By Ken Darnell, KY Chapter President
Kentucky Chapter partners and volunteers showed awesome teamwork in pollination efforts this year. Our American chestnut tree flowers matured over a wide range of dates in June 2023. This year we created a chart of “Prime Flower Maturity” dates of trees that were pollinated, and trees we collect pollen from, to improve our scheduling in 2024.
We began “bagging” female flowers for controlled pollinations on June 6 at our partner Steve Hartman’s American chestnut orchard in south central Kentucky. Bagging is the process of covering female flowers whose styles have started to emerge with paper lunch bags to avoid getting pollinated by another tree. Doing this allows us to come back and pollinate them with specific pollen of our choosing. Two weeks after the trees have been bagged, we return to pollinate female flowers when they are receptive. In the meantime, pollen is collected from trees to use for said pollinations. This year we collected pollen at Berea College Forest with Forester Clint Patterson and Assistant Forester Phil Vogel. Our pollination season concluded on June 30. (All photos by Ken Darnell.)
Collecting catkins from a 5.5” X 40’ wild American chestnut in Berea College Forest with Forester Clint Patterson and Assistant Forester Phil Vogel.
Ricky Parnell of the Kentucky Division of Forestry pollinates Kentucky’s largest surviving American chestnut, the “Adair County Tree.”
Male catkins and female flowers in Steve Hartman’s American chestnut orchard in Scottsville, KY.
Overall, in Kentucky, 225 female flowers on nine different trees were covered with bags and control pollinated. These trees were in Warren, Adair, Madison, and Morgan Counties, across a wide section of Kentucky regions. Pollinations in Adair County were performed on a Large Surviving American (LSA). This means the tree has blight, but it is not killing the tree, hence “surviving.” LSAs have a mysterious natural blight resistance and perhaps the Adair tree will pass this on to its progeny. We hope to breed with this magnificent tree for years to come!
Additional partners who contributed with pollen sources or trees to pollinate include University of Kentucky, USFS Daniel Boone National Forest, USFS Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area, Kentucky Division of Forestry, Eastern Kentucky University, and landowner Roger Alcorn. Several KY Chapter members and volunteers worked hard to complete the prioritized actions. The Chapter would like to also thank TACF’s research partners at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, who participated in the Foundation’s Chestnut Chat, “Chestnut Pollen Collection, Processing, and Storage.” Chapter leaders shared the recording with a large number of their members and volunteers, allowing them to study the latest techniques from ESF and TACF’s Meadowview Research Farms. Additional techniques, taught by veteran KY Chapter Board member Dr. Anne Bobigian, were also utilized.
The seeds from these controlled pollinations will be planted in a variety of orchards in the spring of 2024. These statewide actions are helping to diversify our breeding orchards in anticipation of Darling 58 pollinations.
Collecting catkins from a 5.5” X 40’ wild American chestnut in Berea College Forest with Forester Clint Patterson and Assistant Forester Phil Vogel.
Ricky Parnell of the Kentucky Division of Forestry pollinates Kentucky’s largest surviving American chestnut, the “Adair County Tree.”