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Why Plant Chestnuts on Your Farm?
Chestnut farming might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you’re thinking about what to do with a few extra acres. But for a growing number of growers, landowners, and career-changers across the eastern United States, it’s becoming one of the most exciting decisions they’ve ever made. And once you dig into…
Chestnut Farm Succession Planning: Built to Last
If you’ve ever stood in a young chestnut row and wondered who’ll be there when these trees finally bear, you’re already doing succession work. So that’s really what chestnut farm succession planning is. Not paperwork. Not the LLC. Instead, it’s the slow daily work of growing the people who will love this land. The Question…
The Name on the Gate — Why Naming Your Farm Matters
The EBB Confession: How Our Farm Name Started We didn’t back into the name EBB Farms by accident—we loved it from the start. It stood for our dreams: Expect Big Bucks, with a perfect double meaning. At the time, we were imagining a place that might make a couple bucks and give us a lot of…
Grafted, Seedling, or Clonal? A Quieter Way to Choose Your Chestnut Trees
If you’re standing in front of nursery catalogs trying to decide what to plant, you’re not alone. The grafted vs seedling chestnut trees question is the one we hear most often—from first-year growers, folks fifty trees in, and researchers. Underneath, though, is usually a quieter question. Not just “which tree?” but “what kind of orchard—and…
Starting a Chestnut Orchard: Lessons from Nash Nurseries
Starting a chestnut orchard can feel equal parts thrilling and terrifying. I remember that mix the day we planted our first trees. So I loved hearing Jon and Bill Nash of Nash Nurseries describe the same feeling on this week’s episode. Between them, the Nashes carry six generations of nursery wisdom, and Jon’s raising the…
Revenue Opportunities in Growing Perennials: The Long Story
When we ask, “Why grow chestnuts?” the answer usually starts with a sense of purpose. For many of us, the draw is environmental: soil-building, carbon sequestration, and a low-input alternative to the annual grain systems that currently deplete our landscapes. But as we look toward the future and the industry at large, we have to…
How to Prevent Ambrosia Beetle Damage on Young Chestnut Trees
If you’re establishing chestnut trees in the Southeast or lower Midwest, there’s a challenge you’ll likely face in the first three to four years after planting: ambrosia beetle damage. These rice-sized wood-boring insects are one of the most common threats during the establishment window—targeting trees between ½ and 4 inches in diameter, exactly when your…
Growing Pains: Scaling Your Chestnut Orchard
We spend years getting the trees into the ground, tending the soil, and waiting for the burs to open. But getting the nuts off the trees is just the starting line for revenue. We calculate yield per acre, project the harvest out a decade, and expect the math to guarantee a return. But the actual…
The 90-Day Flight Plan: A Grower’s Guide to the Drone Approval Process
I had the opportunity to speak at the Kentucky Fruit and Vegetable Conference earlier this year, which is always a joy. But I have to admit that one of the absolute highlights of the day for me was meeting Caleb Canter and finally getting a close-up look at agricultural drone technology. Even though I was…
How Drone Technology Is Transforming Chestnut Orchard Management
If you’ve ever stood at the bottom of a steep chestnut grove with a heavy sprayer on your back, you’ve probably looked up at the canopy and wondered if there was a better way. For years, drone technology in chestnut orchards felt like something reserved for hobbyists or big-budget films, but as I learned from my conversation…
Monetizing the Orchard Floor: Selling Chestnut Byproduct
If you grow trees, you know exactly what chestnut orchard waste looks like by the end of October. The sorting tables have run for weeks, the coolers are packed to the ceiling, and the trees are finally bare. But out back, or at the end of the processing line, the pile is growing. The cracked…
Taller Isn’t Better: Why Our Best Chestnut Seedlings Ship at Four Feet
In chestnut nurseries, tall trees get all the attention. Six‑ and eight‑foot first‑year trees look impressive in the nursery rows. But height alone doesn’t tell you how that tree will perform once it hits real soil. At EBB Farms, the farm lab for United Chestnuts, we’ve taken a different path: we intentionally standardize our shipped…