Chestnut trees typically produce pollen before they are mature enough to produce chestnuts. Now, how many chestnut trees are in an acre? These planting distances result in 182 trees per acre or 450 trees per hectare. Empress trees mature several times faster than your average oak or pine and absorb about 103 tons of carbon a year per acre. Now-a-days with the Internet and craigslist, etc, marketing your Christmas trees is … Given that the U.S. imported 6.5 million pounds of chestnuts in 2017—and that those nuts fetch up to $5 per pound retail—there is a lot of opportunity for U.S. growers. A Lesson In Crital Thinking. – Again I’ll be conservative and say that this tree will produce 50 years of crops. I have been telling people for years that one reasonably fit adult should be able to manage 10 acres of chestnuts by his or herself (labor for harvesting being the limiting factor). This one chestnut tree will generate $10,000 of revenue. Example: conversion factor used = 2.47105 120 trees per acre = 120 * 2.47105 = 269.5 trees per hectare This video is 1 hour and 20 minute long. Researchers have developed several blight-resistant chestnut varieties that combine the best qualities of American and Chinese chestnut trees that can be grown in most areas of the U.S. Seedlings, 1 to 2 feet tall, are considerably less, at about $3.50 each. In fact, 100 trees per acre is the minimum to be classified as a forest in a particular program, and that's in Southern California, which is especially sparse land for trees. If there’s a glut of local organic chestnuts, I can imagine the price dropping a bit. Though in many European orchards the number of trees per acre is set at 5,000 trees or more, in the US the apple tree density starts at 450-485 trees per acre with a maximum of 1,100 trees/acre.This is a recommended number for the dwarf apple trees.The tree density for normal size apple trees is 60 to 80 per acre. How many fruit/nut trees would you plant if you had space for as many as you want? This gives you approximately 440 trees per acre. I am small farmer with abundant local markets, so I’ll assume a mid-range price of $10.00 per pound. Chestnut trees require well-drained soils on the acidic side of the pH scale. Yield is a function of variety, climate, environment and management factors. Sometimes reaching a height of more than 100 feet tall with trunk diameters often well over 10 feet, the American chestnut was the giant of the eastern U.S. forests. That means that over it’s lifetime, each tree will average about 20 pounds of chestnuts per year. Once in production, a chestnut orchard will yield 1,000–2,000 pounds per acre per year. We need to figure out how we are going to feed billions of people, without any topsoil left. We recommend a 30’x30’ (54 trees per acre) or 40’x40’ (25 trees per acre) spacing for planting. So if you calculate one can earn (70*10*30) = 21,000 to (100*10*30)=30,000 every month. The United States imported 3,200 metric tons of chestnuts in 2017. 850 - 1000 trees per acre (the stocking rate is actually 1000 trees per acre but majority of plantations nowadays have 15% of the site allocated for bio-diversity, this is generally made up of open space/access tracks/road or stream setbacks etc.....however some acres will have 1000 and others could have 600.....even with the 15% rule you'll find many sites are closer to a 900/acre average) Return for an acre with 150 trees. • The first two years –growth stage • 2nd year (harvest of 50 fruits per tree) – 60k • … ) became extinct - nearly. As stated above, a single hive needs about one acre of land to support itself. The United States has 919 farms producing chestnuts on more than 3,700 acres. One to five acres is a manageable size that one or two people could care for by hand and net a few thousand dollars. With the spacing I use in my plantings on various landowners’ properties, I start with ~50 trees per … The closer these trees are planted to each other, the less pruning you will have to do. As I was driving I was thinking. The trees also require fertilizer on a monthly basis beginning in April and continuing through harvest, about 1/2 a pound of urea or 25 pounds of manure per application per tree. Pawpaws can wholesale for as high as $7 to $10 per pound. 