stone fruit seeds?
Thanks for sharing! I have done black walnut and butternuts in a metal coffee can when I could get them from other people. I layered them like you, but planted in my garden over the winter. I had pretty good luck with that. The root cellar would be another way too and to get a jump on the 'growing' part.
I'm guessing you don't have insane chipmunk/red squirrel pressure where you live... If we had an open field we could potentially plant in the fall and let them just grow, but with the woodlands all around we'd be 100% robbed if we did that.
I can understand that anything we plant they find. The animals seem to forget where they planted it. I had to correct my previous post. We have black walnut and butternut trees. Brain fart....... blah
We have chipmunks (raid the chicken food in the house), grey, and black squirrels. I have not seen red squirrels on our place, but they are here in MN in the more 'people' populated areas. It does depend on the year, but the metal coffee can buried in the dirt (old folks mentioned to do this)seemed to help with that problem or I had not done it enough to attract attention. haha You guys have a lot of nuts it looks like you work with makes a difference. We do have a lot of oak trees that might off set the raiding. My nut trees have suddenly quit producing after only 3 years of getting started and it has been several years since we have gotten any. I have theories on the issue besides the trees are marginal for up here.
Thank you!
Just found some chestnuts starting to sprout. I guess they could go into the air prune boxes early and be set out in with much over top? What are the odds they will get killed by frost? Or do they typically just keep making tap root for a long while until it warms up?
Definitely worth planting... Protect from rodents and if you are concerned about deep freezing put mulch all around the box to keep them safe until mild weather.
Yes, more nursery videos please. What's your opinion on taproots and transplanting trees? Allot of conflicting info online... As usual. Thanks
I don't worry about the details much and just try my best. But air root pruning seems to make some really beautiful, fibrous root systems that transplant beautifully.
@@edibleacres a follow-up on separating and planting please. 😊
What I meant to ask, does a taproot die when you transplant? Here in the Mediterranean water table drops in the heat of the summer.I experiment with both direct seeding vs transplants, but direct seeding has major downsides, most of what I plant end up in the belly of a vole, and I have to walk the distance to water,...Is that taproot worth the extra work? Some say it always dies when you transplant, others say thats bullshit...???
I see a pottery kiln in the background in this video. Do either you or Sasha make pottery or do other work in clay?
Sasha has experience with pottery and would fire in that kiln in the past. It has been a while but she says she wants to again so we're keeping it! :)
THANKS SO MUCH
Would you please explain what makes this variety of chestnut super. Are they a cross between American and Asian? Are they blight-resistant? Are the fruits sweet and tasty? Do they have a higher protein content? Are they fast Growers? I'm quite interested in the work you've done with chestnuts over the years. Please help me understand why these tburg. Are considered super?
'Tburg Super' is just a silly name I gave them. Someday we'll have a proper name. BUT... They are two trees in someones yard planted in the early 1970s. For the last 10 years, the owners of the land have collected every nut from the two trees (as best they could), and weighed them. The trees have averaged 175lbs of nuts per tree pretty much each year this whole time. Small, but incredibly sweet and lovely nuts, with no blight on the trees and wide, open, powerfully branched 'yard tree' form of the tree itself. Somehow they don't get weevils much at all, either. In some ways, the perfect chestnut for us! It's super!
yum @@edibleacres
Cool stuff. Thx.
i have tried raising oak trees from seed numerous times in small cups or replant on my property. had some growing, but every winter over the years I end up with fewer and fewer. last year I just threw a bunch of acorns into the maple leaves. I did not find, yet, 1 sprouted oak tree. when I grew them in cups I would use soil and sand. they like a sandy soil. I think ill try your idea with a deeper base.
I would encourage the deeper base, with a mesh at the bottom. 6" deep or ideally 8-12" deep with a mesh to 'air prune' the tap root. Keep it cool but not frozen all winter and set out in the spring with protection from squirrels and the like. VERY worth the repeat effort!
Any reason to not just put the nuts in the air prune boxes in the fall either in root cellar, or outside under heavy mulch?
