Seed nuts from YNW — Hallie (H-6)

The variety

YNW stands for Yixian North West, one of a group of selections Michael Nave made from seedlots out of Yixian, in the southern tip of Anhui Province, China. Its better-known siblings are Yixian Large, Yixian Orange and Yixian Good Flavor, along with the cultivar Shing, which came from the same seed lots as Yixian Large.

That is a strong family to belong to. Yixian Large produced the second-largest nuts of any chestnut of any species at the University of Missouri repository in 2009, and tied first in a taste test in another year. Yixian Orange is described as among the best tasting Chinese nuts grown in the United States.

What YNW itself does, nobody has published. We have the trees, and we will find out.

Hallie in 2026

[TO BE WRITTEN — 2026 Ellington observations: bur set in the hard 2026 season, first drop date, nut size, shell splitting, whether burs drop whole.]

The tree

[TO BE WRITTEN — the mother tree's own note: where it stands and anything particular about it.]