RARE American Chestnut Seeds Lot Of 10 L@@K! Start Price USD 19.85 Current Price USD 19.85 Time Left - Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Thursday, October 02, 2008 End Time Saturday, November 01, 2008 Location Center Line, Michigan See more about 'RARE American Chestnut Seeds Lot Of 10 L@@K!' Description RARE American Chestnut Tree Seeds Please Read These are American Chestnut tree fresh nuts.  They are alive and can be planted to grow your own trees.  These seeds come from a hollow in Michigan that was the location of an American Chestnut grove.  It is believed that the owner brought in Asian and European chestnut trees in the 1870s or there abouts. The trees readily hybridize and the offspring continued to grow and cross after the nut production was discontinued. There are several different types of chestnut trees at this location, probably intergrades of the three localities (American, European and Asian). I had nuts from the American form sent to Burnt Ridge Nursery in Onalaska, Washington State.  I consider them to be one of the top producers of  the largest variety of Chestnuts in The USA. They believed that the nuts looked true to form as American Chestnuts. Therefore I am fairly certain that these nuts are 95% or so American Chestnuts and they seem to be be blight resistant. These nuts are being collected now.  I may not have as many as last year.  I am keeping them refrigerated so that they will be fresh until I sell out.  The nuts are a bit plumper this year because we have had more rain.  Consequently I expect them to have a good germinatiion rate. The American Chestnut is perhaps the best tasting nut in the world. The shell is so thin you can easily scrape it open with your thumbnail. The taste is excellent and there is a great demand that is growing for these nuts in a variety of dishes. American Chestnuts generally sell from $8.00 to $25.00 per pound. Some American .Chestnut Information: According to research done by Bill Bryson (Author of Appalacian Trail & Many other books) the American Chestnut had more mass than any other tree except for the Giant Sequoia Redwood. American Chestnuts were the main tree in the eastern USA numbering between 3.5-4.0 BILLION! They grew over 10 stories tall and commonly had trunks that were upwards of 10 feet in diameter, with a large canopy that could cover an acre with over one million leaves. In the 1800s an Asian blight began killing the trees until only about a few hundred remained.  Through cross breeding, intergrades of the American Chestnut survive as well as some pure strains (but these are mostly suseptable to the killing blight). Another interesting note is that the commonly accepted idea that the passenger pigeon was hunted to extinction is probably not correct.  The demise of the passenger pigeons  paralleled that of the extinction of the American Chestnut which was its main food source. Nuts can grow from trees planted as seed in as little as 7 years but it may take 10 or more depending on growth rate. They make beautiful shade trees and the nuts are delicious fresh and easier to open the shell of than any other nut by far. Their unique properties allow them to be dried and ground into flour as the Native Americans did.  They also can be roasted to a taste beyond delight.  Additionally they are also a great stew or soup addative not to mention a blessing to stuffings. The bid is for 10 seed nuts that should be planted right away.  They can be planted any time of the year as long as the ground is not frozen. The American Chestnuts were native from Florida to Michigan, Minnesota and Maine so they can do well almost anywhere.  If your ground is frozen you could start them indoors and plant them outside in the spring, which may give the tree a head start on growth and nut production. These nuts are freshly gathered and contain no pesticides, poisons, fungucides or any of that stuff, so they are safe to be handled and could be eaten if you like, but I am selling them as seed nuts to try and help get the trees growing again. It could be a very good long term investment because you could harvest and sell the nuts once the trees come into production. Also the wood is quite valuable-just search ebay for Chestnut Boards and see how valuable the wood is. In November I planted some seed nuts.  The seedlings did not appear through the surface until July which is a long germination rate.  I have added a few pictures of a couple of the Americam Chestnut seedlings.  My germination rate was about 10%.  Other people have had germination rates of 0%-90%.  I planted them in a high clay soil and they prefer a bit more sand according to what I have been told. Fall of 2007 was the first year I started selling these seed nuts after I discovered them.  I ran out of nuts early so by buying now you are sure to get the freshest nuts. I will sell these on ebay until they are sold out and gone. FREE SHIPPING! Shipped First Class Mail in a padded envelope for fast safe arrival. Thank you.   Powered by eBay Turbo Lister Place a Bid!