Hi dzejna, I just happened to gather a bucket full of horse chestnuts in October. If you are still looking for some, or want more, send me an email. We can either trade or I will send you some for the cost of postage. Katie

Hi gang Thanks for the tips. I've just got back from my in-laws with a cloth shopping bag half full of buckeye conkers. I figure about 500 seeds. 500 is a good number to work with: * An afternoon's potting. (Ok, long afternoon...) * Can try different things with statistically valid results. Got a good line on Amur Maple. I'd like to start work with sugar maples. I have a fantasy about having my own sugar bush. If you have a sugar maple with known provenance and it's bearing seed this year I'd like to visit you. (Actually I don't care about *you* (maybe a little bit) I care about your tree...) Looking for oaks still. Anyone have a good oak tree where the squirrels haven't cleaned it up too well? Bur oak, scarlet oak? Others? (Yes I grow trees commercially. Yes I'm a beginner at this. Yes I have to be careful about what I say on this forum to keep from putting my foot in my mouth.) Overall my goal is to increase the diversity of trees in our region. This is why I'm more interested in seeds than in cuttings. Sure, out of 500 seeds, 200 won't sprout, another 200 won't live out the first winter, but I'll get 100 that are somewhat hardy. Two years later that will be 50. Some I'll sell. Some I'll keep. In 30 years I'll have an Alberta hardy sugar maple. Maybe. What the hell. If you don't dream, then life is dreary. Sherwood of Sherwood's Forests.

I used to have a row of pretty large common horse chestnuts (until they died of a disease that has affected most of the horse chestnuts in western Europe). They were not very old, but they grew at an incredible rate. In the early days as a collector, I used them to get some shade for hostas in containers. The chestnuts were extremely greedy feeders. Their roots grew into the pots and extracted every last bit of nutrients in it. The soil in which the trees grew was basically sand, with a top layer of 30 in. black garden soil. On a regular base I added a � in. layer of compost as a mulch. Well, the trees managed to turn the whole bunch into plain sand again: almost all of the "black" was eaten out of the soil. Maybe the japanese type is less greedy, but don't say I didn't warn you ! Rob

"An odd thing is the way they drop forcefully from the tree as though being thrown." This is where the engineers who participate on this board feel they HAVE to wade in. The terminal velocity of a chestnut (horsechestnut is similar in size, density, and aerodynamics) is ~32.5 mph (Yildiz, 2009). Without sitting down and doing the required calculus, the nut should achieve 90+% of that terminal velocity in ~2 seconds from a height of ~50'. Shorter drop, slower speed. Higher drop, 32.5 mph....it's not going to be going faster than that. Having been hit by many a bee at 60mph, I can understand why a 32mph chestnut has the impression of being ejected forcefully from a tree. ref - Yildiz, M. U., Ozcan M. M., Calisir S., Demir F., Er F., 2009. Physico-Chemica Properties of Wild Chestnut Fruit Grown in Turkey. World Applied Sciences Journal 6(3): 365-372,2009