Seed Sales

Plant sooner or later?

If you want to get some American chestnuts, we can help!

The Maine Chapter of TACF collects seeds from native chestnut trees in Maine every year for:

• Research purposes
• Retail seedling sales
• Volunteer rewards
• Fundraising sales to support our work

Due to a late freeze in May of 2023, our harvest was much smaller than usual, leaving us too few chestnuts to offer them for sale to the public in 2024. If you’re looking for seeds to plant, let us know and we’ll contact you early in 2025.

There are good reasons to start planting sooner than later:

• Your native chestnut trees can provide an ideal nursery shelter for planting blight-resistant chestnuts when they become available.
• Growing native chestnuts now lets you test the suitability of your site. Soil must be acidic and well drained.
• You can learn now what is needed to get good growth later.
• Growing ME native chestnuts helps us preserve local genetic diversity.
• Happy chestnuts can grow 4 feet in height and 1” diameter per year!
• In 10 to 20 years, your native chestnuts will be producing nuts, poles, and small saw-logs.

How to get seeds or seedlings

Here are ways to get chestnuts to plant and enjoy:

• Join TACF and receive an invitation to buy our limited supply of pure American seeds or seedlings if/when available.
• Lend a hand at a volunteer event.
• Ellis’ Greenhouse in Hudson ME often sells seedlings during the summer months.
• Buy 2-yr-old Maine chestnut seedlings from Fedco Trees. Fedco buys seeds from the ME Chapter and gives us back $3 per tree.