Castanea mollisima evolved in a large swath of China as well as parts of Taiwan and Korea, but it has been under cultivation for several thousand years. The long relationship with human care takers has rendered this species essentially not competitive in a forested context. It requires an open context with plenty of sunlight to thrive and produce nuts. The trees are hardy to zone 4, but often have issues with heavy snow loads breaking branches in areas with long cold winters with lots of snow.

Seedling trees can be expected to have good resistance to blight, and grow to somewhere in the vicinity of 30-40 feet in both height and width. They may take 25 years to attain this size. Seedlings may produce nuts anywhere from 7/8’’ diameter on the small end to 1 1/2’’ or so on the large end, with the average somewhere around an inch. Annual bearing is the norm, but with heavier and leaner years to be expected. Full sun will produce nuts, heavy shade will weaken or kill branches and dramatically reduce nut production as the nuts store carbohydrates produced by leaves no more than a few feet away from the developing nut.

Seeds for these trees are collected from proven trees producing in the Hudson Valley. These trees are likely near pure Chinese and have good nut yields very reliably. In good soil with really good drainage and weed management, they should be able to begin producing nuts within 6-7 years, but once they start they can go for a hundred! Chestnut trees are generally not self-fertile.