Chestnut Pollination Photos in the Southeast
 (June 2007 photos by Joe Schibig unless otherwise noted)
 

Jack Torkelson bravely climbs a 30 ft ladder and uses a 30 ft pole pruner to snip off
male chestnut flowers from a 60 ft tall American chestnut in north central Tennessee.

Is Jack holding on for dear life?  If he falls,
he will land in a pen occupied by hungry hogs.

Mike French's shoulder aches but he was able to shoot out these valuable male
flowers from a tall American chestnut tree in Kentucky.  Pollen from these flowers
 was applied to a hybrid chestnut mother tree at Meadowview, Virginia (Photo from
 David Morris of The American Chestnut Foundation's Alabama Chapter). Mike
deserves credit for pioneering the initial "father" tree approach in the southeastern U. S.
He successfully implemented this method at the Meadowview chestnut orchards last
year. This method involves taking pollen  from inaccessible pure American chestnut
trees or those that produce only a few flowers and then applying the pollen to the
more accessible female flowers of  "mother" hybrid chestnut trees at Meadowview.

 

From the left, Les, Clint, and Jack pre-bag a backcross hybrid chestnut at
 Meadowview, VA, to prepare it for receiving pollen from a pure American chestnut.

Two chestnut pollinators getting high off the chestnut flower perfume.

Paul, Jack, Les, Marty's son, Marty, and Clint stand next to a bagged chestnut.

This little tree had over 200 bags placed on it. (photo by Paul Sisco)

After a hot day of bagging, chestnut pollinators relax at a cookout at Fred's house.

Les and David pollinate in the shade of a Meadowview chestnut.

Clint sits down on the job and is smiling as he thinks about all the nuts that
will be harvested this fall.

Hill, an experienced pollinator, applies pollen to one of the
Meadowview chestnuts.

Derek helps Hill with the pollination.

Steven, a volunteer from North Carolina, participates in the pollination.

Tim Chestnut and his daughter Abigail complete the father tree pollinations at Meadowview
(photo from Paul Sisco, June 2007)
 

KY foresters put hundreds of bags on the Adair Co. chestnut.

The Adair Co. chestnut in KY is one of only a handful of surviving American chestnut trees that were
mature trees when the blight roared through the eastern U. S.  in the first half of the twentieth century
and somehow managed to survive the pandemic which killed billions of other  chestnut trees.

1300 pollination bags adorn this warrior of a chestnut.

Please visit the TN-TACF website