Seems reasonable, especially if you are in a more mild winter climate. We can get to -15F or colder once in a while in the winter which is pretty rough on a lot of seeds... If you have a mild climate and good protection you could save a lot of fuss just keeping them outside but protected.
you're saying if you plant in a plastic pot the roots will spin, but what happens when those roots hit oxygen from below?? do the roots tangle around the mesh??? also i am so thankful for all these videos on nuts!!!
They do not tangle around the mesh, they 'air prune' (definitely worth searching online so you can understand the concept more fully). It's a neat idea, and it works wonders.
Thanks Sean. You're the Tree Jenny of NY. With them in the root cellar are you expecting only root growth?
That is the idea. Basically getting them oriented and in the soil they will grow in for the season and back into refridge type conditions to keep their progression very slow and steady.
Wow so many trees brilliant in just getting into growing from seed & the first ones got slugged & moused 😩
Try, try again Mandy. Don't give up!
@@flowergrowersmith449 always trying 😀
You look like jordan Peterson!
Will the trees still need to be grafted?
So just a quick question about this air-pruning young trees this way, don't they want to develop a deep taproot (I know walnuts do, for example), and doesn't this prevent that from happening? Will they further grow their taproot once they are in the ground proper?
What I understand of it, and take it with a grain of salt, is that they have a tap root mainly when they are young to out compete other plants and get a 'foot hold 'in the landscape... Once they are growing and happy they tend to shed that and focus on a more fibrous root system. This helps facilitate that. We've had great success so far with this approach, but thats maybe just us :)
@@edibleacres Ahhh, thanks for the info, I did not know that, I can do some reading up of my own but at first glance that would make sense. I'd always assumed the taproot was the tree's main, long-term means of finding water deep down, but maybe that is not quite right.
How would you generally speaking store seeds? Some say that if the seeds are properly stored then they'll last couple of years but some claim that they'll last a lot even longer than that? Thx. Keep that ChickenTV going and you'll be a millionaire some day, I'm sure of it!
So many different types of seed, no real answer that I can easily provide... Tree seeds I think for the most part woudl love to be planted in the fall and deeply mulched, but then wildlife may rob them before they get a chance. Whatever conditions you can provide that are closest to that, but protected, will be ideal. But soooo many variables!
Can nuts be a good replacement for grain as an everyday food? I feel like people are adapted to have some sort of staple starchy food in their diet. Grain just seems bad because without tilling its like impossible to grow, and I dont want to till. I just wondered about the digestibility of nuts and how well nut flour can mimic bread.
I would encourage you to look into: "Tree Crops: A permanent Agriculture" by J Russel Smith.
Your instinct here is excellent and well supported by many cultures and researchers...!
@@edibleacres I mostly definitely will check it out. I recall hearing that acorns were a staple food for indigenous people in the northern hemisphere, but it seems like all the modern research is trying to say that nuts arent healthy. Im going to try eating nuts on a regular basis for a while and see how my body likes it. How often do you and Sasha eat them?
Do you think it would work to cut bottoms out of big plastic pots (we have tons of them!) and replace the bottom with wire mesh or fabric for air pruning?
That seems possible. Or make a frame/rack that you can sit a bunch of the pots with the bottoms cut out onto? Give it a shot, let us know how it works!
@@edibleacres Oh! That sounds like a better plan. Thanks! I'll try it out and let you all know :)
Awesome, thanks Sean, great info there! What's the silver thing behind your right elbow?
Thats our time traveling pod. We can put anything in it and go minutes into the future when you take it out.
OH... I thought you meant the other silver thing. What you meant is Sasha's electric kiln :)
EdibleAcres ?!!! Hahaha.
EdibleAcres oh, cool!
I don't have a root cellar but i do have a single car closed garage. It's cold in winter in there and hot in summer. Damp all the time. Where else can I place tree nuts to start growing. I do have pecans from neighborhood trees that start growing as little trees in my yard. The pecans are left by squirrels that bring the nuts into my yard to crack and eat. Where should I place containers like yours? Help please!!!
