Mature American Chestnut Trees Fall Update (Blight Resistance spotted)

hey guys welcome back and in today's video we are going to be doing our fall update on the mature American chestnut trees so without further Ado let's get right into the video first off we have our biggest American chestnut tree as you can see this tree is picking up some good height I'd say this I can see the growth of this tree just since it's been discovered so without further Ado let's walk on over there the tree doesn't look too bad from a distance um I haven't looked at the bark too closely yet so let's go right ahead and do that right now so let's go over the base of the tree I don't see anything that concerns me and guys stay tuned because I got an awesome surprise in a minute you're really going to want to see right there that looks new but um it's calloused over so I guess not worry about that but that is new uh as you can see right there there's a callous layer so the blight is trying and do not succeeding so so far so good I'm come around here I don't see anything else let's go up the tree nothing bad yet nothing on this side we see some do see some cracks but they don't look too aggressive I have I have faith this tree can grow those shut which it's been doing obviously we know this tree is on borrowed time because it is an American chestnut tree and as you guys know the blight is very very powerful definitely many Blake Blake wounds on it nothing that looks too serious yet nothing that I'm worried a lot about um yeah nothing looks too bad yet so nothing really any worse than what we've been seeing on this tree overall the tree is getting good growth like if you just want a size comparison it's that's the tree someone's four-wheeler making noise the trees looking the trees looking good so far I just want this tree to hold out just want this tree to hold out a few more years that's what I'm hoping for here's the surprise I don't know how this happened I don't know how this tree pollinated I'm not sure if the other the little tree was had any pollen on top I I really don't know how this happened but I am so very happy it did like this this is just really awesome I I I would say it was probably could have I don't know probably could have been pollen from on the top of that little tree over there not sure though how it I didn't see pollen I thought I might have saw pollen but then when I kept looking I just I couldn't say for sure so maybe that's what pollinated this it's likely but what would be bad is if the tree over the hill pollinated it down over the hill there are some Chinese Chestnut trees I don't know if that could blow up here cuz that's around I don't know that's a few thousand feet away it's possible don't really know now the bad thing is these have worms in them so these are immediately going to get a hot water bath some of these may not be able to do anything I have heard though that um you could still germinate chestnuts with wormholes so I guess we're going to find out most of these I would say are infested with worms if not all of them but we we are going to try it and hopefully we get even if we get one of these I'm going to be happy so immediately these are going to get taken and they're going to be put in a hot water bath for 20 minutes at 120° and that should kill the worms and then hope let's hope for the best that we can get some we can get some to Pate um there's dust in this one I don't know I don't know I'm just hoping for the best that at least one of these can pollinate give you guys one last look before we move on to the other tree this tree is looking is looking pretty good so far so good need you to last at least one more one more winner or no yeah a couple we need you to last a couple more growing Seasons but I would love for this tree to last 10 years 20 years but you know you never never know so it's time to move on to the little tree all right guys so right here we have our smaller tree which I think is the culprit for pollinating for pollinating our mature American chest tree as you can see it's getting some height on there once again this Maple's supposed to go it was cut around but it still lived it still has leaves on it so I'm going to get this cut before spring hopefully and that one get that one cut before spring hopefully and have that over with and then this tree will be able to shoot up through that hole so so far so good um I can't wait for this tree to have fall on nuts on it hopefully next year um I don't see anything too concerning we see some there's some blade on the tree but overall nothing I see that's concerning this little tree is looking pretty good just as the other one's looking decent but I would say this is definitely the tree that pollinated that one over there so I I guess that's what happened not 100% sure but to me that's what I would I would I that's to me that's what I would guess considering how close it is it's right there between those two and this one's right here about I don't know 60 ft away something like that so overall this tree is looking good come over here picking up some height here we have our very very sad very sad tree it really stinks that this tree had to go I would have loved to see this tree when it had like full leaves on it but when it was discovered it was already perishing but it's sad to see but everything dies let's go over to the tree if you're new here if you're new here this is the callous layer that I believe this is the callus layer yeah I say this every time it's like I think it's a caller this is the Callis layer this tree formed over the years to fight the blight and yeah it lost but it put up a really big fight and it succumbed to its wounds but it had growth