How do I become an ACCF member and get seedlings and seednuts?

We can accept no more orders for seedlings until fall, when this notice is changed and the 2008 price is announced in the newsletter.

                             
To take part in the American Chestnut Cooperators' Foundation seedling and/or nut distribution,  you fill out and sign a Cooperating Grower Agreement Form  and send with a check made out to ACCF for your annual contribution of $20.  THE 2007 price for bare-root American chestnut seedlings is $27 per bundle of 25 or fewer to growers east of the Mississippi.  For western growers  the price is  $32, to cover the additional shipping costs.   New grower orders are submitted on the Grower Agreement Form (above).   Orders from established growers  must be accompanied by the annual report of your surviving American  chestnuts (unless we already have your report on file).  Mail to:  ACCF,  Forest  Service Road 708, Newport, VA 24128.   Growers whose Agreement Forms we already have on file, need not send another form, except to indicate change of address, phone or e-mail.    

If you wish to start an American chestnut revival project, please scroll down to the Chestnut Grove Academy (below) and check out the Habitat page first, to help you locate an appropriate site; next visit the other pages to learn about the disease and the work necessary to establish or reclaim an American chestnut grove.  If you find that your land is suitable, it is a good idea to prepare your planting site in the winter or spring, for planting the following fall.  If you do not find on these pages the information you need to get started, please e-mail Lucille (below) with your question(s).     

The ACCF offers chestnut grafting instruction, to members by appointment, mornings in the month of April at the Blacksburg airport demonstration plot.  This instruction does not include nut- or bench-grafting, but is limited to grafting in the field on established root systems.  Contact Lucille via e-mail (bottom of this page) and propose a date that is not on a weekend.

It is never too early to establish defenses to keep deer out of your plantings:  here in Virginia, where the deer herd is out of control, we must protect all chestnut seedlings and grafts with staked weld wire cages, 5 feet tall and at least 2.3 feet in diameter, decorated with bright flagging to help deter collisions.

ACCF seednuts/seedlings are all-Americans from open pollination in several  Virginia and West Virginia plantings.  The mother trees are blight resistant, but this characteristic may be inherited by perhaps 10% of their offspring.  More generations of breeding are necessary to produce American chestnuts with blight resistance that is regularly inheritable.  (F2 progeny of Ruth and Miles were planted in February of 2000; more regular heritability of blight resistance is possible among these seedlings.) When ACCF stock is planted within the area infested by blight, natural selection will reveal the resistant individuals; scions from these can then be grafted  into the new shoots on chestnuts  killed  by blight. We rely on the reports of cooperating growers to learn the numbers of ACCF chestnuts which have inherited blight resistance.  Please send reports via our ONLINE  REPORT FORM.

From the 2004 newsletter:  "The nursery distribution schedule depends upon the weather.  American chestnuts must be fully dormant before lifting.  Also, the machinery cannot operate on very wet terrain.  Thus, the date when seedlings may be mailed is unknown until the last minute, and we are unable to promise delivery for a specific date.  In general, the chestnuts are lifted in the second half of November, processed and packed on a Saturday for mailing the following Monday.  All growers should start now to prepare the holes and erect protection cages.  The ability to plant seedlings soon after they arrive correlates strongly with high transplant success."  

Last updated 02/16/2008

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