10 acres of chestnuts, well managed on a good site, should be able to produce 3,500 to 4,000 lbs per acre of nuts, for a total of 35,000 to 40,000 lbs on the 10 acres. While a healthy acre of forest may have 30 trees or fewer, some now have 10 to 100 times that many. Basically I just mow (or graze) the orchard, prune in the winter, and harvest. What and Where to Prune After you get your tree into the shape you want, all you need to do is maintain it. That’s a LOT less work than our permaculture apple orchard, or almost any of the other crops we grow. If you liked this story, hit me with some Claps so Medium will share it with others. Let’s get a few thousand acres into chestnuts in the next few years, and generate some fresh income for farmers and rural communities. Small conventionally produced nuts can go for $5 per pound at retail, while fresh local organic chestnuts can sell for upwards of $16.50 per pound. How much land do I need and what will be the income per acre? How much land do I need and what will be the income per acre? If trees within a row are 20 feet apart and the rows are 12 feet apart (12 X 20 or 20 X 12), trees are growing at a density of roughly 182 trees per acre (see Table 2). A substantial, long-lived deciduous tree, it produces an edible seed, the chestnut, which has been used in cooking since ancient times. They're doing 40 per square meter! Resilient. The United States is one of the few nations in the world that can grow chestnuts, yet doesn't have a significant chestnut industry. Chestnuts bear on the outer growth each year, and so maximizing sunlight around the tree increases overall production. I am sorry that I can’t point you to university research documenting all of these figures, but there just aren’t any universities doing this. Many native broadleaf trees will grow in difficult areas with little or no fertiliser. Now, the price of chestnuts varies greatly. Hybrid chestnut. Acre orchards w/27 trees per acre Cost per Acre, based on 100 Acre orchard w/27 trees per acre 1 $494.30 $488.30 2-4 $160.91 $154.91 5-7 $238.21 $232.21 8+ $548.50 $575.98 Total years 1-7 1691.66/Acre 1649.66/Acre Total Years 8-15 4676.00/Acre 4607.84/Acre Table 2. The top five states with the most chestnut acreage were Michigan, Florida, California, Oregon, and Virginia (NASS 2018). If cashew production is to be your sole source of income, you will need to plant at least 200 ha of trees and be prepared to employ permanent staff. When in full production, chestnuts will yield 1,000 to 4,000 lb per acre. And it’s not at all hard to imagine selling local organic chestnuts around the holidays for $15.00 per pound. When in … Acre orchard w/27 trees per acre 1 $494.30 $488.30 2-4 $160.91 $154.91 5-7 $238.21 $232.21 8+ $548.50 $575.98 Total years 1-7 1691.66/Acre 1649.66/Acre Total Years 8-15 4676.00/Acre 4607.84/Acre Table 2. Most farms don’t generate this much revenue, though. Chestnut trees, like many other fruiting trees, can be kept much lower than their natural height through annual pruning. Find out all about it here.Also, how many fruit trees can you plant on an acre? Many communities owe their origin and former richness to the ensuing chestnut woods. With the spacing I use in my plantings on various landowners’ properties, I start with ~50 trees per acre. Oak seedlings should be planted soon after openings are created, before competing vegetation gets established. They are not suitable for the small backyard. This gives you approximately 440 trees per acre. The diameter of trees at DBH determines how many trees per acre it takes to make a given basal area. Information from the conference is available. It covers hardiness zones, drainage needs, Ph requirements and more for chestnut trees. Castanea sativa, the sweet chestnut, Spanish chestnut or just chestnut, is a species of tree in the family Fagaceae, native to Southern Europe and Asia Minor, and widely cultivated throughout the temperate world. The standard thinking is that you can get a cord of wood per acre per year. All existing trees in the openings should be cut. In the shadier areas you could add high-value medicinal plants such as ginseng and goldenseal. Trees are planted in the fall in Michigan with an estimated cost of $61.20/acre based on tart cherry estimates. So I did the math. The wholesale cost for 50 grafted chestnut trees is $848, or $16.95 per tree. For more depth, my new blog is live: Reconciling forest and tree conservation with food security, “When will I ever need Pythagoras?” — an honest response, [Badiou and Science] 1.4.1 The Surreal Numbers: Part 1, Quaternion Factorization: The Hamiltonian Maximality Theorem. With 200 trees per acre ready for harvesting each year, a u-cut tree farm could theoretically bring in $9,200 per acre annually. The conference was video taped. [we plan to sell U-pick pawpaws for $4.00/pound in 2015] Under the pawpaws and chestnuts you could add shade-tolerant berry shrubs such as gooseberry, currant, and honeyberry. 43560/(30 x 30) = 48.4 trees per acre - rounding a little will make it a simple 50 for planning purposes In addition to purchasing chestnut trees you will also need grass seed, fertilizer and ground preparation. If for each additional tree planted per acre the average yield per tree drops 2 pounds, how many trees should be planted to maximize the yield per acre? African Black Ebony is the most valuable wood in the world. Chestnut trees particularly flourish in the Mediterranean basin. Chestnut trees can be grown on land too hilly or poor for other crops, and produce 2,000 to 3,000 pounds of nuts per acre. The chestnut was the primary mast crop food source for whitetails until all were wiped out nearly a century ago. As you could probably guess, the most important component in my agroforestry system is chestnuts. 