Fifth Meeting of the
Tennessee Chapter of
The American Chestnut Foundation
June 5, 2001
Location:
Bendabout Farm, McDonald, Tennessee
The meeting started at 11:00 am. Dr. Hill Craddock of the University
of Tennessee at Chattanooga conducted a chestnut breeding workshop
About Bendabout Farm:
The late William Raoul established the first chestnut breeding
orchard (Orchard #1) at Bendabout Farm in the early 1990s by transplanting
surviving American chestnuts from the forest. Two populations
are represented: Lookout Mountain and central Mississippi. The
Lookout Mountain trees are a sampling of the "local"
American chestnuts and the Mississippi trees come from the extreme
southernmost portion of the species' native range. These American
chestnut trees have been used successfully in backcross breeding
since they started blooming in 1996.
Mr. Raoul and his group of enthusiastic volunteers planted the second orchard at Bendabout Farm in 1996 using open pollinated seed (B2F2) from Meadowview. These TACF hybrids have grown very well and will be screened for blight resistance in the summer of 2001.
Chattanooga Chestnut Tree Project volunteers
and students from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga planted
Orchard #1 backcross progeny in the third orchard at Bendabout
farm beginning in 1997. Orchard #3 now includes interspecific
F1 hybrids, second, third and fourth backcrosses hybrids and seedlings
and grafted clones of local and introduced Castanea cultivars.
James Hill Craddock
Robert M. Davenport Assistant Professor of Biology
Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
615 McCallie Avenue, Chattanooga TN 37403-2598 USA
http://www.utc.edu/~jcraddoc/