How to Choose Chestnut Trees for Your Deer Orchard
If you're researching chestnuts for wildlife, you've probably encountered a lot of marketing about Dunstan chestnuts. Before going further, make sure you understand why professional growers avoid them: Why We Don't Sell Dunstan Chestnuts →
Now let's focus on the important question: What SHOULD you plant?
The answer isn't as simple as "plant variety X." The right chestnuts for your property depend on your specific conditions, goals, and growing environment.
As James Nave, moderator of the Castanea Facebook group (the primary community for professional chestnut growers), emphasizes:
"There's a tendency for growers who are new to growing chestnut trees for wildlife to think that all wildlife scenarios are similar. In fact, they can vary widely."
This guide will walk you through how professional growers approach chestnut selection—not with one-size-fits-all recommendations, but with a strategic process for finding what works best for YOUR property.
Two Important Notes Before You Start
1. American Chestnuts Are Not Viable for Most Wildlife Plantings
From James Nave:
"In most of the eastern US, the American chestnut, Castanea dentata, is not a good wildlife tree because it is highly susceptible to damage from chestnut blight."
While American chestnut restoration efforts are admirable and important for research, if your goal is creating productive wildlife habitat that lasts for decades, American genetics work against you. Pure Chinese chestnuts are already fully blight-resistant with proven performance.
2. Remember: Dunstans Are Just Average Chinese Chestnuts
As covered in our other post, Dunstans are 90-99% Chinese chestnut with no meaningful American characteristics. They're average genetics with exceptional marketing. Don't pay a premium for supposed "hybrid vigor" that doesn't exist.
Read the full analysis: Why We Don't Sell Dunstan Chestnuts
Step 1: Evaluate Your Growing Conditions
Before selecting specific varieties, you need to understand your property. Professional growers ask these questions:
Location & Climate
What is your state and nearest city?
What is your USDA hardiness zone?
Is chestnut blight present in your area? (It is in most of eastern US)
Water & Sun
Will your trees receive supplemental water, or will they rely solely on rainfall?
Can you provide full sun for at least 6-8 hours per day?
Site Conditions
Are you planting in a cleared area, or will trees compete with existing vegetation?
If competing with other trees, how tall are they?
Are you planting in open fields or forested edges?
Deer Pressure & Protection
Will young trees be subject to deer browsing?
Can you protect young trees from browsing until established? (Recommended)
Your Goals
Are trees exclusively for wildlife, or do you also want to harvest/sell nuts?
How much area are you planting?
What's your budget for this project?
How you answer these questions will determine which specific varieties and strategies are best for your property.
Write down your answers. They'll guide every decision from here.
General Recommendations for Eastern US Growers
From James Nave and the professional growing community, here are baseline recommendations for most growers in the eastern United States:
✓ Protect young trees from deer browsing until well-established (tree tubes, fencing, or cages)
✓ Provide supplemental water for at least the first 2 years (critical for establishment)
✓ Ensure full sun for 6-8 hours per day minimum (more is better for nut production)
✓ Avoid competition with older, larger trees when possible
"You do not want your trees to have to compete with older and larger trees." — James Nave
These aren't optional nice-to-haves. They're the foundation for success with chestnuts.
What Types of Chestnuts for Different Growing Conditions?
Your site conditions determine which types of chestnuts will perform best.
For Most Eastern US Locations:
Chinese chestnuts or Chinese hybrids are your best choice. They offer full blight resistance, adaptability to zones 5-9, and consistent performance across varied conditions.
For Atlantic Coast or Northeast Regions:
Some Japanese chestnuts and Japanese hybrids perform exceptionally well in these specific areas, offering excellent cold hardiness and good production in coastal climates.
For Forested or Competitive Growing Areas:
If planting where trees will compete with existing vegetation, you need varieties with:
✓ Erect growing habit (upright rather than spreading form) ✓ Above-average vigor (fast, strong growth to compete for light)
Recommended for competitive situations:
'AU Super' - very vigorous pure Chinese with erect form
'Jenny' - greater vigor and more upright than average Chinese
'Hong Kong' - seedlings tend to be very vigorous
Chinese hybrids with other species can provide extra vigor needed for forested settings, showing faster height growth and better performance in partial shade.
Seedlings vs. Grafted Trees: Which Should You Choose?
This is one of the most common questions, and the answer depends on your situation.
The Professional Recommendation for Wildlife Plantings
From James Nave:
"With respect to specific trees to plant, you generally want to plant seedling trees and not grafted trees."
Why seedlings for wildlife and habitat plantings?