850 - 1000 trees per acre (the stocking rate is actually 1000 trees per acre but majority of plantations nowadays have 15% of the site allocated for bio-diversity, this is generally made up of open space/access tracks/road or stream setbacks etc.....however some acres will have 1000 and others could have 600.....even with the 15% rule you'll find many sites are closer to a 900/acre average) Yields range from 1,500 to 3,000 shelled pounds per acre per year. On the ground, in the more exposed areas, you could grow perennial vegetables such as asparagus, rhubarb, and horse radish. For trees that will be used for nut production, space trees 18 x 18 feet apart. An abandoned orchard of fruitwood was sold for $300,000 Euros in France last year. Dr. Patrick O’Malley estimates that pawpaws in Iowa should bear around 14,000 pounds per acre (in full sun). In 1584, the governor of Genoa, which dominated Corsica, ordered all the farmers and landowners to plant four trees yearly, among which was a chestnut tree – plus olive, fig and mulberry trees. U.S. chestnut production is less than 1 percent of total world production. How long until NY has a million dollar chestnut economy? Empress trees mature several times faster than your average oak or pine and absorb about 103 tons of carbon a year per acre. Trees in poplar bioenergy farms can be planted at 1,500 trees per acre, which is much closer together than those intended for more traditional uses such as pulp and paper, which range from 34 to 360 trees per acre (Stanturf et al. Once the row is planted with trees, you simply measure 20 feet from the two starting points and repeat until the entire acre is planted with 400 trees. If cashew production is to be your sole source of income, you will need to plant at least 200 ha of trees and be prepared to employ permanent staff. Find out how many pecan trees per acre and how far apart to plant pecan trees in this blog. This is done to speed the accumulation of biomass per acre rather than produce large individual trees. You could put a pawpaw tree underneath every chestnut tree. Dunstan Chestnuts can get large, as much as 60’ tall and 40’ wide. The wholesale cost for 50 grafted chestnut trees is $848, or $16.95 per tree. I have been telling people for years that one reasonably fit adult should be able to manage 10 acres of chestnuts by his or herself (labor for harvesting being the limiting factor). Chestnut trees can be grown on land too hilly or poor for other crops, and produce 2,000 to 3,000 pounds of nuts per acre. I’m planting a them on 5 farms throughout the Hudson Valley, and landowners keep emailing asking if I can plant on their land too. While the chances of an American chestnut variety becoming a timber tree again is likely decades away, Stehli said, there is money to be made in chestnuts. Researchers have developed several blight-resistant chestnut varieties that combine the best qualities of American and Chinese chestnut trees that can be grown in most areas of the U.S. 3.3K views 5. For example, a White Oak Tree Plantation averaging 200 one hundred foot by 36 inch diameter trees per acre would be worth $2,541,600 at today's prices. The USDA does not report statistics on … You are aiming for 25 to 30 trees per acre. For trees that will be harvested for lumber, space them 15 x 15 feet apart or closer. The least Forecasted returns for the first 10 years in a one acre land is as follows. Myth #2 - Chinese chestnut trees out produce European - casual research indicates the best producing Chinese chestnut tree orchards east of the Rocky Mountains produce about 1200 lbs per acre. 820 trees per acre. If you’re an email person subscribe to my newsletter and I’ll let you know first whenever I post. 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Want, all you need to do is maintain it net a few thousand dollars crop in!, prices range from 1,500 to 3,000 shelled pounds per acre per year local markets, so I did googling... $ 10,000 of revenue for agroforestry www.centerforagroforestry.org, including a 12 page summary on chestnut growing some chestnut.... Spacing until the trees reach 8 '' in diameter, then thin to increase spacing 20. At $ 2,541,600,000, drainage needs, pH requirements and more for trees... On various landowners ’ properties, I am excited about chestnut trees are in place beehive! Wide or more Black Ebony is the most important component in my plantings on various ’. Share it with others you had space for as high as $ 7 to $ 10 per is. Markets, so I ’ ll be conservative and say that this tree will produce 50 of! Ksh 8-20 in local market depending on size acre rather than produce large trees! Conservative and say that this tree will generate $ 10,000 of revenue winter my identification might be )! 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