Pounds of Chestnuts from Original Trees at Eastern Shore Nurseries, Inc.
No. 1, 78; No. 2, 58; No. 3, 51-1/4; No. 4, 7-1/2; No. 5, 49; No. 6, 31; No. 7, 34; No. 8, 31-1/2; No. 9, 63; No. 10, 40-1/2; No. 11, 61-1/2; No. 12, 64-1/2; No. 13, 56; No. 14, 47-1/2; No. 15, 74; No. 16, 60; No. 18, 106; No. 19, 25-1/2--Total, 938-3/4 pounds.
Corsan: "Do you recommend the use of lime?"
Hemming: "We do not use lime. We use Vigoro at the rate of 1 to 1-1/2 lbs. to inch of diameter per tree."
Hemming: "No particular reason, just that it is available."
Member: "What time of year do you fertilize your trees?"
Hemming: "We fertilize during the winter--usually during December."
Crane: "Last year we used a method of storing Chinese chestnuts which proved very satisfactory. Two thousand pounds of nuts were stored last year. Fall planting is good where one can use it but in a lot of areas it can not be used because of rats robbing the plantings. We have to store the nuts. The procedure we follow is to harvest every other day. Nuts are placed in tin cans with friction top lids. The lids should have one to three holes of 1/16" diameter in them to provide air. Cans are placed in storage at a temperature of 32 to 40 degrees F."
Stoke: "I keep chestnuts in the cellar in a can with an open top in what we call limestone sand. Keep wonderfully well. Chestnuts must have air."
Gravatt: "Down south we have a lot of trouble with decay. We take nuts right from the bur and put them in the soil. They give much better germination."
Crane: "The Chinese harvest their chestnuts just as soon as the bur cracks. They do not wait for the nuts to drop from the trees but harvest the nuts from the trees and store in covered pottery jars. They plant in the fall of the year. They do not hold nuts for any length of time."
G. Smith: "Charcoal is good to store nuts in. They are shipped from China that way."
Smith: "Would chestnuts stand carbon bisulphide for getting the weevil out, or is the hot water treatment better?"
Crane: "Carbon bisulphide treatment is dangerous, it will kill weevils but it will also kill the nuts so they will not germinate. Unless precautions are used it may cause an explosion and fire. Methyl bromide treatment is better."