Connecticut news

Spring Chestnut Planting at Wigwam Brook

Are you looking for a way to welcome spring to CT? Please join the CT Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation for planting at a brand new orchard site! On Saturday, May 8th CT-TACF will plant several American chestnut breeding lines (several hundred trees) at the newly-established Wigwam Book Orchard in Litchfield, CT. This orchard is on property owned by the Litchfield Hills Audubon, with support from CT-TACF. In 2009 a test planting was established on-site, which was very successful and allowed new orchard managers John Baker and Tom Traver to gain valuable experience growing chestnut. Thanks to a WHIP grant from NRCS, in the past month a deer fence has been installed and blue bird boxes are planned for installation later this spring.

Now that the orchard managers and the site are ready, it's time to plant the orchard! Planting of roughly 200 nuts is planned to start at 10:00 am on Saturday May 8th and will run into the early afternoon. The rain date is Sunday May 9th, same time. Wigwam Brook is located on Lipeika Road, off Route 254 and about a half mile from the Route 118 intersection in Litchfield. For more information, please contact Tom Traver at (860) 274-3928. We hope to see you there!



Kendra Gurney

TACF New England Regional Science Coordinator

802.951.6771 x1350 (o)

802.999.8706 (m)

gro.fca@ardneK

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Will Chestnut trees grow in the North?

I have several chestnut trees on my farm and they produce every year. I know the wildlife loves them. 

Wish mine would start producing

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The last time I saw a chestnut tree was 50 years ago in Detroit. I was a kid and saw the trees lined up and down our street die one by one.

Has anyone ever tried spraying copper sulfate & lime mixture on a tree to kill the fungus

Wonder if the genes can be changed on the blight fungus so it will die off.

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