The Northern Nut Growers Association and the Chestnut Growers of America Joint Conference in Lansing, MI

Northern Nut Growers Association & Chestnut Growers of America Joint 2025 Conference
August 3-6, 2025 | Lansing, Michigan

SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM TO VIEW THE ENTIRE DETAILED AGENDA

The Northern Nut Growers Association (NNGA) and the Chestnut Growers of America (CGA) will hold their joint 2025 conference on August 3-6, 2025, in Lansing, Michigan. The conference features a packed agenda (scroll to the end to view the entire agenda), including lightning talks, technical sessions, and field trips covering all aspects of growing, processing, and marketing nuts and native fruits. Attendees will include a diverse mix of commercial growers, scientific researchers, and hobbyists, offering valuable opportunities to learn from experts and peers alike. This conference is the perfect place to plant ideas, crack open new insights, and grow connections.  Questions?? Contact us at NNGACGA2025@gmail.com

Conference T-shirts!!

We have a great design featuring our "Big Nut" crown and necklace of all the nuts we grow and support with our research projects.  You can order your T-shirt here https://www.customink.com/g/bpw0-00cz-11tj and have it delivered directly to your home or to our board member to bring to you at the conference.  Wave your nut growing flag!!

Conference Schedule

Sunday, August 3 – Nash Nurseries

Location: Nash Nurseries, 4975 W Grand River Rd, Owosso, MI 48867 | www.nashnurseries.com

Kick off the conference with an afternoon and evening at Nash Nurseries. The event will include nursery and orchard tours, a welcome dinner, and an evening of engaging lightning talks and demonstrations.

Monday, August 4 & Tuesday, August 5  DoubleTree by Hilton, Lansing

Two full days of engaging technical sessions, panel discussions, and break-out groups on nut and fruit growing, research, and culture. The agenda includes:

• Conference continental breakfast, lunch and refreshment breaks

• The popular fundraising auction on Monday evening

• Tuesday night banquet (included in full registration)

Wednesday, August 6 – Field Tours (Charter Bus Provided)

Take advantage of a full day of touring, including a light breakfast and a box lunch.  Transportation is provided so attendees can network without the hassle of driving and the venues have very limited space for vehicle parking.  Tour stops include:

• Chestnut Growers Inc. (CGI) Processing & Shipping Facility – Clarksville, MI
  Tour the processing facility of Michigan’s chestnut co-op, handling over 250,000 lbs of chestnuts annually, including cleaning, sorting, processing, storage, packaging, and shipping.
  

• Beyer’s Orchard – Paw Paw, MI
  One of Michigan’s largest chestnut orchards, with 65 acres of grafted chestnut trees contributing to the CGI co-op. The Beyer’s began planting in 2012. As this orchard has been coming online with over 1,800 trees, the Beyer’s are harvesting 30,000 lbs of chestnuts.  This will be our boxed lunch stop.
  

• MSU Roger’s Reserve – Jackson, MI
  A research facility dedicated to advancing nut and unusual fruit production. The site features the region’s only mechanized fresh chestnut peeling/processing line, capable of peeling 2,000 lbs of chestnuts per hour, as well as a processing kitchen for chestnut flour, chestnut chips, hazelnuts, and pawpaws.

Conference Pricing

• Conference Sunday-Wednesday   Includes all events and meals from Sunday evening through Wednesday lunch. Monday dinner on your own:                       $425/person

• Conference Sunday-Tuesday  includes all events and meals from Sunday through Tuesday, including the banquet.  Wednesday field trip not included             $370/person

• Companion Registration (includes Sunday dinner, Mon & Tues breakfast and Tues Banquet) Wednesday field tour is not included :                                          $225/companion       

• Sunday only (includes Sunday dinner, tours and lightning talks):                                               $50/person  

• Monday-Tuesday only (includes breakfast, sessions, lunches and Tuesday night banquet) $320/person  

• Virtual Monday-Tuesday only (includes a virtual option to view the presentations and participate in the Q&A)  $50

• Wednesday Field Tour only (includes a light breakfast, lunch, bus transportation)                 $75/person  

• Exhibitor Tables: $50/table (6’ skirted provided)  No meals or sessions included.  Exhibitors may purchase conference registrations listed above.

• Extra Banquet Tickets $55/person

Have fun in Lansing

Bring the whole family! The Greater Lansing area offers restaurants, breweries, museums, theaters, and Michigan State University attractions. Arrive on Saturday, August 2, and catch a Lansing Lugnuts baseball game next door to the Lansing Center.
On Monday & Tuesday companions who are not attending the Monday/Tuesday sessions might optionally visit some special Lansing attractions (admission and transportation not included in companion registration)

• MSU Horticulture Gardens | www.canr.msu.edu/hrt/our_gardens

• Impression 5 Science Center | www.impression5.org

• R.E. Olds Transportation Museum | www.reoldsmuseum.org

Discounts and Scholarships Available!

