# Chestnut Hybrid



## FranklinWorkshops (May 30, 2020)

Paul @phinds and I discussed some hybrid chestnut lumber I bought years ago. All I know is that it came from a test plot but the seller didn't know the details. He said it was American chestnut crossed with some other chestnut, probably Chinese. Today, I cut some of it up for an Etsy customer and decided to prepare and make a scan of the end grain. Paul has a photo on his website of the face of a board but I never gave him an end-grain shot. Here it is. To me, it looks just like the ones for American chestnut / Castanea dentata as shown on his site. Maybe Paul or Mark @Mr. Peet can see a difference. The sample is a 1" x 3" section.

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## phinds (May 30, 2020)

Unfortunately not detailed enough to say much beyond saying that that does look like chestnut.

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## Mr. Peet (May 30, 2020)

The wood is so close anatomically, there is no way to tell them apart until you get down to DNA levels. You can group them based on known samples of wood, but without going deeper or having the living plant, chestnut is as far as I'd go. 

If I had the GPS on the test plot, might be able to cross reference it with The American Chestnut Foundation data base to see if it was with them and what cross it might be.

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## FranklinWorkshops (May 31, 2020)

Mr. Peet said:


> The wood is so close anatomically, there is no way to tell them apart until you get down to DNA levels. You can group them based on known samples of wood, but without going deeper or having the living plant, chestnut is as far as I'd go.
> 
> If I had the GPS on the test plot, might be able to cross reference it with The American Chestnut Foundation data base to see if it was with them and what cross it might be.


Mark, I'm just guessing but from the vague information I got from the seller (who's normally very precise), I'd say the test trees were supposed to have been burned or ground up. But they were big enough to make some lumber so the tree company sold them to my sawyer friend to make a little extra money. The widest board I got in this purchase was around 6 inches so these were small trees.


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## Mr. Peet (May 31, 2020)

TACF will burn culled trees, but often avoid chipping to limit spore spread within test plots. However, both are done. Another look at the end grain shows roughly 35 years growth, 1985, plus how long you had it =? TACF was reborn in 1983, so I'm guessing this tree was not likely part of the program. I'm also guessing it had more Chinese genetics, based on smaller growth ring intervals, and age at harvest. Many of the 30 year old cross-breeds with heavier American traits that are still living are 40-65 feet tall with DBH's of 12-16". Again, I'd simply call it chestnut with not knowing specifics.

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## FranklinWorkshops (May 31, 2020)

I agree. Will just call in chestnut when I sell items made with it. The great thing is that the lumber is really nice to work with. I sent @Eric Rorabaugh a small piece to make some pot calls. He will tell us how it turns versus pure Am chestnut.

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## FranklinWorkshops (Jul 31, 2021)

@Eric Rorabaugh did you ever make the pot calls with this hybrid Am chestnut I sent you? If so, how did they turn out?


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## Eric Rorabaugh (Jul 31, 2021)

I haven't yet. Haven't made anything in quite a while except a mess


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