How to Grow Chestnut Trees? Detailed Explanation of Key Cultivation Techniques

The chestnut is a very delicious and nutritious dried fruit, known as the “king of dried fruits”, and has a cultivation history of more than two thousand years in China. Growing chestnuts is also quite simple, and many rural households plant a few chestnut trees. Let's take a look below at what the key points of chestnut tree cultivation techniques are.

I. Plowing the Woodland

Chestnut trees need to be plowed appropriately, and the intensity of plowing should be controlled according to the age of the chestnut tree. Young trees only need shallow plowing, while fruit-bearing trees should be deep-plowed to promote root growth. Moreover, the deep plowing of mature fruit trees should exceed 30 cm, and care must be taken not to damage the roots during deep plowing. Before deep plowing, cleanup work should also be done well to prevent soil and water loss.

II. Appropriate Fertilization

Chestnut fertilization is mainly based on organic fertilizer, and chemical fertilizers should be avoided as much as possible, because chemical fertilizers can cause relatively great harm to the roots. They may burn the roots and also trigger various pests and diseases. When fertilizing chestnut trees, fertilizer should be applied in a ring along the tree canopy. The amount of fertilizer applied should be controlled according to tree age, and after fertilization, soil should be immediately banked up to keep the soil fertile, so that the fruit trees can better absorb nutrients.

III. Whitewashing and Bark Scraping

If a chestnut tree is more than 10 years old, bark scraping and whitewashing are generally needed after harvest. In areas with relatively low temperatures, this can be appropriately delayed until early spring. There are large amounts of pest and disease pathogens in the rough bark and peeling bark on the fruit tree, so the bark should be scraped in time to reduce the incidence of disease in the fruit tree. The scraped bark should be destroyed, and the lower part of the tree should be whitewashed.

IV. Shaping and Pruning

Chestnut trees are relatively tall, so shaping and pruning are also very important for chestnut trees. Once trees are more than 5 years old, the basal trunk shoots at the base of the fruit tree should be cut off, dried and dead pest- and disease-infested branches should be cleared away, and dense, overlapping branches should also be pruned in time so as not to affect the flowering and fruiting of the chestnut. The old branches of old trees should also be cut out to cultivate new main branches.

V. Frost Protection Treatment

After chestnut trees enter winter, their growth gradually weakens, and they also shed their leaves. If the winter temperature is too low, chestnut trees may suffer frost damage, affecting their overwintering. Therefore, before the chestnut trees shed their leaves, plastic film should be used as mulch, and there should be sufficient basal fertilizer. If the winter soil is too dry, appropriate watering is also needed.

Growing chestnut trees is still relatively simple; it is just that the growth cycle is relatively long, and it takes 4 to 5 years to enter the full fruiting period, so growing them requires a certain amount of patience.