1. Lower Cost
Allows you to plant more trees and cover more area
Better economics when establishing large plantings
2. Genetic Diversity
Plant from multiple quality parent lines
Discover which genetics perform best in YOUR specific conditions
Adapt to your microclimate, soil, disease pressure
3. Still Excellent Production
When from quality parents, seedlings produce abundantly
May take 1-2 years longer than grafted to first production
Cost savings allow planting 2-3 seedlings per grafted tree
4. Future Topworking Potential
Establish trees now at low cost
Observe which perform best
Graft elite cultivars onto winners later
The Critical Factor: Parentage Must Be Known
As James Nave emphasizes:
"You should consider planting seedlings from as many different QUALITY mother trees as you can get... Do NOT rush out and plant just any seeds that people try to sell you. There is no reason to plant mediocre genetics."
This is our approach at Deer Orchard. Our chestnut seedlings come from proven, grafted cultivars like Qing and Peach—you're getting seedlings from champion parents, not random genetics.
When Grafted Trees Make Sense
Grafted trees aren't wrong—they're just a different strategy with different tradeoffs.
Choose Grafted Trees When:
You have a smaller area and want maximum production per tree
You're in zones 7-9 where grafted trees perform exceptionally well
You want guaranteed specific genetics
You want fastest possible production (often 3-4 years vs. 5-6 for seedlings)
You're creating a scionwood source for future grafting projects
The Combination Strategy (Smart Approach)
Many successful orchardists use a hybrid approach:
Plant mostly quality seedlings to establish coverage
Add a few grafted trees of elite cultivars (when available)
Use grafted trees as scionwood sources for future topworking
Observe which seedlings perform best and expand those genetics
The Topworking Strategy: Economic Path to Elite Genetics
Topworking is how you get grafted-quality genetics without grafted-tree prices.
What is Topworking?
Topworking means grafting superior cultivars onto your established seedling trees after they've grown for several years.
Instead of buying expensive grafted trees upfront:
Plant quality seedlings from known superior parents
Let them establish and grow for 2-4 years
Observe which trees perform best in your specific conditions
Topwork the winners with your choice of elite cultivars
Result: Grafted-quality trees at a fraction of the cost
Why This Works
Economic Advantages:
Seedlings cost 50-70% less than grafted trees
Plant 2-3 seedlings for the price of one grafted tree
Spread investment over several years
Strategic Advantages:
Established root systems mean faster growth after grafting
Choose grafting cultivars based on observed performance
Select for trees that thrive in YOUR specific site
Example:
Budget: $1,000 for chestnut trees
Option A: Buy 20-25 grafted trees at $40-50 each
Option B: Buy 50-65 quality seedlings at $15-20 each, then topwork best performers later
Option B gives you 2-3x more trees initially. Even if you only topwork half, you end up with more elite-genetics trees than Option A.
This is exactly what many commercial chestnut growers do.
Why Genetic Diversity Matters
Here's a critical insight from James Nave:
"Generally speaking, you want to obtain as much diversity in chestnut trees as you can find. This is because you do not know with certainty what trees will do best in your area. Every grower has a different microclimate, different soil, and different disease and insect pressures."
The Professional Approach:
Plant seedlings from 3-5 different superior parent cultivars
Observe which perform best in YOUR conditions over 2-3 years
Expand plantings of winners, remove or topwork poor performers
Adapt strategy based on actual results
Why This Matters:
A cultivar that produces heavily in Missouri might struggle in Pennsylvania
Trees that thrive in well-drained soil might suffer in clay
Disease pressure varies by location and microclimate
Only testing reveals what works for YOUR property
Don't assume one variety is "the answer." Plant diversity from quality genetics, observe, and adapt.
Our Approach: Quality Seedlings from Multiple Superior Parents
At Deer Orchard, we focus on providing the highest quality seedlings from the best parent trees we can source—from the pawpaws we sell to all our other seedling trees.
Our chestnut seedlings come from proven parent cultivars:
Qing - Proven top producer at University of Missouri's Horticulture and Agroforestry Research Center (HARC)
Peach - Reliable quality production, tested at Mizzou HARC alongside Qing
Other documented high-performers
Why multiple parent lines? Because every property is different. You need genetic diversity to discover what performs best in your specific conditions.
Why these specific parents? These are proven, grafted cultivars with documented production records in research and commercial settings—not random trees, not Dunstans. They're the genetics professional growers choose.
Our Seedling Philosophy Across All Species
This commitment to quality parent stock extends beyond chestnuts.
Every seedling tree we sell—whether pawpaw, chestnut, persimmon, apple, or any other species—comes from the best parent trees we can source.
We don't sell random genetics or trees with unknown lineage. We source from grafted cultivars with proven production records and documented superior performers.
You deserve to know what you're planting. That's why parentage matters.
We Also Offer Grafted Trees (Limited Availability)
We do offer grafted pawpaw and some grafted chestnuts, but this process is time and labor-intensive, which is why:
Grafted tree prices are significantly higher
Availability is limited
We focus primarily on quality seedlings for most customers
For most hunters and land managers establishing wildlife habitat, quality seedlings from superior parents offer the best value—especially with the option to topwork later.
