SilvoCulture’s guide to growing chestnuts in the mid-Atlantic.
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Livelihoods & Landscapes: Agro-Ecology Paints a Hopeful Future
Smithsonian Earth Optimism x Folklife Panel on Livelihoods and Landscapes
Watch the video from June 26, 2022, when SilvoCulture’s Technical Director Michael Judd was featured as as a member of a Panel on Livelihoods and Landscapes at the Smithsonian Earth Optimism x Folklife Festival at the National Mall in DC. This Festival is part of the Smithsonian’s sixth year of Earth Optimism.
Overwintering Chestnut Seeds
Michael Judd shares his technique for overwintering chestnut seeds for spring planting. Watch here
Investing in Chestnut Trees: The Economics and the Ecology
Starting a Chestnut Orchard Webinar with Michael Judd
On March 25, folks joined Michael Judd for a talk on starting a chestnut orchard. Topics included site design for passive water harvest, planting, and land preparation, ecological tree care: fertility, insect balance, tree protection, and pruning, and expected orchard yields and return on investment. View the webinar here!
Get a deeper look into the economics of ecological chestnut systems in this webinar with Michael Judd in partnership with Howard EcoWorks.
List of additional resources
*Joseph Russell Smith (1874-1966) was a geography professor who grew up in the chestnut forests of Virginia. His book Tree Crops was originally published in 1929. Smith wrote it because he was horrified by the soil destruction caused by regularly tilling cropland, advocating for perennial polyculture systems in the US.
Tree Crops - From the Internet Archive - Scans of the book: https://archive.org/details/TreeCrops-J.RussellSmith/page/n1/mode/2up
Tree Crops - PDF: https://soilandhealth.org/wp-content/uploads/01aglibrary/010175.tree%20crops.pdf
*The Northeast/Mid-Atlantic Agroforestry Working Group is a consortium of technical service providers, agency staff, researchers, practitioners, and experts focused on educating, promoting, and implementing agroforestry systems in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic Region of North America.
Latest News Letter and portal to many online resources: https://mailchi.mp/54b489d27a05/nema-update-march-2020?e=9551d0f3c5
Many publications, resources and further reading on types of agroforesty farming systems, - https://www.usda.gov/topics/forestry/agroforestry
SARE grant program: https://projects.sare.org/project-reports/fne18-896/
Research-focused organization supporting all things nuts: https://nutgrowing.org/
*A number of state universities are doing some amazing research on nuts. Here are some resources and articles to explore:
Rutgers University:
Choosing Plants for a Hazelnut Orchard in New Jersey
Missouri University: Horticulture and Agroforestry Research Center
Michigan State University Extension: Chestnut weevil: a potential pest of Michigan chestnuts,Curing Chestnuts
Those out there doing the growing are learning a lot, and often generous enough to share their experience for the proliferation of more nuts.
Chestnut Growers of America: http://www.chestnutgrowers.org/
Route 9 Cooperative: https://route9cooperative.com/; Cooperative Chestnut Breeding in the USA
The Savanna Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that works with farmers and scientists to lay the groundwork for widespread agroforestry adoption in the Midwest US. Inspired by the native savanna ecosystems that once covered much of this region, the Savanna Institute conducts research, education, and outreach to support the growth of diverse, perennial agroecosystems.
Get the Savannah Institute's latest report: Overcoming Bottlenecks in the Eastern US Chestnut Industry: An Impact Investment Plan