Pollinating and Harvesting/Storage
click here for information on Harvesting/Storage

Click on photo for larger picture : Photos courtesy of Dr. Fred Hebard
For more picutres on the readiness of chestnut flowers, please visit the TACF Farms pollination website: http://www.acffarms.org/pollination/pollination.html View a series of photos detailing male sterility. All photos were taken by Dr. Paul Sisco at TACF's Meadowview Research Farms during the summer of 2000: click here for pictures

POLLINATION INSTRUCTION

1) TACF Pollination Protocol - A great place to start. This is the original TACF protocol for making controlled pollinations of chestnuts.

2) Pollination Presentation - Slight update to TACF Pollination Protocol above with added graphics; updated for 2006 season!
Many thanks to Dave Armstrong for helping with bagging animation on the PPT version! Thanks Dave!!
(PDF File, 2 MB in size)
(PPT File, 55 MB in size)

To read documents in PDF format, and you will need Acrobat Reader to view them. Please click on the image below to download Acrobat Reader for FREE.

HARVESTING and STORAGE

You will find three chestnuts in a bur regardless of whether or not the bur got pollinated or the seed are viable. Pollinated seed are plump and sink when placed in water. Unpollinated seed look shrivelled up and float after placed in water (** float tests should be conducted for approximately 24 hours. Some floating seed do germinate. It will be up to you whether or not to discard floaters after the test).

Read about harvesting and storage here: http://acf.org/field_guide.htm#harvesting. Read this first to get a good understanding of the process.

Here is some elaboration:

Harvesting of open pollinated chestnuts can be done anytime before the burs open totally and dump "squirrel food" on the ground. The bags will retain the nuts even if the burs open up inside. The way we tell if the nuts are ripe enough is to see if some burs are starting to open. If yes, harvest all burs from the tree. The closed burs can be taken home and many will open later if stored in a dry, cool place. Those that do not open can be forced open. If the nuts are still white when "shucking" burs, allow another week for them to ripen before opening the others. I use heavy rubber coated gloves to shuck them. They hurt!

A long stick with a wire end is good for harvesting. Some use a pruning pole, although this often takes off more branch than one would like to take off the tree (cutting off the branch will also take away the buds set for next years flowering, thereby reducing the harvest for the next year, should you need nuts from that same tree). A homemade option, developed by Dave Armstrong of the Pennsylvania Chapter, is a window washing stick with a heavy wire attached and bent into a crook which can extend to 18 feet (click here for pictures), or, Alan Nichols of our New York Chapter designed the following burr picker with this explanation:

I used a pole pruner for a while but found it difficult to use and it caused damage to all the new growth where the ends were cut. I have made up an attachment that works much better for me. It is made up from a paint roller rod. I bent the rod and cut to the desired length. They are quite hard and may have to be heated with a torch at the point where you bend them to keep them from breaking. The twist closest to the paint rod has to be small enough so that the burs can not slide through, and you need at least 1.5 twist so that it will not come off the limb after it is twisted on. (See pictures)

I just twist the attached spiral around a limb just back from the burrs, and then push it away from me. This way it strips the burrs off the end of the limb and is then free to be twisted around another limb.I usually pick the burrs from larger trees, which I have to climb, and push directly away from the trunk.

Harvesting - PDF file describing the steps required for harvesting of chestnut, focusing primarily on timing for harvest. This document also includes some information on storage (approximately 450 KB in size).

STORAGE of CHESTNUTS:

Peat Moss Storage - Use very lightly dampened peat moss. Plastic bags or plastic containers may be used and you must punch holes in the container for air circulation. No bathing is necessary unless there are indications of mold.
Place a layer of peat in the container and lay the nuts on top of the layer keeping them from touching -preventing mold transfer. continue the layering until you fill the bag or container. Place in refrigerator and check periodically for signs of mold and to insure adequate moistness. Not too wet or too dry.

Bulk Storage of the nuts - Place the nuts in a cold water bath with 3% to 5% bleach solution (about 6 oz. Clorox to a gallon of water) to retard the growth of mold. Remove the floating nuts - these are unpollinated or too dry to germinate. Do not allow the nuts to remain in the bleach water for more than a few minutes. Bleach can kill the embryo if soaked into the shell. Drain the excess water and place the nuts into a very thin (vegetable type) bulk storage bag. Include a dry paper towel in the bag to absorb excess moisture. It will also keep the nuts lightly dampened. Refrigerate (NOT FREEZING) at about 35 degrees for the winter. Inspect each month and remove moldy nuts. If many nuts are moldy, give another 5% bleach bath to that bag. The nuts in storage should be kept lightly damp - not dry or dripping wet.

The more moist the peat most, the more likely the nuts are to sprout at an earlier date. Similarly, the warmer the storage temperature, the more likely the nuts will sprout in the refrigerator.

Be sure to document what is in each container and also place a strip of masking tape on the container and write in permanent marker the contents.

DO NOT store nuts in a refrigerator with apples or pears. These fruits produce a lot of ethylene gas as they ripen; this gas also causes other fruits to ripen. In the case of the tomato, this can be very useful. But in chestnuts, it causes the embryo to die prematurely.