Eastern Kentucky
Cooperators at the University of
Kentucky have been planting chestnut in Pike County in eastern
KY since 2005 on tail-dumped
spoil. In that study, experimental
plots were established on grey
sandstone, brown, weathered sandstone
and run-of-the mine spoil. Better
growth is probably
occurring on the brown sandstone and brown sandstone portions
of mixed spoil than on grey
sandstone, but the difference is not
yet statistically significant.
Most seedlings are chlorotic.
The cooperators also are comparing
direct seedling to planting of seedlings, and currently feel
that direct seeding is at least as
good as planting seedlings.
Ohio
Cooperators at universities in Ohio
have been planting chestnut on reclaimed mined lands since
2005.
They are evaluating direct seeding versus seedlings, mycorhizzal
treatments and also are
comparing growth of backcross trees
with varying fractions of American and Chinese
chestnut. Independently, foresters with the Ohio Department of Natural
Resources have
been planting pure American chestnut
seedlings on reclaimed mined land since 2003. The
seedlings had been inoculated or not
inoculated with Pisolithus tinctorius, an
ectomycorrhizal fungus. The seedlings had been established and
inoculated by TACF
cooperators with the U.S. Forest
Service in Delaware, OH. In some plantings but not others,
mycorrhizal inoculation increased
growth and seedling height.