When to Plant Chestnuts? Detailed Guide to High-Yield Fertilization Techniques

Chestnut is one of the earliest nuts consumed in China, rich in nutritional value. Eaten raw, it tastes sweet and crisp; when roasted, it becomes soft, glutinous and delicately fragrant, making it very popular with consumers. Chestnuts produced in China are of high quality and well loved both at home and abroad. Chestnuts do not have very high requirements for the growing environment, so when are chestnuts generally planted? How should they be fertilized to achieve high yields?

1. When are chestnuts generally planted?

Chestnut trees can be sown in autumn and spring, with autumn sowing mostly taking place in late autumn and early winter. The advantage of autumn sowing is that the chestnuts do not need to be stored in sand; they can be sown after only slight processing following seed collection. However, because autumn-sown chestnuts remain in the field for a long time, they are vulnerable to external climate and other damage, which affects the germination rate. Spring sowing requires that about 30% or more of the seeds have sprouted, or it can be carried out in early to mid-March each year.

2. How should chestnuts be fertilized to achieve high yields?

1. Satisfy the base fertilizer requirement

Base fertilizer accounts for about 60% of the annual fertilization amount, and it can restore the nutrients consumed by the previous year's fruiting and restore tree vigor. Generally, nutrients must be laid down every year; after the autumn harvest of the fruit, it can be applied together with plowing, which can improve soil structure and help root growth. About 4,000 jin of farmyard manure, compost and the like are used per mu. Each tree uses 1 jin to 1.5 jin of compound fertilizer.

2. Topdressing stages

Apply topdressing once before flowering, after bud break, mainly using nitrogen fertilizer; each tree uses 0.6 to 1 jin of high-nitrogen compound fertilizer. This is mainly to promote shoot growth and more flowering, so that more fruit can set. The second topdressing is during the fruit enlargement stage, mainly applying 1 jin to 2 jin of high-potassium compound fertilizer per tree. In the later stage, spray trace elements, manganese and magnesium, to improve fruit quality.

3. Fertilization methods

Use radial fertilization: dig about 5 trenches at the edge of the tree canopy, 0.3 m wide, gradually deepening from the outside inward. This is suitable for applying compound fertilizer on a per-tree basis. For young trees, use circular trench application, which is beneficial for absorption. Strip trench fertilization is suitable for applying base fertilizer; sometimes when fertilizer is insufficient, a whole-orchard broadcast application may be omitted.

In chestnut orchards with thin, poor soil, dig a circular ring trench within the drip line of the chestnut tree canopy, with a trench width of 25 cm and a depth of 20 cm, and apply 1 kg of superphosphate, 0.3 kg of urea and 0.25-0.5 kg of borax per tree. Urea and borax should first be dissolved in water before being applied in the trench; splash water while fertilizing, and use a hoe to mix the fertilizer evenly with the soil so that the fertilizer solution penetrates to the roots as quickly as possible. After fertilizing, soil should be backfilled into the trench promptly to prevent nutrient volatilization. Farmers can also apply an appropriate amount of soil and miscellaneous manure to enrich the soil, which has a very good effect on producing more chestnuts the following year and reducing empty burs.

4. Fertilization principles

Base fertilizer is mainly farmyard manure, which has the auxiliary effect of improving the soil. It is applied after fruit harvest, when the temperature is high and the fertilizer is relatively easy to decompose. This is also the root-growth period. Topdressing is mainly based on quick-acting nitrogen, combined with phosphate fertilizer and potassium fertilizer. Topdressing is mainly done in spring and summer. If foliar spraying is used, it can be carried out multiple times within a year. The key times are before shoot flowering and one month before harvest.

Chestnut fertilization mainly involves applying sufficient base fertilizer, then carrying out reasonable topdressing according to the growth stage, and in addition carrying out appropriate targeted foliar spraying. Also, suitable fertilization methods can be selected.