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Carl Meyer certainly knows chestnut trees.
Several years after buying his 100-acre farm in 1973, Carl begin to
notice numerous sprouts and young saplings growing among his wild
azaleas and huckleberries. Since that time Carl has been carefully
watching his unique stand of chestnut trees, carefully documenting
their growth, treating infected trees, and fertilizing potential
bloomers. At last count, Carl has more than eighty trees scattered
across his Walker County property, located at historic Chestnut Flat,
near LaFayette, GA.
Carl, a life-long farmer, has been treating his
infected trees since the late 1980s, often using a concoction of zinc
sulphate that he wraps around the trees after they first show signs
of the blight. The material is generally applied using an old sock
that is tied around the trunk of each tree when the fungus first
appears. In many instances, Carl has kept trees alive for more than
ten years after they first exhibited signs of the blight. He has also
experimented with various kinds of fertilizer applications, including
the strategic placement of large zinc-plated bolts around each tree
so they might absorb traces of the important nutrient via their
intricate root systems.
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Carl's prized possession is a straight and tall
chestnut tree that has been blooming since 2000. The tree is 24
inches in circumference when measured four-feet from the ground and
presently stands more than 36 feet in height. Located at the southern
end of his property, along a TVA power line right-of-way, the tree
was visited by Dr. Hill Craddock and numerous GA-TACF members in
November of 2004. At that time, the forest floor around the base of
the tree was covered with hundreds of large, but infertile burrs.
Carl was able to harvest only eight nuts from the tree in 2004, and
planted all of them in strategic locations around his heavily wooded
property.
GA-TACF members Jack Johnston and Donald Davis
visited the tree again in late December, and thought it to be in good
health and showing no signs of blight. Johnston was thoroughly
impressed with Carl's chestnut woods and commented on the importance
of his largest tree. "It is a gem," wrote Jack in a recent email
message. With Carl's permission, GA-TACF members hope to pollinate
the tree in the spring of 2005 with B3 pollen from the Meadowview
research farm. Nuts from those pollination efforts will be planted in
the fall of 2005, in what will be a major first step toward restoring
viable American chestnut trees to both Chestnut Flat and the North
Georgia mountains.
Special Note:
In March during a planting of American chestnut
hybrid trees, member of the Georgia Chapter went on an outing to view
Carl's many trees. It was during this outing that many hearts
began to sink as a possible patch of blight was observed on the
largest of trees. Hill Craddock of UTC examined the area and
Carl tied a sock filled with zinc sulfate around the area in hopes of
slowing the blight's progress.
It is thought that the tree should survive
throughout the next year and hopefully produce some viable nuts for
future planting. |
