Abstract
Chestnut cultivation for nut production is increasing in the eastern half of the United States. Chinese chestnuts (Castanea mollissima Blume), or Chinese hybrids with European (C. sativa Mill.) and Japanese chestnuts (C. crenata Sieb. & Zucc.), are cultivated due to their high kernel quality, climatic adaptation, and disease resistance. Several hundred thousand pounds of high-quality fresh nuts are taken to market every fall, and several hundred additional orchards are entering bearing years. Grower-led on-farm improvement has largely facilitated this growth. A lack of significant investments in chestnut breeding in the region, paired with issues of graft incompatibility, has led many growers to cultivate seedlings of cultivars rather than grafted cultivars. After decades of evaluation, selection, and sharing of plant materials, growers have reached a threshold of improvement where commercial seedling orchards can be reliably established by planting offspring from elite selected parents. Growers recognize that if cooperation persists and university expertise and resources are enlisted, improvement can continue and accelerate. To this end, the University of Missouri Center for Agroforestry (UMCA) and chestnut growers throughout the eastern United States are partnering to formalize a participatory breeding program – the Chestnut Improvement Network. This partnership entails the UMCA providing an organizational structure and leadership to coordinate on-farm improvement, implement strategic crossing schemes, and integrate genetic tools. Chestnut growers offer structural capacity by cultivating seedling production orchards that provide financial support for the grower but also house segregating populations with improved individuals, in situ repositories, and selection trials, creating great value for the industry.
Highlights
Chestnut (Castanea spp.) is currently a minor crop in the United States, and investment in chestnut breeding has been minimal to date (Anagnostakis, 2012)
Commercial production of Chinese chestnuts and complex hybrids is expanding in the eastern states, with over 300 bearing age orchards and an additional 300 newly established (1-5-year-old) orchards (USDA, 2018)
Most improvement efforts have been undertaken by growers, many of whom are members of the Northern Nut Growers Association (NNGA) and/or Chestnut Growers of America (CGA)
Summary
Chestnut (Castanea spp.) is currently a minor crop in the United States, and investment in chestnut breeding has been minimal to date (Anagnostakis, 2012). 7,000 offspring representing over 20 half-sib families of C. mollissima or complex hybrids cultivars are of bearing age and are detailed by Miller (2016) and Revord et al (2021) These plantings provide researchers and growers with robust, genetically diverse breeding populations from which growers are already identifying locally well-adapted, elite trees that serve their production needs and as candidate parents for future breeding efforts. Chestnut growers are accustomed to observing trait variation and selecting superior individuals, and the standard practices for developing a seedling production orchard meshes well with on-farm selection for the breeding program. The second population group would require greater culling but contain unique recombinants representing a high rate of genetic gain
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
