Georgia News

American chestnut seeds available from GA-TACF

NOTE: We have allocated all of the seeds from the 2023 seed crop!  We hope to run this promotion again next year (January 2025).

Special offer for new or renewing GA-TACF members

If you join TACF, renew a lapsed membership, or renew early plus add a donation of at least $25 to the Georgia Chapter (GA-TACF), we will send you a packet of 10 pure American chestnut seeds* along with planting and care instructions. To take advantage of this offer, please:

1) Email us at gro.fcat@retpahCAG to confirm that seeds are still available. We will get back to you right away and reserve a seed packet for you.

2) Join or renew with TACF with at least the $40 regular annual membership fee and add a $25 extra donation to The GA Chapter of TACF. The link to join and donate is: https://support.tacf.org/membership After adding your regular membership, click Continue Shopping to add the donation to GA-TACF.

3) When joining or renewing, please fill in the “Special Note” section of the payment page saying that you would like to receive a packet of seeds from GA-TACF.

This offer is limited to seed availability (first come, first served) and will expire March 1, 2024 or once this year’s seed supply runs out.

If you are unable to take advantage of this offer, TACF has several long-standing programs that enable members to obtain chestnut seeds or seedlings. See https://tacf.org/american-chestnut-seeds-and-seedlings/

*Pure American chestnut seeds will mostly be from source trees from the state of Georgia. They do not carry significant blight or Phytophthora root rot resistance. That said, when planted in the right location and properly cared for, they are capable of growing into adult trees with the potential to flower and bear nuts. If they reach that condition, the trees may be very useful to GA-TACF for future breeding purposes.

Georgia News Chapter Menu

Georgia Facebook

Comments Box SVG iconsUsed for the like, share, comment, and reaction icons

On Friday March 6 faculty and staff at the University of North Georgia (UNG) added about 70 chestnuts by direct seeding to the Hurricane Creek orchard near Dahlonega. Karrie Ann Fadroski, Outreach and Engagement Coordinator for UNG’s Environmental Leadership Center (ELC) and Stacie James, Program Coordinator for the ELC, were assisted by Dr. Martin Cipollini, President and Science Coordinator for GA-TACF as well as several UNG student volunteers. Student participants included Chestnut student intern Lillian McGinnis, Hurricane Creek student intern Jason Richardson, Conservation student intern Reece Maxwell, Kylee Melton, Ava Minor, Mary Alice Olewicz, and Jack Nicholas.

This orchard is designed to screen hybrid chestnuts for Phytophthora Root Rot (PRR) resistance (pure American chestnuts are entirely susceptible to PRR). Seeds selected for this orchard come from trees known or suspected to carry PRR resistance, in this case from two trees at the Berry College backcross orchard. Read elsewhere on our Facebook page about how to protect chestnuts from this lethal disease if you have planted susceptible trees.

To learn more about this work and what you can do to become involved, please come to our annual meeting on May 2 at the Gwinnett Environmental & Heritage Center in Buford. Details are forthcoming, but the meeting will be held in the morning with lunch and a tour at Cloudland Vineyards in the early afternoon.
The American Chestnut Foundation University of North Georgia Berry College
... See MoreSee Less

On Friday March 6 faculty and staff at the University of North Georgia (UNG) added about 70 chestnuts by direct seeding to the Hurricane Creek orchard near Dahlonega.  Karrie Ann Fadroski, Outreach and Engagement Coordinator for UNG’s Environmental Leadership Center (ELC) and Stacie James, Program Coordinator for the ELC, were assisted by Dr. Martin Cipollini, President and Science Coordinator for GA-TACF as well as several UNG student volunteers.  Student participants included Chestnut student intern Lillian McGinnis, Hurricane Creek student intern Jason Richardson, Conservation student intern Reece Maxwell, Kylee Melton, Ava Minor, Mary Alice Olewicz, and Jack Nicholas.This orchard is designed to screen hybrid chestnuts for Phytophthora Root Rot (PRR) resistance (pure American chestnuts are entirely susceptible to PRR).  Seeds selected for this orchard come from trees known or suspected to carry PRR resistance, in this case from two trees at the Berry College backcross orchard.  Read elsewhere on our Facebook page about how to protect chestnuts from this lethal disease if you have planted susceptible trees.To learn more about this work and what you can do to become involved, please come to our annual meeting on May 2 at the Gwinnett Environmental & Heritage Center in Buford.  Details are forthcoming, but the meeting will be held in the morning with lunch and a tour at Cloudland Vineyards in the early afternoon.The American Chestnut Foundation University of North Georgia Berry CollegeImage attachmentImage attachment+7Image attachment

2 CommentsComment on Facebook

Hard to believe these students are in their late 30s now...

Coincidentally, exactly 17 years ago on March 6, 2009, Berry College students planted the parents of the seeds planted at UNG. Here are just a couple pictures from that day.

Dr. Martin Cipollini, President and Science Coordinator of The Georgia Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation, presented an overview of the organization's Recurrent Genomic Selection (RGS) chestnut breeding program during the Tennessee chapter's annual meeting at Tennessee Tech, subsequently chairing the Southern Regional Science meeting held in conjunction with the TN-TACF meeting. At the latter meeting, chapter leaders discussed how to cooperate to implement RGS regionally and initiated plans for the coming breeding season. They also welcomed newly hired TACF Regional Science Coordinator Zach Anderson who has been working with Dr. Hill Craddock at the University of Tennessee - Chattanooga. Zach's office will be located in Chattanooga. The American Chestnut Foundation ... See MoreSee Less

Dr. Martin Cipollini, President and Science Coordinator of The Georgia Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation, presented an overview of the organizations Recurrent Genomic Selection (RGS) chestnut breeding program during the Tennessee chapters annual meeting at Tennessee Tech, subsequently chairing the Southern Regional Science meeting held in conjunction with the TN-TACF meeting. At the latter meeting, chapter leaders discussed how to cooperate to implement RGS regionally and initiated plans for the coming breeding season. They also welcomed newly hired TACF Regional Science Coordinator Zach Anderson who has been working with Dr. Hill Craddock at the University of Tennessee - Chattanooga. Zachs office will be located in Chattanooga.  The American Chestnut Foundation
Load more