Chinese Chestnut Castanea mollissima 

Why Pick Chestnut Trees?

Easy Going in the Right Soil: They love well-drained, sandy, acidic soil and thrive under the full sun.

Fast Growers: Start enjoying your very own chestnuts in just 3-5 years.

Drought Tolerant: Once settled, they're incredibly resilient to dry conditions. Especially when growing on deep soil. Chestnut trees -- though less than apples -- can be sensitive to late spring frosts, and can be planted on sites with good air drainage to avoid frost pockets.

The Hybrid Advantage: Our seedlings are predominantly Chinese but many are complex hybrids containing American, European, and Japanese genes, their parents have been rigorously selected for robust growth and delicious, easy pealing nuts!Why Choose Our Chestnuts?

Sustainably Sourced:  Our seeds come from top-notch orchards and breeding projects, ensuring a lineage of strength and productivity.

Eco-Friendly:  Our seedlings are grown with mycorrhiza in living soils. There are zero herbicides, pesticides, or synthetic fertilizers used in any of our growing practices. Planting our chestnuts contributes to a healthier ecosystem, offering vital habitats and food sources.

Delicious Legacy:  Enjoy the rich, nutty flavors that promise to delight your palate and enrich your harvest celebrations.

We honor the legacy of the American Chestnut while embracing the vitality of hybrids. These trees provide abundant and powerfully nutritious offerings, supporting humans and wildlife. While we mourn the functional extinction of the American Chestnut and the forests of old, the reality is that hybrids provide substantial calories for humans and wildlife alike, while also providing critical habitat for innumerable birds and insect species. Though most production-oriented hybrids have a shorter orchard form, some hybrids are timber-type and able to compete for canopy in our forests, more closely approximating the role of the American Chestnut, while also providing copious amounts of delicious staple starch.

Chinese Chestnut Castanea mollissima 

Tree grows to 25 - 50 ft, medium growth rate, 3 -5 years to bear nuts, pollinator required for commercial nut production, deciduous, dense summer canopy, deep roots, not native to Vermont, not native to New England 

Growing conditions:

• Prefers full sun to partial shade and moist, well-drained soil
• Soil pH: 4.0 - 7.0
• Tolerates: sand, clay, loam, and some nutritionally poor soils, heat, humidity 
• Needs more than one tree for cross-pollination and abundant nut production to occur 

Ecosystem services:

• Used in alley cropping,
• Potential for use as overstory and in urban food forests
• Produces: nuts, firewood, potentially coppice products
• Resistant to chestnut blight 

Potential challenges:

• Susceptible to cinnamon fungus 

Common Chokecherry Prunus virginiana 

Shrub that grows to 10 - 25 ft tall with white flowers and red fruit that turns black when ripe, fast growth rate, shallow roots, deciduous with a dense summer canopy, Native to VT and the greater Northeast.

Growing conditions:

• Prefers full sun, good drainage
• Soil pH: 5.2 - 8.4
• Tolerates: dry soil, sand, clay, partial shade 

Ecosystem services: 

• Can be coppiced 
• Good for pollinators
• Natural windbreak, riparian buffer, and erosion control
• Provides bird habitat and great food source for wildlife
• Can use wood for veneers and firewood

Potential challenges: 

• Allelopathic
• Could get too hot in VT’s changing summer
• Toxic to use in silvopasture systems or as tree fodder for livestock

American Hazelnut Corylus americana 

American hazelnut is a thicket-forming native shrub, excellent for naturalizing, woodland gardens and shade areas. Showy male flowers (catkins) add early spring interest and dark green leaves turn a beautiful kaleidoscope of colors in the fall. The nuts mature from September to October, attracting seed-eating birds, such as blue jays and woodpeckers.

As a tree, it can grow up to 20ft. Multiple trees are better for cross-pollination to occur, deciduous with a dense canopy, shallow roots, native to VT and the greater Northeast.

Growing conditions:

• Prefers full sun for optimal nut production, good drainage 
• Well-drained soils, slightly alkaline 
• Tolerates: dry and moist soils, clay, partial to deep shade, sand and loam 

Ecosystem services: 

• Can be coppiced
• Used in urban food forests
• Windbreak recommended
• Can be used as a living snow fence, for erosion control
• Supplies food for a large array of wildlife
• Produces nuts that reach maturity in the fall (September - October) 
• Well-adapted to tolerate fire on the landscape

Potential challenges:

• Mildly allelopathic
• Does not tolerate salt
• Can suffer damage from deer and occasionally from disease such as leaf spots, blight and crown gall.

Washington Hawthorn Crataegus phaenopyrum 

Tree that grows to 20 - 40 ft, deciduous with a dense canopy, white flowers and red fruits, native to parts of the Northeast U.S.

