Plant the trial. Learn from the forest.
RGS produces many seedlings. Replicated field plantings reveal how families actually perform across sites, seasons, and disease pressure.
Field trials in the real world.
Genomic predictions help us choose—but field trials tell us how trees grow, survive, and respond in the real world.
We plant American chestnuts produced through the RGS program at different sites throughout the county. Families are repeated across blocks and locations so that inherited differences can be separated from differences caused by soil, weather, competition, browsing, or chance.
Over time, volunteers and partners measure survival, height, diameter, form, cankers, flowering, and other traits. Those observations can confirm a strong family, identify unexpected performers, and improve future selection.
Planting day is the beginning, not the end.
The best field trial is the one that is accurately mapped, protected, measured, and still producing useful data years later.