RR Hardy Chestnut Seed ,, SHIPPING INCLUDED
RR Hardy Chestnut Seed ,, SHIPPING INCLUDED
This seed is from Rusty Russell’s orchard in Locke, NY (zone 5b, approx 1000ft elevation). The trees were predominately grown from some of the best mother trees at Empire Chestnuts. It is mostly Chinese orchard form plants. I have been evaluating the various trees for 5 years with Rusty. While his entire orchard is living proof that seedling genetics from great orchards that have cultivar and selected pollen sources make great trees, these selections are some of the best out of his 1000+ trees. They have proven themselves in his cold conditions. All of these have performed well here in Zone 4B as well. While we dont get 100% winter survival, the percentages that grow are very high. This Chinese type seed should perform well for folks from the deep south to zone 4b.
Please note Rusty has the best selection of Red Liu seedlings that I am aware of. Many of his Red Selections grown here and elsewhere show 25-40% Red leaved offsprings. While I am somewhat obsessed with Red Leaved chestnuts, the Green Liu selections make fantastic nuts as well.
ALL SEED HAS BEEN IN STRATIFICATION SINCE IT WAS COLLECTED, - WE ARE HAPPY TO SHIP YOUR SEED IN MULTIPLE PACKAGES! ORDER AWAY!
WE WILL NOT SHIP IF THE WEATHER TO BE TOO COLD FOR THE SEED TO SURVIVE IN TOP SHAPE! Once winter is here full on, shipping will pause until early spring when temps are safe again.
SHIPPING INCLUDED WITH PURCHASE- .
Here is the LINK to the list of the seeds that we offer for sale and descriptions of the Mother Trees that these seed nuts come from! We will be updating this list this week as we get time.
Here is the actual link to the file, this list has this seasons and last seasons chestnut seed offerings -
As always thanks to everyone who supports our work here.. it is literally a dream come true!
We work diligently each year to assemble the best selections of hardy seed nuts available. We plant most of these selections here on farm to grow out as seedlings for sale and planting here as well.
Over the years so many people have asked for seed to grow , we now gather and buy lots of extra seed to sell. We try very hard to get the best seed and work obsessively to keep the provenance straight and the quality high.
We do not ship Chestnuts to CA, WA, OR, FL, LA due to quarantine restrictions
A very few of the 2026 offering here are from Lockwood Farm in Hamden, CT. Many trees in Hamden were planted in the 1930’s-2010. The NH (New Hybrids) crosses offered here are from the work of Dr. Sandra Anagnostakis . They are amazing and beautiful nuts and trees. I hope as the grafts continue to grow here on our farm there will be more seed available. Here is the link to the document which has descriptions of the crosses, Lockwood Farm Chestnuts.
Other seed comes Iowa, New York, Missouri, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Vermont, all should be quite hardy. The Chinese Orchard Mix XL are also very good seed general orchard seed with very high quality progeny.
Many more people are interested in growing chestnuts, so the price for high quality seed nuts is rising, this is a good thing for the farmers producing chestnut seed. I buy in much of the seed from great orchards around the country and am happy to pay for the high quality seed!!
A word about weevils! I have noted which seed might have weevils (almost none this year), we do our best to offer only seed with out weevils,,, and to hold the seed long enough for weevils to emerge, however you still might find an occasional weevil in chestnut seed. Destroy any that emerge during winter storage. Most seed will still grow as the weevils eat the cotyledons and not the embryo! Take them out a week before planting and allow the to warm up, very occasionally you will find a weevil emerging in spring.