 Growing conditions: 

• Prefers full sun, good drainage
• Soil pH: 6.0 - 8.0
• Tolerates: alkaline soils, clay, sand, wet and dry soils (with good drainage), partial shade

Ecosystem services: 

• Fall and winter food source for small mammals, birds, and pollinators
• Produces edible fruits (trees take 5 - 8 years to bear fruit)
• Tolerates excessive pruning and can be used as a hedge

Potential challenges: 

• Insect issues can occur with borers, leafminers, caterpillars, lace bugs, and scale
• Thorny

Red Oak Quercus rubra 

Tree that grows around 75 ft, medium growth rate, deciduous with dense summer canopy, deep roots, wind-pollinated, native to VT and New England

Growing conditions:

• Prefers full sun, soils that are acidic, fertile, and well-drained
• Soil pH: 4.5 - 6.0
• Tolerates: dry soils, clay, drought tolerant, some flooding, part shade, air pollution

Ecosystem services: 

• Can be coppiced
• Used in alley cropping
• Used as windbreak, in silvopasture systems, as a riparian forest buffer, and for erosion control
• High wildlife habitat value, high vertebrate food use, provides birds food and shelter
• Produces: hardwood, firewood, veneers, lumber

Potential challenges: 

• Toxic as tree fodder for livestock
• Could suffer climate-related oak decline
• Could suffer damage from cinnamon fungus and gypsy moth 

White Oak Quercus alba 

Tree, 75 - 100 ft, slow growth rate, deciduous, deep roots, wind pollinated, native to VT and New England 

Growing conditions:

• Prefers full sun or partial shade, well-drained, loamy, slightly acidic soils
• Soil pH: 6.0 - 7.0
• Tolerates: dry soils, sand, clay, partial shade, fairly drought tolerant once established 
• Avoid excessively wet areas

Ecosystem services:

• Can be coppiced
• Used as windbreak, in silvopasture systems, as a riparian forest buffer, and for erosion control
• Very high wildlife habitat value
• Supports multiple bird families 
• Produces: hardwood, veneers, lumber, firewood

Potential challenges: 

• Toxic for use as tree fodder for livestock
• Could suffer from climate related oak decline 
• Could suffer from cinnamon fungus
• Does not tolerate flooding
• Mildly allelopathic 

Yellowbud Hickory (Bitternut) Carya cordiformis 

Why Yellowbud Hickory?

Native Power: A hardy native tree that's part of the local heritage and great for wildlife and the ecosystem.

Oil Wonder: Imagine growing your own olive oil, but cooler! These nuts provide a unique, mild yet nutty-flavored oil – often described as liquid pecan, perfect for a wide variety of culinary possibilities. The oil can be used in sautéing and baking as well as low/no heat applications like salad dressing.

Delicious Staple Fat: No bitterness here! Just like olives, that are intensely bitter off the tree, the tannins that impart this bitterness to both of these species are water-soluble. So when the nuts are dried and pressed you are left with pure, delicious oil.

Nutritious: Yellowbud Hickory oil has a very similar fatty acid profile to olive oil, predominantly oleic acid, but with a slightly higher smoke point.

Productive: Through the harvest data that we and our partners have gathered over the past 7 years we have found that Yellowbud Hickory has the potential to out produce sunflower and canola in yield of oil per acre. All without needing annual tillage and allowing for other production possibilities, like broilers or grazers, to happen in the understory.

Tree Specs: Thrives in Zones 2-9, adapting to various soils. Loves full sun, where they produce heaviest, but won't fuss over some shade. Can thrive in riparian areas. Grows tall and proud, providing ample shade and beauty.

Tree, 75 - 100 ft, medium growth rate, deciduous, dense summer canopy, deep roots, produces nuts in 3 - 4 years grafted or 10 years from seedling, pollinator required for commercial nut production,  native to VT and New England

Growing conditions:

• Prefers full sun, does not tolerate shade
• Soil pH: 5.5 - 8.5
• Tolerates: wet soils, dry soils, sand, clay, excessive drainage

Ecosystem services: 

• Can be coppiced
• Used as a riparian forest buffer, for erosion control
• Attracts wildlife, larval host for butterflies and the Luna moth
• Produces: oil, veneers, lumber, firewood, pulpwood

Potential challenges: 

• Some risk of pest problems, including bark beetle, pecan weevil, borers, and twig girdler

Shagbark Hickory Carya ovata 

Tree that grows to 75 - 100 ft, slow growing, deciduous, open summer canopy, deep roots, bears nuts in 3 - 4 years grafted or 10 years from seedling (can take up to 40 years), lives for 200 or 300 years, pollinator required for commercial production, native to VT and New England

Growing conditions:

• Prefers full sun or partial shade and fertile, deep soil with good drainage
• Soil pH: 6.1 - 6.5
• Tolerates: wet soils, dry soils, clay, partial shade, drought tolerant once established

Ecosystem services: 

• Can be coppiced
• Can be used as a windbreak, in an urban food forest, as a riparian forest buffer, or for erosion control
• Food and habitat source for wildlife 
• Produces lumber, firewood, pulpwood, and nuts 

Potential challenges: 

• Mildly allelopathic
• Does not tolerate flooding

Tulip tree Liriodendron tulipifera

Tree, 90 to 120 ft, medium to fast growth rate, deciduous, deep roots, native to VT and New England, one of the largest native trees in North America

Growing conditions:

• Prefers full sun and moist, well-drained, slightly acidic soil
• Soil pH: 6.0 - 7.0
• Tolerates: sand tolerant, clay tolerant, flood tolerant, part shade

Ecosystem services: 

• Can be coppiced
• Used in alley cropping, as a pollinator hedgerow, in silvopasture systems, as a riparian forest buffer, and for erosion control
• High value for pollinators, attracts butterflies and hummingbirds
• Supports multiple bird families
• Produces: Hardwood, veneers, lumber, pulpwood

Potential challenges:

• Toxic for use as tree fodder for livestock
• Sensitive to heat and drought
• Can be prone to scale and aphids
• Susceptible to limb damage from wind, ice and/or snow