You may do well to consider burying crates of seeds outside a little... I take containers that are rodent proof but have a little bit of holes in top and bottom and semi-bury them outside and then cover all that with mulch like leaves / wood chips. Tends to work nicely over winter and doesn't take up indoor space!
Nice kiln! Who's the potter?
Sasha! Good eye!
Why not just store them in the air-prune beds with the appropriate spacing etc. right from the start? Sure you'd use/lose some air-prune bed space for non-viable seeds but I feel like that's a reasonable trade-off to save half the work and you wouldn't have to worry if they start sprouting early.
I will be trying this in the future. The challenge, though, is air prune beds are de-coupled from the earth so I would have to figure out ways to deeply mulch and protect/keep warm these beds through our deep/harsh winters before spring. The smaller 1x2' boxes in this video would be easier to simply store on the ground under a DEEP layer of leaves and then come spring put up on rails to grow out. Thats the plan moving forward (at least to test)... Great thought here, thanks.
@@edibleacres I know it's been 3 yrs...but did you try what you were planning & have any success? I don't recall that you have mentioned it one way or the other.
What is your moisture content like for your potting soil mix when you begin the air prune stage? At this point of taproot development does it also make sense to start using a grow light to start indoors (assuming one accepts the idea of using a light)?
I don't use lights if I can help it, doesn't seem worth the fuss. I try to keep the soil nice and moist if possible.
Thanks, understood, I think come middle to end of February my chestnuts will be ready for germination but I wouldn't be able to provide natural light indoors. Either I would need to wait to transfer to pots til I can do it outside when it warms up or under a light
does anyone know if you can grow that seed in Sacramento California? it's sorta hot but it does get a cold snap for winter. Or a better nut seed choice.
Chestnuts grow in Gridley CA. about an hour north of Sac.
I would suspect there are a good number of nut varieties that are best suited to your area... I don't know them, but do others want to chime in with suggestions?
@@edibleacres we got a lot of oaks. but more nut options would be good.
Some of our chestnuts sprouted in the fridge about a month ago. I currently have some ~1' chestnut seedlings under grow lights. The pots are only 7" deep and I'm thinking about repotting into some 14" deep pots I picked up. I'm really worried about them getting root bound before it warms up enough here to plant them out (Northern Michigan, 5B). Will these seedlings survive a little frost or will I have to wait until mid-May to plant them out?
I also have some large air pots (fabric type) that I used for some dwarf banana trees for our sunroom. Would I be better off moving multiple seedlings into the large air pots vs. moving them into the 6" wide x 14" deep pots?
Thats the tricky part of storing in cool but not cold conditions, tree seeds wake up early! You'll definitely want them in tall/deep pots to let the roots develop.
Once they are actively growing and leafing out inside consider them like Tomatoes... You'll want to ease them slowly into outside conditions as it warms up. Shady/cool outside with no frost, then a little sun, no frost, then full sun and hopefully frost free until fall. If you play your cards right and ease them into the season you could very well end up with 5' tall trees! But it's a lot more fuss and worry. So glad you are trying and please let us know how it goes! I bet you end up with at least a few wonderful beauties!
@@edibleacres Thank you for the info. The tomatoes analogy is exactly what I was thinking - and worried about - haha. I usually don't have tomatoes in the garden until the end of May. Should I limit the amount of light they get inside (12 hrs currently), or just let them rip?
I'm pretty excited to see how these do in our climate. I got them from an orchard outside Grand Rapids, MI which is 6A. They were recommended because they have a relatively short growing season and he thought they would be dropping nuts before our early/mid-October frost. Most importantly they were delicious. No idea how cold hardy they are though. :)
🌰🌰😊😊🌱🌴
Perhaps the camera person needs a netti pot :)
We noticed it after the filming. Sorry about that. It's late winter, what can ya do! :)
@@edibleacres Eh, no worries, I'm in the same boat.