In a world of instant gratification, too often, we fail to consider the long term. The folks at Chestnut Hill Outdoors have a different philosophy. With four generations of tree-planting expertise, they believe in putting down roots and investing in the land, so it will continue providing sustainable benefits not just now but for generations to come.
Dunstan Chestnut trees provide a prime example. Food plots are a great way to attract wildlife, and when planted today, they will produce tomorrow but need continual re-investment to provide dividends. Planting Dunstan Chestnut trees as an alternative or supplement represents a one-time investment. It won’t pay off quite as quickly, but it will continue to do so indefinitely once it starts in three to five years. You and your family can enjoy them soon enough, and your children and grandchildren will enjoy a sustainable habitat later, carrying on the family traditions of love and appreciation for the land.
The roots of the Dunstan Chestnut go back to Dr. Robert T. Dunstan, who in the 1950s, stopped the complete devastation of the American chestnut tree by developing a blight-resistant hybrid called the Dunstan Chestnut. This resilient tree produces large, nutritious nuts that are good for wildlife, good for people and good for the land.
Dunstan eventually moved his second-generation stock to north-central Florida, where the family established Chestnut Hill Nursery. In 1984, they planted a grove of 500 trees using grafts from the best of the second generation trees and the third generation of seedling Dunstans. Today, those trees are over 50 feet tall and 16-20 inches in diameter, and represent the foundation for Dunstan Chestnut stock now available to consumers.
Dunstan Chestnut trees offer several distinct advantages to landowners looking to enrich their environment now and for future generations. They’re blight-resistant, so they will not succumb to potentially devastating infestations. They grow faster and bigger than oaks, sometimes bearing in two to five years, where a white oak might not bear for 20 years. They lack the boom and bust cycles more common to oaks, and their blooms come out later in the spring, so they are far less susceptible to broad-scale mast crop failures caused by late freezes.
Perhaps best of all, Dunstan Chestnut trees eventually become prolific producers of hard mast that deer, other wildlife and humans can benefit from. Dunstan Chestnuts are large, averaging 15-35 nuts/lb, compared to Chinese nuts (35-100/lb) and American nuts (75-150/lb). They’re highly nutritious, containing four times the carbohydrates of a white oak acorn, 2.5 times the protein and only a fraction of the fat. They also have fewer tannins, making them much sweeter and more palatable to wildlife and humans. In addition, Dunstan Chestnuts can produce nuts in only 3-5 years of age, depending on care and climate. And they’ll continue producing more nuts with each passing year and generation.
Chestnut Hill Outdoors owner/operator, Iain Wallace sums it up this way: “Whenever I go to the orchards, I look out and reflect on memories of working the fields with my family while my grandfather guided the work. My mind floods with memories that I hope one day to share with my kids. Blight-resistant Dunstan Chestnut trees will deliver yields for generations to come, in memories for your family and the proper nutrition for your wildlife, too.”
Chestnut Hill Outdoors is more than just a nursery. To ensure you receive the maximum benefit from their products, they also provide sound advice and instruction on proper planting and care. For more on Chestnut Hill Outdoors products and how to care for them, visit ChestnutHillOutdoors.com, or call (855) 386-7826.
Chestnut Hill is the best place for you to purchase your food plot and deer attractant plants because they offer a large selection, their plants are specifically bred to attract deer, and they offer customers different sized plants at different levels of growth.
For more information, please visit
WWW.CHESTNUTHILLOUTDOORS.COM
