Hybrid Chestnut
You're making an investment in your land — protect it. Each kit has a Tree Pro tube and a slow-release fertilizer block for one tree. The tube keeps deer and rabbits off and can double your growth rate; the fertilizer feeds the tree through its first season. Plant with a kit, follow the Growing Guide, and your trees are covered by our 1-Year Survival Guarantee.
What you're planting
- Drop Time
- Sept – early Nov
- First Crop
- 2–5 years
- Produces
- Every year
- Pollination
- Plant 2 or more
- Zones
- 4b–9 (Northern Michigan to Central Florida)
- Sun
- Full sun
- Soil & Site
- Well-drained, pH 4.5–6.5. Not for wet ground.
- Size & Spacing
- 60ft+ · plant 25–30ft apart
#1 Food Source for Deer + #1 Our Best Selling Tree
Orders placed now are for Spring 2027 shipment
We take orders in advance and ship at the proper time for spring planting in your region — mid-December in the Deep South through the end of May up north. Pick your state under "When Will My Order Ship?" below and you’ll see your exact ship dates.
Get your order in now, we sell out early every season!
The #1 food source for deer and the #1 choice if you're looking to start a chestnut orchard! Whitetail Hill is your source for the best hybrid chestnuts available. Seeds used for our trees come from mature parent trees that have been selectively bred to have the best traits for both wildlife and orchard production.
If we had to recommend just one tree that we think every landowner should consider planting it would be our hybrid chestnuts. Chestnuts provide excellent nutrition, unmatched drawing power, are easy to grow, and are one of the fastest producing trees you can plant with production starting in just 2-5 years.
Chestnuts have extremely high drawing power for deer. They contain large amounts of carbs that help deer pack on fat stores ahead of winter and provide bucks with the needed energy for the rut.
Our hybrid chestnuts are also the absolute best choice if you're looking to start an orchard. They are fantastic for human consumption and are the same variety grown by most commercial chestnut growers. If you're interested in learning more about starting an orchard see our article here: Growing Chestnuts as a Cash Crop
Chestnuts have several advantages over oaks: Unlike many oaks chestnuts produce every year giving you a consistent food source you can count on year after year. Also unlike oaks, they contain no tannins. This gives them a sweet flavor that deer love. In fact, some studies have shown deer prefer chestnuts by as much as 100:1 over acorns. Deer absolutely love chestnuts and if your goal is to draw and hold deer on your land, you'll love chestnuts too. They simply can't be beat for attracting deer. Chestnuts are also attractive to other wildlife such as turkeys, raccoons, squirrels, and black bears.
Our trees are fast growing and will reach 6-8ft tall by the end of the next growing season under good conditions. They will produce nuts within 2-5 years making them one of the fastest producing wildlife tree plantings available. Mature trees can produce 100lbs of nuts per year, creating a huge food resource that will draw deer for miles around.
Plant each tree with one of our Survival Kits (a Tree Pro tube and a slow-release fertilizer block), follow our planting instructions, and it’s covered by our 1-Year Survival Guarantee. Full details here.
Tree Size When Shipped: 1yr old approx. 18-48 inches tall
Variety: Castanea dentata X mollissima (This variety is also commonly called dunstan)
Time Till Production: 2-5 years Nut Size: 0.75 - 1.5 inch diameter
Height at Maturity: 60ft+
Spacing: 25-30ft
Nut Production at Maturity Per Year: 50-100lbs/tree (2,000-3,000lbs/acre)
Years Till Maturity: 15
Zone: 4b-9 (From Northern Michigan to Central Florida)
pH Range: 4.5-6.5
Time to Plant: Early Spring or Fall
Add Late Drop and keep chestnuts falling into December.
By November most acorns have been mopped up and the woods go quiet. Late Drop Hybrids are selected to drop Nov–late Dec, right when deer have the fewest options. Our recommendation: a 1:1 mix.
Questions we get about Hybrid Chestnut
We don't ship on the day you order. We take orders in advance and ship at the proper time for spring planting in each region — from mid-December in the Deep South through the end of May up north. Pick your state below to see your exact window. Orders placed after your region has already shipped go out within 5–10 business days.
A Tree Pro grow tube and a slow-release fertilizer block for one tree. The tube protects the seedling from deer and rabbits and can double its growth rate; the fertilizer block feeds the tree through its first growing season. Every tree we ship is already inoculated with beneficial mycorrhizae, so there's nothing else to add — plant it in the kit, follow the Growing Guide, and it's covered by our 1-Year Survival Guarantee.
Plant with a Survival Kit and we guarantee the tree for a full year. If a tree dies within one year of the day it's delivered, we'll issue you store credit for what you paid for it. You don't have to worry about spending your money on something that may or may not make it.
To be covered, plant each tree with one of our Survival Kits (a Tree Pro tube and a slow-release fertilizer block), keep the tube on, and follow our planting instructions. Email us photos and your order number within a year of delivery.
For all details and conditions, see here: 1-Year Survival Guarantee
