Our Story
The Stehli family planted their first commercial Chestnut orchard in 1992 in Mantua Ohio. This orchard included Chinese American hybrids, as well as many grafted cultivated varieties. It soon became apparent that most of these trees were not well suited for the Ohio climate.
In 1997 the Stehli family, with the help of the Ohio Nut Growers Association, the Northern Nut Growers Association and the Society of Ontario Nut Growers planted a research orchard in Hiram Ohio. This orchard consisted of 4424 seedlings of 25 cultivars and selections that were considered to be the best Chestnut trees in North America at the time.
Chestnut Blight soon appeared and killed perhaps one third of the trees, and the first time that the temperature dropped below -25˚F another third of the trees were damaged and culled. After that began the removal of trees from the orchard that had poor health or were susceptible to insect damage or storm damage, and finally many remaining trees were removed because they did not produce high quality nuts. Approximately 350 trees remain of the original 4424 trees, and these trees have become the core of our continuing breeding program. Seedlings from this orchard produce much higher quality nut trees than what were started with while including the genetic diversity of at least the four major chestnut species.
Today, with over 200 acres of Chestnut trees, Wintergreen Tree Farm continues to monitor and improve the quality of the culinary nuts while preserving a wide genetic diversity in the orchards of Ohio Chestnuts.
Contact Us
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Phone:
(330) 221-3835
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Address:
3898 Winchell Rd
Mantua, OH 44255
