Lake Allatoona Orchard Maintenance 2020

Georgia Chestnut Enthusiasts,

We just wanted to give you a quick update showing some work being done on behalf of GA-TACF in Georgia. The series of photos below show groups of U.S. Army Corps staff and public volunteers engaging in major orchard maintenance work at our Lake Allatoona chestnut orchard (near Stamp Creek). This site, originally designed to assess blight resistance in TACF backcross trees, has been repurposed in recent years as a site to screen hybrid chestnut trees for Phytophthora root rot (PRR) resistance (in collaboration with Berry College and The University of Tennessee – Chattanooga). Presently about 140 survivors remain at the site, which was discovered to harbor this lethal root rot pathogen soon after plantings were initiated in 2012. Long-term survivors should be those carrying genes for PRR resistance.

Starting with seeds from one tree collected this fall (the tree pictured at the bottom), offspring from this orchard will be screened for PRR resistance and planted in similarly contaminated sites. This is just a small part of the work being done to help bring resistance to this deadly pathogen into American chestnut. Work that has been initiated at TACF’s Flint orchard near Waleska, GA falls into this same category of work. Pre-screened material from chapters throughout the southern states will be planted at the Flint site on December 4 and 5, adding to a line of trees planted there earlier this year.

At the bottom of this article, Christopher Purvis, lead ranger at Lake Allatoona, lists the volunteers (asterisks denote folks who participated on several days over the last month or so). Many thanks to all who were involved in this much needed work!