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Spring
2005
American Chestnut Tree Pollination Updates |
| July 2, 2005 |
Well, ladies and gentleman-The
North West Ga. Pollination consortium of The Georgia Chapter TACF has
finished it's 2005 spring pollination fling. The Fowler tree is in
the bag, about 23 bags to be exact, and most all of these only had
the one female flower per bag. Carl Meyer, Mike Hinson, Ken McDonald,
Lisa Worthen, and Tom Pachinger were on hand for the ceremonies. Carl
brought some of his England based Chestnut Compound for the cankers
on the tree and Mike and myself applied that while Lisa and Ken did
the honors of pollinating the tree with Graves B3-119 from the bucket
truck above. The Big Tree Service Owner Scotty, was a student of Mark
Stallings Chapter President and is very interested in joining the
Georgia Chapter.
Carl mixes anti-blight compound
Mike Hinson, Lisa Worthen, Tom Pachinger, and Carl Meyer pose for Ken McDonald at the Fowler Tree
Carl Meyer mixes a batch of his English based chestnut compound to paint on blight areas of the Fowler tree Thanks to Scotty's Big Tree Service, the Fowler tree was able to be pollinated with only one day's notice Ken and Lisa working as a team finished pollinating the top of the tree where most of the blossoms were Now it's just waiting for the fall harvest
Mike Hinson, Lisa Worthen, Tom Pachinger, and Carl Meyer pose for Ken McDonald at the Fowler Tree
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| July 1, 2005 |
Today Lisa Worthen, Tom Pachinger, Ken McDonald, Jim
and Carolyn Hill took a trip to examine the
Fowler tree to determine when it should be
pollinated and insure that one trip for bagging and pollination would
be advisable. Since the flowers were receptive and there was
only one small tree in the area with 4 immature catkins (which were
removed), it was determined that Saturday, July 2 would be the best
time to tackle the 50' tree. It was right on FS 77 and flowers
were easily accessible and concentrated on one side of the tree.
Lisa was fascinated by the struggle that this tree was showing by its
many healed cankers. On Saturday when she returns, she will
take some bark samples to determine if this tree has its own strain
of Hypovirulent fungus to
ward off the blight.
After establishing the tree
was ready for pollination, Lisa, Ken and Tom went searching
the ridges nearby for American Chestnuts, and we were not
disappointed. Lisa said that the density of American Chestnut
trees on the ridge we walked was truly amazing. We found easily 40
trees, mostly 8-12 ft in height, but several pushing 20 ft, and two
or three even taller. As one walks thru the woods, with so many
trees being found, it takes little imagination as to what these
mountains once held and what we hope will be returned one day
soon.
Lisa inspects the Pachinger's Avalon
Just 1/2 down the road from the Fowler tree, this American chestnut appears to be in good health, but inhibited by nearby trees. The Forest Service will meet with Ga chapter members to determine a good release plan. Using a good spotting scope, it was determined that the flowers at 40' were ready for pollination Lisa was fascinated by the healed canker on the Fowler tree and will take bark samples to determine the possibility of a hypovirulent strain. The most dominant feature on the Fowler tree is this large canker
Lisa inspects the Pachinger's Avalon
Just 1/2 down the road from the Fowler tree, this American chestnut appears to be in good health, but inhibited by nearby trees. The Forest Service will meet with Ga chapter members to determine a good release plan.
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| June 27, 2005 |
See History Is Made for
Pollination story at the Carl Meyer Tree
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| June 23, 2005 |
GaTACF tree trackers (Tom Pachinger and Ken McDonald)
have been at it again - this time traveling across north Georgia from
Rome to Springer Mountain to check on The Fowler Tree.
Here is their report:
Ken McDonald and I just got in from visiting the Thomas Fowler tree.
Still plenty early: no female flowers visible, male catkins have no
anthers showing, globerals still green looking nodules to me. Very
rough road in from SE , about 45 minute drive to go 10 miles. We saw
20-30 small American chestnut tree sprouts in the close vicinity, and
one very nice 30 ft tree even closer to the road but fighting a red
maple and hickory for light. There was also a 5 inch diameter, 20 ft
tree, that has been fighting blight for some time. This tree had 2 or
3 male catkins but no females-the taller, 30ft tree had no sexual
structures of either make visible.
The top of the Fowler Tree Tom next to the Fowler tree Catkins not quite ready at this high altitude
The top of the Fowler Tree
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| June 19, 2005 |
We made a little
history today, as Lisa Worthen and Mark [UTC], Don Davis, Ken
McDonald, Tom Pachinger and a new member Glenn pollinated the
first American Chestnut (Carl Meyer Tree) for the Georgia
Chapter's efforts in bringing this great tree back to it's rightful
place in our forests. We worked from 4-8:30 p.m. Lisa really worked
hard and deserves an extra pat on the back for her efforts and toil
under a hot Georgia sun. About 80 plus bags were put on the tree. The
female flowers at the top of the tree were ready for pollinating NOW
or just a tad past the best time. Many of these were pollinated with
Japanese Moriwase pollen and about half a dozen were pollinated with pollen
from another of Carl's native American chestnut trees-Epsilon is the
name given to this tree by Mr. Meyer. Another 50 or so females not
ready for pollination (lower down on the tree) were emasculated and
bagged. This coming Saturday the Bucket truck will return with the
best American pollen we have on hand and we will pollinate these
female flowers then.
Click on any picture for a
larger view
Pollinating the first flowers
Carl Meyer has been caring for this tree and 100's more on his property in Chestnut Flat. Carl Meyer and Don Davis search the limbs for flowers Chapter members Don, Tom and Ken search for flowers and take pictures to capture this historic moment Tom Pachinger pollinates the first flowers with Chinese
pollen before bagging Don Davis and Lisa Worthen continue to emasculate and bag the Meyer tree After pollinating the fertile flowers at the top of the tree, Tom takes a break before
continuing to emasculate the rest of the flowers lower on the tree Carl stands next to one of many other American Chestnut trees that he has been caring for on his property Just some of the many
volunteers helping to restore The King of The Forest - Carl, Lisa, Tom, Mike
Carl Meyer has been caring for this tree and 100's more on his property in Chestnut Flat.
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| June 17, 2005 |
Ken McDonald, Keith Slagg,
Hill Craddock, Lisa Worthen and myself
pollinated Chinkapin American cross' in Pocket 6-17-2005
Tom Pachinger bags one of the
trees as Ken McDonald and Keith Slagg take a break. |
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Continued from
Propagation
Updates |
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