We are no longer distributing American chestnut seedlings, and we are completely out of 2008 chestnut seed.
To take part in the American Chestnut Cooperators' Foundation nut distribution, you fill out and sign a Cooperating Grower Agreement Form and send with a check made out to ACCF for your annual contribution of $20. Grower orders are submitted on the Grower Agreement Form (above). Orders from established growers must be accompanied by the annual report of your surviving American chestnuts (unless we already have your report on file). Mail to: ACCF, Forest Service Road 708, Newport, VA 24128 or report via the web at this link Online Report Form.To insure that American chestnut groves, established
with our help, accurately reflect our breeding program, we have changed the
Grower Agreement form. To order or request chestnuts or
scions, please fill out and return the new form (link on front page).
If you have already reported via our Web site, please indicate this on the
Report form. The $20 donation to ACCF research is unaffected by inflation.
If you wish to start an American chestnut revival project, please
visit
the Chestnut Grove Academy webrary
and check out the Habitat page
first, to help you locate an appropriate site; next visit the other pages to
learn about the disease and the work necessary to establish or reclaim an
American chestnut grove. If you find that your land is suitable, it is a
good idea to prepare your planting site in the winter or spring, for planting
the following fall. If you do not find on these pages the information you
need to get started, please e-mail Lucille (below) with your question(s).
The ACCF offers chestnut grafting instruction, to members by appointment, mornings in the month of April at the Blacksburg airport demonstration plot. This instruction does not include nut- or bench-grafting, but is limited to grafting in the field on established root systems. Contact Lucille via e-mail (bottom of this page) and propose a date that is not on a weekend.
It is never too early to establish defenses to keep deer out of your plantings: here in Virginia, where the deer herd is out of control, we must protect all chestnut seedlings and grafts with staked weld wire cages, 5 feet tall and at least 2.3 feet in diameter, decorated with bright flagging to help deter collisions.
ACCF seednuts/seedlings are all-Americans from open pollination in several Virginia and West Virginia plantings. The mother trees are blight resistant, but this characteristic may be inherited by perhaps 10% of their offspring. More generations of breeding are necessary to produce American chestnuts with blight resistance that is regularly inheritable. (F2 progeny of Ruth and Miles were planted in February of 2000; more regular heritability of blight resistance is possible among these seedlings.) When ACCF stock is planted within the area infested by blight, natural selection will reveal the resistant individuals; scions from these can then be grafted into the new shoots on chestnuts killed by blight. We rely on the reports of cooperating growers to learn the numbers of ACCF chestnuts which have inherited blight resistance. Please send reports via our ONLINE REPORT FORM.
Last updated 01/22/2009