[MassChestnutOrchards] Granville ACF orchard news

[Kendra Gurney]

Hi John –

 

To answer your question on seed orchard block size, you need one acre of
space.  I’d invite Fred or Sara to chime in here if there may be room to
plant a block in ¾ of an acre, but I believe with the tight spacing there is
less “wiggle room” on the size than there is for a breeding orchard.  

 

Kendra

 

From: masschestnutorchards-bounces at masschestnut.org
[mailto:masschestnutorchards-bounces at masschestnut.org] On Behalf Of John
Meiklejohn
Sent: Saturday, August 29, 2009 11:58 AM
To: masschestnutorchards at masschestnut.org
Subject: [MassChestnutOrchards] Granville ACF orchard news

 

Jamie & John Mirick:

 

Re:  developing a conservation easement for the Granville ACF orchard

 

I was glad to see John has started the process of developing a template for
easement agreements.  He and I had talked at past mtgs about collaborating
on this but we had not actively connected on it.

 

Here is the status on my end for developing an easement agreement for the
Granville orchard.  With help from a friend I am slowly clearing the trees
and brush from the remainder of the current fenced orchard area to create a
space that will be about 3/4 of an acre.  My understanding is that for BC3F2
orchards we want a minimum of 3/4 acre plots [please confirm that I'm
correct here].  Once the new area is cleared the plantable area within the
fence will be .70 to .75 of an acre based on my recent rough measurement.
If this is too small for a BC3F2 orchard plot then I need to know and will
stop the work of expanding this plot.  Also, if the plot is not large enough
for the next generation then there is little reason to create an easement
unless we want to protect the 5-10 BC3 trees that will hopefully survive the
innoculation process. [This BC3 orchard should be ready for innoculation
next year.]

 

Since I'm determined to use a portion of our land for a TACF-MA BC3F2 plot
I've measured another field that is at least .75 of an acre.  That too will
take a bit of clean up to be ready for planting.  It is not fenced but could
be. 

 

I'd prefer to use the first field for the conservation easement with TACF-MA
because it is set to one side of our main acreage and it already has drip
irrigation installed.

 

Could one of you or Charlotte or Fred confirm for me that the plots for
BC3F2 nuts must be of a certain minimum size.  Before I proceed with John on
the conservation easement I want to be certain that I have chosen an
appropriate area for the easement and for the next generation planting.

 

On a different subject, I went up to the Granville State Forest last weekend
to check on the Am. Chestnut that the State Forester had informed us about.
The tree is about 8"dbh, shows no signs of disease on the main trunk,
possible disease presence on an upper branch, and about 20-30 burrs.  It
would be accessible to a smallish bucket truck in dryer weather.  It's about
50 ft down a woods road off a main road through the Granville SF.

 

John Meiklejohn

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