Chinese chestnut seed suggestions.

[jandslegate]

A friend collected a couple Chinese chestnut seeds for me a few weeks ago. I've done some googling but was hoping to get some feedback from the community. Most of what I found suggests stratification indoors (refrigerator etc). I'm in 6b and was curious if outdoors was going to simply be a no go?

My most immediate concern has been squirrels snatching them but so far they are in tact. I was also considering one indoor and one out. Id prefer to start them outside even though I don't have any hard data to back my intuition. Just seems avoiding the indoor to outdoor timing and acclimation would be better. Any information or shared experience will be appreciated.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Indoors in the refrigerator avoids the squirrels and mice. Trust me, rodents LOVE chestnuts and will find them over the winter.

If you build a hardware cloth cage or fashion hardware cloth top and bottom for your flat, will it be safe to winter, or stratify chestnuts outdoors.

Note, culinary chestnuts at market for food, are usually Chinese chestnuts because all other chestnut species are functionally extinct due to chestnut blight. You can simply purchase a bag of chestnuts to obtain more seed. Keep seed moist, dried out seed will not germinate.

 

[jandslegate]

Indoors in the refrigerator avoids the squirrels and mice. Trust me, rodents LOVE chestnuts and will find them over the winter.

If you build a hardware cloth cage or fashion hardware cloth top and bottom for your flat, will it be safe to winter, or stratify chestnuts outdoors.

Note, culinary chestnuts at market for food, are usually Chinese chestnuts because all other chestnut species are functionally extinct due to chestnut blight. You can simply purchase a bag of chestnuts to obtain more seed. Keep seed moist, dried out seed will not germinate.

Thank you for the advice, Leo. I had considered they probably weren't too hard to come by but the circumstances of this was a little special. It's from his parents property and he was there at the time due to them having health issues. I just wanted to try to make something out of those as I thought it was very kind of him to stop and collect them with me in mind considering the situation. I am fully aware though that nature does not always cooperate lol.

 

[Javaman4373]

My neighbor has Dunstan chestnut trees, which I think are Am. chestnut hybridized to chinese chestnut. He gave me nuts last fall and I put them in a perforated plastic ice cream tub with some damp sphagnum moss in the frig. They sprouted over the winter and in the spring I planted some in pots and some in the ground. The ones in the ground grew better for me. I protected them with wire cages.