Saturday, April 12, 2008

Blight Resistant Chestnut

Back at the turn of the century (the previous one, not the recent one), up to four billion American Chestnut tree were killed in a blight. The linked article is a good read, after which, you might wonder, well how far have we progressed in developing a blight-resistant American Chestnut? According to this article at newsday.com:

Now, Guilford's Conservation Commission, along with the Connecticut Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation, is working to establish a blight-resistant chestnut tree in a 1 1/2-acre orchard in the town's Nut Plains Park.
Their test orchard (last year) worked out and now they're planting in earnest this year!

I have gotten local chestnuts from Cherry Grove Farm in Newtown. These may have been Chinese chestnuts, which are blight-resistant.

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