Germinating conkers?

[minskey]

Hey FB, what a good idea; where do I start with finding species of tree which are threatened, I know I could pop the question into the interweb but that will bring up reliable and unreliable information!

Veggiechicken - Just had a look at the link, yes that is defintely ME!!!!!

On another note, all the trees on Twickenham Green have preservation orders on them, there and Barnes were about the only two places in London where horse chestnuts had not been attacked by that pesky bug [cannot remember the correct term] My trees had a few leaves which had been attacked, I removed them and burned them. There are no large trees of any sort near me, the nearest are about 2 miles away, I'm very near the Wash on land which was reclamed around 150/200 years ago.

[FB.]

I think Horse Chestnuts are in danger of being wiped out in this country, the spread of pests and diseases has been so rapid - we saw it happen from a couple of browned trees near Kew only, to the whole way from West London to here in Somerset in just a few years, with thousands dead or struggling. Probably over a lot of the rest of Britain too. That was my thought about Minsky's seedlings, whether they'd be able to withstand it or not. They're such beautiful trees, it would be a shame if Conkers went the way of the Dodo.

If a plant can't naturally evolve ways to defend itself, it is doomed no matter what we do.
Nature must take its course. Eventually, healthy non-inbred seedlings with partial resistance should appear, and their partial resistance will be built-up by the continued selection pressure.

Take apples, for example, which I am familiar with.
Apples resist diseases in a variety of ways - many of those ways being just a random, varied and to a small extent lucky combination of genes from its parents.
Some apples resist problems by outgrowing them. Some resist them with a physical barrier which blocks entry of the pest/disease. Others have an excess of a certain substance in the sap, which make sit difficult or even toxic for their attackers. In some instances the tree develops a symbiotic relationship with various fungi/lichens etc and those fungi often compete against the harmful invaders and slow their progress.

Some examples of both chemical and structural defence mechanisms being:

Some apples produce a chemical in their sap which is harmful to woolly aphids.

Some apples have a structural anomaly just below the surface of the bark which forms what amounts to a woody layer that blocks woolly aphid access to the sap like armour plating.

Some apples have very thick skins on the fruit, which resists pest damage.

Some fruits are very acid, which deters pest attacks.

Some fruits have few or no pips - the poor codling moth won't get fat on those, but apparently a pip-less (or near pip-less) fruit of certain varieties excretes a chemical which draws-in the female codling moth. The result is that seedless fruits act as an ideal decoy and are attacked by the codling (and the larva mostly starve, or do not grow well as they have no high-nutrition pips to feed on) while the fruits with seeds in are left mostly undamaged and permit successful reproduction.

Some apples produce anti-scab chemicals. Some have a cellular auto-destruct mechanism where a cell being parasitised by a fungal attack will fill itself with toxins (phenols) and then burst in an attempt to poison the attacker. This of course results in a small dead, brown area of plant tissue, but the fungal infection is stopped before the fungus is able to produce spores.

There is even evidence that certain creature's DNA contains many genes which are switched off - to save wasting its energy. The creature is unable to switch the genes on itself, but if, during its lifetime it has been badly troubled by a pest, disease or some other problem such as nutrient deficiency; during the formation of reproductive cells (sperm, eggs, pollen, flowers etc) these genes can be switched on in the offspring, which gives the next generation a fighting chance.

These are a wide range of different mechanisms whereby apples can partially resist problems.
Given time, whatever is attacking the horse chestnuts will cause them to adapt or die. Survival of the fittest. Perhaps that's why horse chestnut are not native to the UK; perhaps something here is troublesome for them - perhaps influenced by periodic changes in climate through the ages.

[Two_Sheds]

Perhaps that's why horse chestnut are not native to the UK.

They're from India or Greece I think. Now the Greek moth, Cameraria ohridella, that eats it has found its way over here too, and the horse chestnut is on its way out.


I don't like conker trees because there's one planted in a tiny bed at school. It sucks all the moisture out of the soil so everything pretty struggles.
They get too big for urban gardens: we also have a sweet chestnut that's been planted so that it totally blocks the light for 3 or 4 gardens adjacent to it. Something smaller, prettier and that provides food (nuts/fruit/seeds) would be more suitable, imo.

[FB.]

I don't like conker trees because there's one planted in a tiny bed at school. It sucks all the moisture out of the soil so everything pretty struggles.
They get too big for urban gardens: we also have a sweet chestnut that's been planted so that it totally blocks the light for 3 or 4 gardens adjacent to it. Something smaller, prettier and that provides food (nuts/fruit/seeds) would be more suitable, imo.

Yes, horse chestnuts should only be planted where their huge mature size will not cause problems such as shading neighbours, starving and impoverishing garden shrubs and causing damage to foundations.

Conifers are the same - and it's not easy to prune them back into a nice shape if they get out of control.

Walnuts and conifers excrete poisons into the soil, which are designed to kill other plants nearby and reduce competition.

The lowly little apple tree or hazel tree is, in most cases, just a large bush and is far better suited to gardens. It grows at a modest rate, is relatively easy to prune and shape, and it does not have many large or damaging roots.
An apple or hazel is unlikely to cause subsidence even if planted against a house wall as its root density is very low and relatively shallow - hence why they are fairly easily uprooted in storms, and why they tend to lean as they get older.
The fruits (or nuts) are also much more useful to humans and to wildlife.

[FB.]

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On the subject of horse chestnuts having to evolve or die, I noticed the following story this morning (but I haven't double-checked its facts):
Plague of mutant 'super rats' infests Britain - Yahoo! News UK

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[northepaul]

Ta for all the replies.

For those of you who are a little puzzled as to why I would want to germinate conkers, its a long story but here goes;

In my past life as a Circus artise one of the places I visited while on tour in the UK was Twickenham Green in London. When on tour we have to connect to water and are directed by the council which manhole to lift and connect to. In 2003 on Twickenham Green I found two conkers underneath the manhole which had sprouted, they would never have gone any further so I rescued them. They were planted here at home in Lincolnshire and are now between 15 and 20ft tall. This year they had their first conkers, they are the ones I wish to germinate.

I LOVE trees, all trees, often wish they could talk and tell me what they have seen in thier life. I rescue seedlings from all sorts of obscure places. I picked up one which was about 6inches tall from the middle of a scrapyard, it made its journey home [300 miles!] in my handbag with its roots wrapped in wet tissue and plastic, that tree is now over 5ft tall, not sure what it is yet, might be a poplar.

This all just confirms I'm a card carrying member of the tree lovers nutters club

Nothing wrong with loving trees and if it's a club, I'll join!!

I rescue the little seedling oaks that spring up at my allotment and plant them elsewhere.

Horse Chestnuts look beautiful in spring when they have blossom:

[veggiechicken]

Especially for the Treelovers and Huggers http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...++huggers.html
Just answering one simple question gives you membership of this exclusive club

[FB.]

Hey FB, what a good idea; where do I start with finding species of tree which are threatened, I know I could pop the question into the interweb but that will bring up reliable and unreliable information!

I can't say that I'm an expert on endangered tree species - and you may find that some will not grow in your soil/climate anyway.
But you could take a look at the tree register on the Orangepippin website to see which varieties of apple people are growing and which varieties have very few entries.
International register of fruit trees

The drop-down list shows you how many have been registered. You can see, for example, that only two "Allen's Everlasting" trees are recorded, compared to 148 "Bramley".

I suggest find some which are scarce, then shortlist some which might grow well in your soil and climate.