right there which is very positive it had growth over here to fight back against the blade it has some limbs here that have gone pretty tall only like what what 2 years old probably these limbs are like 2 years old and it's already up there so that's pretty cool let's the awesome thing right here is this fat canker right there that is a very positive sign when it comes to genetics of an American chestnut is the fat canker the fat canker is the tree fighting back and that's why this tree I guess lasted so long is because it was forming these like fatty caners but it did succumb to its wounds but definitely a very good um definitely very good genetics on this trees's part especially when it gets to this size American chestnuts don't get to this size they usually are really tiny and this tree had blade for years this was obviously an ongoing battle for a long time wish I could have done updates on this when I when it was first here but you know I didn't know about it right here is where the deer is eating off all these suckers I don't know yet how how long those limbs are going to last but it's cool to just watch and see what they do but this tree hasn't changed much that canker I mean that that um fatty canker has gotten a lot has gotten bigger since the last update tree trying its best to fight back against that blight and it did pretty good so let's move back out here next up going down the hill is to our smaller American chestnut trees the two that are in close proximity to each other I love how the how green this trees leaves are also has nice long skinny leaves we're getting some growth I definitely see I definitely see some growth from last last year let come down off this big flat big Flat Rock and take a closer look almost forgot where I was going for a second all right guys so here is the stem of the tree I don't see any blight wounds yeah I don't see any blade or anything well maybe I do down there yeah there is some blade down there the blades down there where it um where that stick broke off I guess there was a branch there that's where it managed to um start to BL awkward pause there for a second as a chestnut fell out of my pocket that scared me but I got it so overall the stem of this tree looks pretty good nothing concerning nothing really concerning yeah we got a little bit of light down there but it seems to be forming some resistance to it so we'll see what happens I hate that that Branch right there is over this tree but it should go out that hole within the coming years but overall decent um decent growth usually at this size they're already like blading but we got some genetics here that are different very different so it's awesome to work these trees all right guys here we're going up the hill a little bit the sister tree of that other one getting some decent growth sorry I didn't get a very good angle on it but this one has more potential to go straight up rather than having to bend but as you go down here this tree is getting absolutely hammered with blade all these cracks are blight cracks how long this tree can resist this I don't know but yeah this tree is this tree is going to war with the blight who will win I guess we'll have to find out but I don't like that this tree is this young and it's getting hammered this bad this shows that this tree has worse genetics than the other ones and blade is in the area so it's not like the trees haven't lived with blight the blight is here this crack is pretty deep yeah that one's pretty deep right there that's not a good sign other than that I don't see any that's too concerning the tree is forming callous so that's very good but when you got the BL climbing like this it's not it's not too good I don't know I don't know how long this tree will last but definitely getting hammered pretty hard by blight I can get a better angle of the tree from here up here right there this tree has potential to go up that hole right there blight is so annoying but it is what it is this one definitely has I would say this one definitely has less resistance than the other ones but then again I don't know what the other ones looked like when they were small I don't know when the one up there looked like when it was small or the other one so who knows know maybe that's how that callous layer is all over that other one it was fighting with that was fighting with that blight since birth I don't know but overall the tree does not seem to be in Jeopardy all the leaves look fine but who knows that could change by next year and this tree could be dead but overall nothing too bad yet so looking good so far so good thank you guys so much for watching my update on the mature American chestnut trees um it's been a while I would have liked to do more more updates but you know didn't get enough time so it is what it is but here you guys go got some chestnuts in my pocket got to try to put those in water hot water and we will see if any of them germinate honestly I think maybe one will but I'm skeptical I just think it's awesome that I found some chest nuts but I hope we get some trees but when the worm goes in there eats around the that it's not really very easy for it to be able to you know stratify and germinate so it is what it is I guess we'll see have to wait and find out so stay tuned if you want to see if these turn into trees all right guys as always don't forget to drop a like on this video hit that notification Bell And subscribe for more content and as always keep it l d I'll see yall later

Channel: Yankee Valley Outdoors

Views: 14,699

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Id: Ew_8KPAOwnk

Length: 14min 52sec (892 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 11 2023