Alma (A-26) – Ace seed nuts
The variety
Ace is one of the twenty-three families in Greg Miller's cooperative chestnut breeding program, which has put more than 12,500 trees in the ground across fifteen states. Ace itself is a complex hybrid rather than a pure Chinese chestnut, originally from California, and Michael Nave recommends it to eastern growers specifically as seedlings rather than grafted trees.
There is one oddity worth telling. The named Ace cultivar is male sterile — it makes no pollen at all, one of only two cultivars Miller flags that way. Our trees are seedlings of Ace, not clones of it, and in 2026 most of them shed pollen normally. That is what you would expect, since every one of our seedlings had a pollen-bearing father, but as far as we can find nobody has published on it. It is a small reminder that a seedling is its own tree, not a copy.
Alma in 2026
2026 observations coming after harvest.
The tree
More about this tree coming soon.
Seed nuts from this tree will be available once harvest is in. Join our newsletter to hear first.