Changes in the rules, toward better management of chestnut harvest & distribution:
2022 HARVEST: This year we will have a closed nut harvest. Rather than signing up volunteers, our Board members and family will collect and distribute nuts. Holding a closed harvest will give the Griffins and board members time to reassess the ACCF harvest process. We thank you for your understanding and will once again welcome volunteers for harvest in 2023. We are keeping a list of all Cooperators who express interest in receiving unprocessed nuts from us this September. If you are interested and have been a Cooperator for longer than a year, please complete the enclosed harvest nut request form and mail to: Jenny Abla, 20 Lookout Terrace Road, Black Mountain, NC 28711 If you are a new Cooperator, we ask that you please read through the following materials included with your newsletter: Cooperating Grower Agreement, Nut Request form, Planting Information and the Growers Report form (which you will need after your seedlings have begun to grow.) We suggest that new cooperators who are interested in growing all-American chestnuts take a year to familiarize yourselves with the Castanea dentata species, the ACCF, its goals and approaches, and to prepare the site you have selected for growing. If you do not have a site selected already, do not fret! The included growing instructions will help you choose and prepare a site appropriate for giving your all-American chestnuts the full advantage they need. Eliminating resource competition and ensuring high-quality soil at your site are two important jobs you can do a year ahead of your first planting. Taking this time to prepare the most desirable growing environment possible will help allow the all-American chestnuts' blight-resistant qualities to manifest and give your chestnuts the best chance of surviving to maturity and passing on blight-resistant genes through nuts of their own.
Grower orders are submitted on the Grower Agreement Form. 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 c/o Jenny Alba, 20 Lookout Terrace Road, Black Mountain, NC 28711 or report via email at this link Email Report Form template.
To insure that American chestnut groves, established with our help, accurately reflect our breeding program, we have changed the Grower Agreement form. To request ACCF chestnuts, please fill out and return the new form. If you have already reported via email, please indicate this on the Report form.
The REPORT FORM email template is at accf-online.org/greportEmail.htm: send in your reports as soon as you are able.
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.
Before you ask that question, PLEASE check our other pages which hold most of the answers.
Last updated 06/26/2022