Driving directions
Mt. Vernon, Lawrence County
Horticulture Workshops, Conferences & News
Grazing School Seminar
* September 30, October 1 and 2, 2008
Field Day
* Our annual field day will be held on September 12, 2008.
Ag. Education Day
* Our Ag Education day will be held on September 11, 2008.
Southwest Center FFA Workshop
* The Southwest Center will sponsor a workshop for area FFA students, which was held on March 6, 2008.
SW CTR Grazing Dairy
Ag Preparedness
Research
Newsletter
People
Contact us
Email:
Southwestcenter@missouri.edu
Superintendent:
Dr. Richard Crawford - Bio
14548 Highway H
Mt. Vernon, MO 65712-9523
Phone: 417-466-2148
FAX: 417-466-2109
Email:
crawfordr@missouri.edu
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Chestnut Planting Established at
the Southwest Center
Andrew L. Thomas, Southwest Research Center, Mt. Vernon, MO
A chestnut tree demonstration was planted at the Southwest Center in May, 2002. Eight
grafted trees were donated by Dr. Ken Hunt of the University of Missouri's Center for
Agroforestry. In 2001, the Agroforestry Center initiated a major study to evaluate improved
chestnuts as an alternative crop in Missouri and Kansas. The study includes new, improved
cultivars and hybrids, mostly with Chinese genetics, that should perform better than older
varieties traditionally attempted in Missouri. The eight trees now growing at the Southwest
Center are not part of this larger study, but will serve as a demonstration and initial evaluation to
document the performance of these cultivars in the soil and climatic conditions of southwest
Missouri. More trees and cultivars may be added over time.
The following grafted chestnut cultivars are now established at the Southwest Center:
| Cropper | Chinese, mid-season, blight resistant, dark chocolate-brown nut, high yielding |
| Gideon | Chinese, medium to large nuts, ripen mid-season |
| Homestead | Chinese, late uniform maturity, vary dark chocolate-brown medium-sized
nut, high yielding |
| Peach | Chinese, medium-large nut, mid-season (scion died; will be re-grafted in
2005) |
| Qing | Chinese, very sweet light mahogany nut, excellent flavor, blight free, good
keeper, vigorous and productive (scion died; will be re-grafted in 2005) |
| Revival | Chinese x American hybrid, large red-brown crunchy sweet nut, stores
well, reliable producer (this tree died in 2004 and will be replaced) |
| Sleeping Giant | Chinese x Japanese x American hybrid, blight free, large handsome nut,
excellent flavor, easily peeled, consistent producer |
| Willamette | Chinese x American hybrid, extremely large sweet dark reddish-brown
nut, easily-peeled, reliable heavy producer, blight resistant, patented |
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