Han wrote:
dicko wrote in
:

On Fri, 23 Nov 2007 20:09:10 GMT, Han wrote:

Tom Watson wrote in
:

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/world_us/11752597.html


Regards,

Tom Watson

tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)

http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1/

I hope that our pinoaks will last until they can be replaced with
chestnuts ...
When I bought my house, I discovered I had a small stand of Chestnut
trees in the back yard. I dont think they're American C'nuts, but
they're not Asian either. As close as I can tell they're a hybrid, but
they produce the most delicious nuts.....

Until this past year: The year of the 17 year Cicada.

I tell ya, all the new reports said, "ignore the Cicadas, they dont do
any lasting damage"... Yeah right! It was like every single Cicada in
a 1 mile radius made a beeline for those trees. There wasnt a green
leaf left standing after the onslaught was over. The trees made a
half hearted attempt at rebudding, but there were only a few leaves
all summer long. Not to mention, no nuts in the fall. :-( I truly
suspect these trees are history. Will know for sure next spring...

-dickm

I hope that your trees will survive, Dick.

As an aside, about an hour north of here in NY is a place called Mohonk
Mountain house, a very nice hotel and surroundings
http://www.mohonk.com/. There are American chestnut trees u[ there,
but they don't last. They are making seed and it makes new trees, but
the trees succumb to the fungus before they are more than 3-4 inches in
trunk diameter. I think they are hoping that natural mutations will
generate resistant trees, and who knows ...

That, unfortunately, is the general tendency. There are a few places
where there are some which have regenerated and survived so far. I know
of a couple specimens in VA which are kept almost a state secret in
order to protect them that have reached about 40 years' age by
now...they're the basis for quite a lot of research at VPI and elsewhere...

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