To use a discount code, click “Do you have a promo code?” at checkout. It is on the second page after ticket selection.  Use all CAPS for the code.

• NNGA, CGA, or Michigan Fruit & Nut Growers (MNFGA) members:

  • Use MEMBER code, all caps for a $20 discount

• Students  Please provide us with information on where you are enrolled and your field of study

  • Use STUDENT for a $125 conference discount 

  • Use STUDENTMEMBER for a $145 conference discount if you are a member of NNGA or CGA or MNFGA

• Sponsorship and Scholarship Support 

Support nut research and training by becoming a conference sponsor. Sponsors will be acknowledged in conference materials and NNGA & CGA publications.  (if you would like more information please contact nngacga2025@gmail.com)

You may also support beginning farmers and students who would otherwise be unable to attend by donating to the NNGA Scholarship Fund

Contributions can be made using the “Donation” button at the end of the ticket selection.    Please indicate the purpose of your donation on the last question of the registration form.  (yes, a bit awkward, but that is the way the software works!)  If you are willing to donate, but do not plan to attend the conference, please select the ticket type, Donation Only which will then allow you to complete the process. 

Monday Night Fundraising Auction

Join the Monday evening auction—a fun way to support nut research! Please bring a donation for the auction!  Books, artwork, homemade crafts, trees, tools, gift baskets, gift certificates, nut-related or not!  Nut-based goodies are always a crowd favorite! (outside food cannot be accepted at the session breaks in the hotel)

Refund Policy

A Full refund is available until July 5, 2025 and a Partial refund minus $50 processing fee from July 5 - July 16.  Refunds are not available after July 16 (exceptions for extenuating circumstances).

Conference Hotel

A group rate is available at:
DoubleTree by Hilton – Lansing
111 N Grand Ave, Lansing, MI 48933
Tel: 517-482-0188 | DoubleTree by Hilton Lansing

• Group rate: $129 + 13% tax/night  The group rate rooms are available only until July 11, 2025.  Rooms can be cancelled 72 hours before the arrival date without penalty.

• Use this link DoubleTree by Hilton Lansing or call 1-833-904-2206 to get the group rate. (other reservation links do not work!)            Then use 2025 Annual Meet 91R code when booking. Don’t wait—rooms are limited!

• Complimentary airport shuttle from Lansing Capital Region Airport (LAN) -www.flylansing.com

• Self Parking in Lansing: $15/day in all ramps, $35/day for valet parking

Crack open new knowledge, branch out your network, and let’s go nuts together August 3rd - 6th in Lansing, MI for the 2025 NNGA/CGA conference.  

Questions?? Contact us at NNGACGA2025@gmail.com

CONFERENCE AGENDA

Sunday, 8/3

1pm and 3:15pm Nursery Tours 

3:15pm  CGA Board meeting

5pm Social and BBQ Dinner

7pm  Lightening Talks

• Jerry Henkin, 1910 origin of the Northern Nut Growers Association
• Dan Lefever, The AdvancingEcoAgriculture.com paradigm
• Jeff Jensen, Hazelnuts in Iowa
• Ren Klug, Untapped Potential: Black Walnut Sap Production Characteristics Compared to Sycamore and Sugar Maple
• Sarah Hastings, The Two-Story Farm: Regional Visions of Nut Tree Agriculture United States, 1900–1940

Monday, 8/4

8:30 - 8:50 NNGA Business meeting (committee reports, election of two Nominating Committee Members, Opening nominations for two Board members)

8:50 – 9:00 Roger Blackwell, CGA President, Official Welcome to the conference

9:00 – 9:45 KEYNOTE SPEAKER Dan Guyer ”Chestnut Programming at Michigan State University; A Land Grant Model at its Best!”

9:45 – 10:15 Guo-qing Song “Revitalizing the Chestnut Industry: Leveraging Elite Genotypes, Micropropagation, and Precision Breeding”

10:15 – 10:35 Tanner Rankin “Chestnut Curious: Understanding the Establishment and Management Practices of Chestnut Growers in the Eastern and Midwestern U.S.”

