davey, In general, chestnuts are considered to be non-self-fertile, so, yes, you need another tree - or a grafted branch of an appropriate pollenizer. The tree a block and a half a way is probably out of range - seems like I've seen something indicating anything over 100 yds is probably too far away to be really effective. I've had minimal experience grafting chestnuts - have done only a handful; a simple bark graft works well for me, but there are some compatibility issues with some chestnuts, so to ensure better success, I prefer to graft named varieties onto their own seedlings. This may or may not be fully required for Chinese chestnuts, but it's fairly important for American & some hybrids. I can't comment on when to cut scionwood in the PNW, but I do it here in late Feb/early Mar, then graft when the rootstocks are pushing leaves.

Sharon, You make a good point, I really don't know, but what you say makes very good sense. On the site that sells Chestnut trees to the growers, they were talking about what the 'Growers' should do to maximize their crop yield is intersperse a one to ten ratio of a different hybrid. We don't need 'maximized crop yields', just enough for the furry tailed tree critters with some left over for us :) I will be starting the seeds in my green house with a heat mat under under the pots. I will post the progress on them. These are gorgeous looking nuts, far superior to those Chinese nuts you get in stores, Lou

200 ft is about the maximum distance apart that you could anticipate decent pollenation occurring. You probably need to plant a pollenizer if the others you've seen are farther away than that. Two chestnut trees on the campus of the community college across the street from my office... probably 500-600 ft apart, with no obstructions between them. Nut production is poor on both - plenty of burs, but most contain only 'blanks' - unfilled nut capsules.

Karl B, I have lots of Zinnias to share with you. please email me at aliciacammel@gmail.con and I will give you my address to send your SASE for me to mail you your seeds.