Discussion

At least one significant interpretation may be made from the results of this experiment, that may partially explain the difficulties encountered heretofore in propagating chestnuts. Using the take of buds as a criterion it can be stated that in this experiment the five lots of seedlings from known parents differed in their performance as stocks. Moreover, the five parent trees used as a source of budwood differed among themselves in the capacity of their buds to grow when placed on comparable lots of stocks. If these results are correctly interpreted it is clear that both the stock and the scion may influence the success or failure of propagation technique. Doubtless both of these variables have operated together in the propagation of existing varieties and, as would be expected, the results have been unpredictable. It seems likely that the grafting and budding of chestnut varieties should be worked out in the future on the basis of using understocks derived from the seed of special trees or clones found to be suitable sources by tests for grafting performance.

It should be pointed out that the five trees used in this work originated from two lots of seed imported from neighboring localities in China and probably are closely related. The fact that significant differences were obtained in this material furnishes basis for the belief that great variability in the budding performance of the Chinese chestnut is to be encountered in the many introductions that have been made into this country.

Table I. Results of budding each of five Chinese chestnut clones on its own seedlings and on the seedlings of four other clones. The figure for each combination represents the number of buds that grew out of 20 buds placed.

SCION
abcdeTotals
SA4645019
TB3284017
OC0389525
CD123118
KE2279222
TOTALS10153028891