11:00 – 11:25 Elspeth Hay “Feed Us with Trees: Humans, Nuts, and the Future of Food”

11:25 – 11:50 Andrew Faust “Creating Permaculture Legacy Landscapes”

11:50 – 12:10 Marc Friedman, “Persistence of Truffle Producing Fungi on Tree Nut Hosts”

12:10 – 12:30 Carolyn Pettit “Eldering and Regenerative Agriculture”

1:30 – 2:00 Kenneth Chance “Appalachian Foothills Fruits and Nuts”

2:00 – 2:30 Kathleen Rhoades, “What DNA Sequencing Can Tell Us About American Persimmon Cultivars”

2:30 – 2:50 Ian McSweeney “The Farmers Land Trust”

Concurrent Sessions#1

3:15 – 3:45 Dylan Warner “Chestnuts: Blight Resistance among Back Crossed Cultivars Grown in Tissue Culture, and Comparison of Mycelial and Spore Inoculations”

3:45 – 4:15 Nate Lawrence “Temporal Effects of Chinese Chestnut Cultivation on Soil Health Parameters: A Chronosequence Analysis”

Concurrent Sessions#2

3 :15 – 3 :45 Warren Chatwin “Validating Hickory Species and Hybrid Classification with Low-coverage and Amplicon DNA Sequencing”

3:45 – 4:15 Adam D’Angelo “Expanding the Project Pawpaw Research Orchard Network"

4:15 – 5:15 Forums

A. Beginner Nut Grower Forum

Facilitator: John Kelsey, “Starting Out with Trees”

• Panel: Andrew Faust, Jerry Henkin, Douglas Spangler

Many of the questions a new grower might have are discussed and hopefully answered

B. Issues for Commercial Nut Growers

Facilitator: Roger Blackwell

• Panel: Ron Tanner, “Build Your Export Sales with USDA Funding”
• Roger Smith, Prairie Grove Chestnut Growers
• Growing Organic Chestnuts: Charles Novogradac, Debbie Milks, Dan Lefever, Sam Bonney
• Melanie Jones, United Chestnuts

Tuesday, 8/5

9:00 – 9:45 KEYNOTE SPEAKER Ron Revord “Tree Nut Research Updates from the University of Missouri Center for Agroforestry”

9:45 – 10:10 MJ Oviatt “Hazel – More Than a Nut: Creating Hedgerows with Hazel and Other Native Woody Species”

10:10 – 10:35 Lee Reich “Success with Hazelnuts”

10:50 – 11:20 Younsuk Dong “Improving Irrigation Management Using Sensor Technology”

11:20 – 11:55 Winston Beck “Project Superhybrid: Propagation and Evaluation of Novel Juglans Genotypes”

11:55 – 12:25 Aziz Ebrahimi “Conserving Threatened Butternut (Juglans cinerea) Trees Using Genomic and Phenomic Approaches”

1:25 – 1:55 James R. McKenna “Screening of Transgenic American OxO Chestnut in Indiana”

1:55 – 2:25 Maya Niesz Kutsch “Update on Maximum Pollination Distance of Transgenic Chestnuts”

2:25 – 2:55 Carmen Medina-Mora “Impacts of Pollination Biology on Chestnut Fruit Quality”

Concurrent Sessions#1

3:20 – 3:50 Geyer, Levi and Tanke, Alex ”Hickory Processing Developments”

3:50 – 4:20 Sara Tyler “Black Walnut Oil Pressing with a Hydraulic Press”

Concurrent Sessions#2

3 :20 – 3 :50 Giorgia Bastianelli “In vitro and Field Evaluation of Chemical and Biological Products for Chestnut Brown Rot Control (caused by Gnomoniopsis smithogilvyi) in Michigan” (presented by Erin Lizotte)

3:50 – 4:20 Magni Hussein “Automated Chestnut Sorter for Damage, Pests, and Disease“

4:20 – 5:20 Choice of Forum

A. Growing Better Chestnuts

Facilitator: Greg Miller

• Panelists: Amy Twohig, “Understanding the Role of Insect Vectors in the Oak Wilt Disease Cycle & Impacts to Chestnut Restoration”
• Francesca Rotondo, “Chestnut Rots”
• Geoffrey M. Williams, “Red Oak Health in Michigan Public Lands: Epidemiology, Genetics, and Management”
• Karan Chahal, “Oak Wilt in Chestnut: What We Know and Need to Know About an Underlooked Disease Issue”

B. Fruits and Value--Added Products

Facilitator: Kathy Dice

• Panelists: Sarah E. Francino and Joseph C. Scheerens “The Efficacy of Under-tree Netting as a Cultural Practice for Harvesting and Marketing High-quality Pawpaw Fruit”
• Adam D’Angelo “Expanding the Project Pawpaw Research Orchard Network"
• Kenneth Chance “Appalachian Foothills Fruits and Nuts”
• Kathleen Rhoades, “What DNA Sequencing Can Tell Us About American Persimmon Cultivars”
• Ren Klug, “Untapped Potential: Black Walnut Sap Production Characteristics Compared to Sycamore and Sugar Maple”