Our range of Sweet Chestnut bare root trees (Castanea sativa)

We have bare root Sweet Chestnut trees in several sizes and specifications.  

The 1U1 specification plants are seedlings which were grown from seed in the spring and instead of being sold in the following November to April period they are kept in situ in our fields and grown on for a further year or longer which makes a strong bushy plant.  These plants are grown on our farm in Herefordshire.

The seed from which we grow our Sweet Chestnut tree saplings is generally UK provenance, and normally from a Select Stand which demonstrates excellent qualities - this is particularly important where trees are grown for timber.  See our blog on seed provenance.

Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa) Summary

Sweet chestnut is the tree that gives us the edible “chestnuts roasted on an open fire” and also a lightweight, weather resistant wood that is used for furniture-making and coppiced to make long-lasting fencing, poles, firewood and charcoal.  Thin strips have traditionally been made into Sussex trugs.  It is non-native to the UK (thought to be a fairly recent introduction) and grows only in the south of the UK, being native to Southern Europe and Asia Minor. It is susceptible to sweet chestnut blight and banned from being imported from areas affected.  Our sweet chestnut trees are all UK seed and UK grown.

Soil and Situation

Sweet chestnut trees prefer well drained soils and a mild temperature.  They grown mostly in the south of the UK in nut orchards, in mixed woodlands and in specific sweet chestnut coppices, ideally in full sun but they will also grow in partial shade. They do not like to grow in a limestone soil or compacted soil

Leaves, flowers, fruit and bark

The leaves are shiny, mid-green, very long (up to 25cm) and oblong with a pointed tip, deeply veined and with a serrated edge. In autumn they become gold/russet coloured

The flowers which appear in June and July are long yellow catkins of both male and female flowers (male on the lower part of the flower and female on the upper part) and after pollination by insects the female flowers develop by autumn into glossy delicious chestnuts encased in a very spiky green case. Sweet chestnuts are packed with nutrients and antioxidents, high in fibre and very versatile. Trees do not produce chestnuts until they are mature but then the average production of chestnuts is generally about 100kg per tree but can be up to 300kg.  Autumn frosts can damage the chestnut harvest.  Chestnuts have many culinary uses and are gluten free.

Young trees have quite a smooth bark, in middle age they develop minor fissures (like oak) and then in old age (150 years or more) the bole twists into a contorted corkscrew with very deep fissures.

Eventual height and growth rate

Sweet chestnut is a large tree and will grow to about 35m though they are often coppiced, regrowing rapidly and producing timber every 10-12 years.   If allowed to grow without coppicing, they develop a squat shape with downward facing branches and a relatively short trunk. They are very long living trees when grown in the right conditions - up to 1000 years.

Sweet chestnut trees are susceptible to two issues - oriental chestnut gall wasp (OCGW), which is a non-stinging wasp but leaves a swelling at the leaf's central vein and where the leaf joins on to the stem (leaf nodes), and secondly chestnut blight which leaves trees with sunken and disfigured patches of bark often with visible orange spores, and a sparce crown. The first reported sighting of Chestnut blight was in Warwickshire in 2011 and since then there have been cases from Cornwall to Kent.  Members of the public are encouraged to identify sweet chestnut trees in their area and inspect the leaves and bark looking for signs of disease and if appropriate, report sightings of either of these issues on the following website - https://www.rhs.org.uk/science/help-our-research/check-a-sweet-chestnut

Fagaceae family.