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Tiny chestnuts?

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  • Louise BLouise B Posts: 81
  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,617

    The sweet chestnuts I have seen have different trunks to that but they have been coppiced. I cant see the leaves very well still. Are the chestnuts in very prickly cases.?

    Some wilder types only give small chestnuts. The french or chinese chestnuts that have large marrons are a particular variety.

  • Louise BLouise B Posts: 81

    Yes they're like balls of cactus spines. They look exactly like chestnut husks but the chestnut is tiny. They're not round and firm, they feel hollow.

    Assuming it is a sweet chestnut, what might I do to fix it?

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,138

    Wikipedia says that chestnut trees are not self fertile - they need another chestnut tree  nearby for the flowers to be pollinated.


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,138

    So all Louise has to do to get chestnuts is to get another tree - Wiki says, "...All Castanea species readily hybridize with each other..." so it doesn't matter which variety she gets image

    There were lots of chestnut trees where I used to work - wonderful chestnuts every year - big fat ones image


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • WelshonionWelshonion Posts: 3,114
    Are you sure it is a sweet chestnut as we usually know it. I've never seen one with furry leaves. It isn't some strange variety from America is it?
  • Louise BLouise B Posts: 81
    Hmmmm, could I graft another chestnut onto the tree I have or does that have to be young trees?
  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,617

    Victoriana nursery sell marron de lyon that have big nuts.image

    They are self fertile.

    You may have a wild type that will never give you big nuts for roasting.

  • WelshonionWelshonion Posts: 3,114
    If the tree is genetically programmed to have small nuts, getting it lots of friends will make absolutely no difference at all.
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