Wow, lots of help on this forum and it's just what I was looking for. Thanks so much.
I am planning to space the trees at 30ft apart per the realtree nursery website directions. The trees will take long to produce nuts but we are ok with that and we won't need to thin them out when they reach maturity. I plan on doing a soil test later in the year closer to fall as recommended by the Va Tech website.
Irrigation is something I am still trying to wrap my head around. I have been looking into a DIY drip irrigation system but I have much more to learn before I buy anything. Until then, I am stuck watering 150 trees manually. If we have a dry summer I will be very busy.
I have plans to visit an existing chestnut orchard here in Virginia in a couple weeks and hope to learn much about the business. From what I've read it will be 10 years or so before there is enough chestnut production to take to market. Between now and then I will need to look at how to harvest, process, store and ship. Lot's to learn.
