Liu

BRIEF:
A red-leafed Chinese chestnut named for the researcher Liu. The best keeper Greg Miller has tested, and in our rows since 2023 a steady producer with a striking red bur.

DETAILED:
Liu is a red-type Chinese chestnut from Ohio, named in honor of the Chinese researcher Liu. It is a seedling of the Chinese red cultivar Honglizi, and it carries that inheritance visibly — new growth comes in red, the stems run reddish, the autumn leaves turn red, and some of the burs come in a stunning red. Nothing else in our orchard does that.

We have had Liu in the ground since 2023 and it has performed well. It is not the most vigorous grower we have, but it sets a lot of viable nuts, and it does it consistently.

The reason we planted it was storage. Greg Miller stores nuts from dozens of cultivars each year for seed. Out of all of them, one stood out with near-zero blossom end rot and near-zero storage rot, two years running. That was Liu.

It is easy to overlook storage in favor of size and sweetness, but Miller describes fungal decay of chestnut kernels as one of the biggest problems the industry faces. Storage quality is what determines whether a nut shipped to a customer arrives sound, and whether someone who bought from us in October comes back in November. Almost nobody markets chestnuts on how well they keep, because almost nobody has the data.

The nuts are small with very good flavor.

Shop This Variety

← Previous Variety    Next Variety →