Sweet Chestnut

Sweet chestnut (Castanea spp) for food and timber in Baltic sea region
Private chestnut introduction project to obtain to the Northern Europe climate adapted cultivars for nut and timber production. Project first stage is to create a chestnut genetic pool from seedlings from the most similar climate conditions available. Seedlings are planted in several locations to test their climate adaptation and deer resistance
WANTED: Seed source from Poland and Alps as high possible
Project progress
2019 first chestnuts are foraged in south and middle Sweden
2020 established nursery
2021 first seedlings are planted in field and various forest conditions
2023 more trees are planted in forest and field (Latvia)
2024 May, tallest chestnut in forest reach 2m height.

Sweet chestnut (Castanea spp) in Latvia, a short story
During walnut inventory we have find also some chestnut trees. Oldest trees are fro 1960ties. In most cases they are healthy solitary trees, flowering but not nut bearing, most probably due to lack of pollination.
Some Latvian chestnuts Castanea sativa or hybrids. (Gallery)

Chestnut as a forest tree. Experiments gallery
Testing possibilities to establish chestnut forest and to find the best growing conditions. Chestnut could be a core tree for edible landscape feature