Seed Nuts
Choose a Chestnut Variety
Just as apples come in varieties like McIntosh, Granny Smith and Red Delicious, chestnuts come in varieties too, each with its own nut size, flavor and tree shape. Tap a variety to meet its mother trees, then pick your tree and add its nuts to your cart.
$1.25 per nut. Limit 10 nuts per mother tree per order for 2026, so more growers get a chance at each tree. Want more? Mix trees. Ordering 25 nuts or more? Enter code ORCHARD25 in your cart to pay just $1 each.
We collect seed nuts from the 13 varieties below, grouped by what each one is known for. Tap any name to read about the tree and see what is available from it this season.
Known for Storage Quality
Known for Large Nuts
The Proven Standards
Can't Decide?
Not available this year
Start Your Own Trees From Seed
A seed nut is exactly what it sounds like — a chestnut saved for planting rather than eating, collected here in our Connecticut orchard from a tree we can name. Plant it and you get a seedling, not a copy. It will carry its mother tree's character without being identical to her, which is how our whole orchard was grown.
Seed nuts go out in the fall straight from that season's harvest, unstratified, for you to chill through the winter yourself.
They are living seed. They cannot be dried, stored warm, or held over to the following year.
How To Grow Them
Fall orders start at step one.
- Keep them cold and damp The single rule that matters. A chestnut that dries out is dead, and so is one that freezes solid. Refrigerate at 34–40°F the day they arrive.
- Stratify for two to three months Bed them in barely moist peat, sawdust, or paper towel inside a loosely closed bag — damp, not wet, with a little air. Check monthly for mold.
- Watch for the root Many push out a white radicle in the bag before spring. That is a good sign, not a problem. Handle it gently and plant soon after.
- Plant in spring An inch or two deep, pointed end sideways, in full sun and well-drained soil. Chestnuts want acid ground — roughly pH 5.5 to 6.5 — and will not tolerate wet feet.
- Protect them from rodents Squirrels, chipmunks, and voles are the real threat, not the weather. Cage each planting with hardware cloth above and below ground.
- Plant more than one variety Chestnuts will not set nuts with their own pollen. Two genetically different trees within a hundred feet or so is the minimum; three is better.
Orchard Form vs. Timber Form
Chestnut trees grow in one of two general shapes. Orchard-form trees spread wide, with low branching and a broad canopy, they're bred for nut production and also make excellent yard trees. Timber-form trees grow taller and narrower, with less spread, better suited to tighter spacing or a more wooded planting.
Each mother tree listing notes which form that tree shows. But because our trees are open-pollinated, seedlings from a mother tree don't always inherit her exact form, the pollen parent plays a role too, and we don't know which tree that was. Think of the listed form as a strong likelihood based on the mother tree, not a guarantee for the seedling you'll get.
With genetics, you never know for sure what you'll get. When in doubt, plan for the wider orchard spacing, 30 to 40 feet, and full sun regardless of form, timber-form trees still need direct light to produce well, they just take up less width getting there.
Why Aren't All Seed Nuts Large?
A small seed nut carries the same genetics as a large one from the same tree. A bigger nut may give the seedling a slightly faster start in its first few months, but it doesn't change the tree it grows into.
See where a seed nut can take you. Meet the Sprout to Nut Farmers.