Chestnut Tree Management Techniques and Methods Explained in Detail

Chestnut trees are fairly common in the countryside around here, and many households plant one. When harvest season comes, you can see lots of people using long poles to knock chestnuts down from the trees to eat, which is more enjoyable than buying them outside. So how can you grow a chestnut tree well?

Chestnut Tree Management Techniques

1. After the chestnut harvest is finished, a foliar fertilizer should be sprayed promptly once. The purpose is to boost the vitality of the leaves so they continue photosynthesis and absorb carbohydrates. This prepares the tree for leafing out, flowering and fruiting the next year. The foliar fertilizer generally uses 0.4% urea and 0.3% monopotassium phosphate, and it should be applied evenly on the upper and lower surfaces of the leaves, preferably in the early morning or evening.

2. Clean up the chestnut orchard promptly. First knock down the empty burs and insect-damaged burs still on the branches with a bamboo pole, then gather them up and pile them together with weeds to reduce overwintering sites for pests and let them rot down and decompose for use as fertilizer.

3. When the chestnut leaves have all fallen, deep plow the whole orchard to improve the soil. This is generally combined with applying base fertilizer, with a depth usually of 20-30 cm; the soil outside the canopy should be plowed deeper and around the trunk shallower. When turning the soil, deliberately damage a small portion of the roots so that new roots form and the absorption of fertilizer and water is enhanced; this is called renewal of the underground part. Turning the orchard soil loosens the soil and reduces overwintering sites for pests. Note that when turning the soil, it should be combined with repairing and maintaining the terrace steps so that the land retains water and fertilizer.

4. Apply base fertilizer. This is an important measure in the comprehensive management of a chestnut orchard and an effective way to ensure the development and growth of chestnut trees and obtain high yields. Farmyard manure gives good results. After farmyard manure is applied to the soil, it needs to rot and decompose before it can be absorbed by the roots, so base fertilizer must be applied early to be effective. It is generally best applied after leaf fall in late autumn. Some green manures and weeds can also be pressed into the soil as fertilizer during the rainy season. The base fertilizer method is generally to use strip trenches, ring trenches or radial trenches around the canopy branches. After digging the trenches, apply the fertilizer into the trenches and cover it well with soil to preserve its effectiveness.

Chestnut Tree Pest Control Methods

1. Chestnut red spider mite. Use 40% dimethoate EC at 1000 times dilution. Dacromite EC at 1500 times dilution. 5% fenvalerate EC at 1500 times dilution. Or use 40% omethoate EC at 1500 times dilution. Insecticide EC at 2000 times dilution. 20% lamda-cyhalothrin EC at 3000 times dilution. Apply twice during the outbreak period, once by spraying in early May and once by spraying in late June, and it can be controlled.

2. Wood-boring looper (Culcula panterinaria). The wood-boring looper overwinters as pupae in weeds and clods of soil under the trees. If the climate is dry, the mortality rate of the pupae reaches more than 80%. Based on this characteristic, clear the weeds, stones, dead branches and fallen leaves under the trees each year so that the overwintering pupae are exposed on the ground surface, raising the natural mortality rate. This manual control measure can keep pests present year after year but at harmless levels.

3. Chestnut clearwing moth. Manually scrape off the old raised bark so that the new tissue becomes hard and the larvae cannot bore in. At the same time, during the scraping process a large number of larvae can also be eliminated, which can control the damage fairly well.

4. Chestnut red spot disease. Harvest at the right time, strictly prevent air-drying, and ensure normal temperature and humidity during storage, with the temperature generally kept below 10°C. At the same time, to reduce mold and rot, thresh and sell promptly. Grasp the above steps well and this disease can be controlled.

Chestnut Tree Pruning and Shaping

The main purpose of pruning chestnut trees is to encourage every part of the tree, inside and out, top and bottom, to produce strong fruiting mother branches, to make full use of space, to increase fruiting sites as much as possible, to prevent the shoots on the outer part of the canopy from becoming too dense and too tall, and to ensure ventilation and light penetration in the inner canopy. All dense, slender branches and male flower branches should be thinned out completely, and a small portion of branches should be cut back to cultivate strong renewal branches and lay the foundation for fruiting the following year. Follow the principle that pruning should be early rather than late and light rather than heavy, cut off diseased and insect-damaged branches, dead branches, overlapping branches, thin and weak branches and drooping branches, and the cut branches should be taken out of the orchard to be disposed of separately or burned.

Chestnut Harvesting Methods

1. The picking method is to wait until the chestnuts are fully ripe and fall naturally, then pick up the chestnut fruits by hand. To make picking up chestnuts easier, clear the ground of weeds before the burs open. When harvesting, first shake the tree trunk, then pick up all the fallen chestnut fruits and burs cleanly. Be sure to pick once in the morning and once in the evening every day, and store them as you pick. The advantage of the picking method is that the chestnut fruits are plump and full, the yield is high, the quality is good and the storage life is long.

2. The beating method is to lightly knock down the ripe burs in scattered batches with a bamboo pole, then pick up the burs and chestnut fruits cleanly. With this harvesting method, beat once every 2-3 days generally. When beating the burs, tap the small branches from the outer part of the canopy inward to shake the burs loose, so as not to damage the branches and leaves. It is strictly forbidden to knock down all the burs of different ripeness at once. Burs knocked down for harvest should undergo "sweating" treatment as soon as possible; if the treatment is not timely, the chestnut fruits are prone to mold and rot. The treatment method is to choose a shady, cool, well-ventilated place and spread the burs out in a thin layer, with a thickness of 20-30 cm being suitable, sprinkle water and turn them every day, and after 2-3 days of cooling and "sweating" treatment, carry out manual threshing.

When planting chestnuts, you must fertilize at the right time so as to ensure the growth of the chestnuts, and you must also technically prevent pests, otherwise all that hard work will show no results at all. People now make chestnuts into many different, delicious foods, so growing chestnuts is also a good way to earn income.