Middlefield Post
April 18, 2012
e Two Edition garden
Second of three fabulous
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The Greenhouse at Kent State University Geauga By Robert Stehli There was much activity this April at the John Gander Greenhouse on the Kent State University Geauga Campus. Through the cooperation of Kent State University Geauga Regional Academic Center and the Northern Nut Growers Association, the Gander Greenhouse is the home of one thousand super hybrid blight resistant chestnut trees and two thousand eastern filbert blight resistant hazelnut trees. Seed for this project was donated by NNGA members: Dr. Sandra Anagnostakis (Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station), Dr. Thomas Molnar (Department of Plant Pathology, Rutgers), Troy Pabst (Forestry Properties Manager, University of Nebraska), Dr. Mike Gold (Center for Agroforestry, University of Missouri), and Robert Stehli (Wintergreen Tree Farm, Mantua). The Seed was in cold storage at Wintergreen Tree Farm, but there wasn’t anywhere to plant. Then providence
took over; Ron Etling, a retired educator and friend of Stehli’s brought the problem to the attention of KSU Burton’s Associate Dean Dr. Mathew McIntosh. Stehli and McIntosh met at the campus March 21 with Ron Etling, Dave Day (Director of Advancement), and Carol Gardner (Special Assistant), and within a week three thousand seeds had found a home on campus in the John Gander Greenhouse: the use of which they are providing to the NNGA free of charge. Most of the chestnut trees being propagated are from seed of the cultivated variety (cultivar) Sleeping Giant, which was bred by the late Arthur H. Graves for nut quality and blight resistance. Sleeping Giant is a super hybrid (a hybrid of at least three species) of American, Chinese and Japanese chestnut. The seedlings are vigorous growers often attaining a height of over 30 feet in 10 years. Because of their
Bob Stehli from Wintergreen Tree Farm and his helpers, Jacqueline and Hannah Billger. genetic diversity they have good resistance to many native pests and diseases as well as the invasive pests and diseases. Seedlings of the Sleeping Giant usually produce large nuts of excellent quality. Another chestnut seed being propagated are from two timber tree type seedlings of Campbell N-C‑9. These two were the most vigorous timber type chestnuts out of a planting of 4,425 trees planted on a research plot in Hiram by Wintergreen Tree Farm. Eastern filbert blight is a disease of American hazelnuts that has devastated commercial plantings of European filberts in the eastern United States and Canada. Recently it was introduced to America’s West Coast where the
commercial hazelnut industry is centered. The hazelnuts being propagated at the John Gander Greenhouse are from eastern filbert blight resistant plants collected by Rutgers University, and the University of Nebraska. There is a good chance that many of the seedlings being propagated will have better blight resistance and nut quality than their parent plants, as the parent plants were bred with other blight resistant plants. Last spring the NNGA and Portage County Soil and Water Conservation District distributed over 500 seedlings of Sleeping Giant to the public to be used in plantings throughout Portage County. We hope to be able to extend this program to Geauga County next spring.