AU Super
BRIEF:
One of the largest Chinese chestnuts in commercial growing — around twenty to the pound, where an average tree gives thirty-five or forty. Drops late.
DETAILED:
AU Super came out of the chestnut program at Auburn University in Alabama. Despite the name it is not one of the formally released AU cultivars — AU Cropper, AU Leader and AU Homestead — and is a separate selection.
It is here for one reason: size. AU Super runs roughly eighteen to twenty-two nuts to the pound, where an average Chinese chestnut orchard tree gives thirty-five to forty. That is a nut people notice on a market table.
The tree is strong and vigorous, and drops late in the season, which extends how long we can offer fresh chestnuts. It can overbear, and when it does the nut size comes down, so it rewards attention.
It is also a proven breeding parent. The cultivar Qingsu, bred at Red Fern Farm in Iowa, is a cross between Qing and AU Super, and is described as one of the most vigorous Chinese chestnuts anyone there has grafted. We grow both parents.
One honest note: AU Super is a southern selection, bred in Alabama. How it handles a Connecticut winter over the long run is something we are still finding out.
