How To Grow Nuts In Home Garden

Now we're definitely into winter, it's Some of the nuts appropriate our thoughts turn to nut-producing trees that require a cool to cold climate to produce well. These include some of everybody's favourites, from almonds and hazelnuts to pistachios and walnuts.

How To Grow Hazelnuts In Garden

The hazelnut tree – actually more like a shrub, growing to 4m – hails from the eastern half of North America, from Louisiana and Georgia in the south to Manitoba and Quebec in the north.

The beautiful catkin flowers will appear in spring, followed by  the nuts. A mature, productive hazelnut tree will produce around 4kg of nuts each year.

• Location: 
• Hazelnuts like a sheltered sunny location with free-draining soil that's fairly low in nutrients. 
• High levels will see an excess of leaf growth at the expense of nut production.   
• Water: 
• Irrigate in summer and dry weather.
• Fertiliser:
• Twice a year,spring and late summer.
• Pollination: 
• Hazelnuts are self incompatible, which means a tree cannot set fruit with its own pollen.

Hazelnut shrubs are monoecious – they have separate male and female flowers on the one plant – so male and female flowers may appear at different times.

Pruning & Harvesting Tips For Hazlelnuts

1. Pruning: 
• Remove suckers that  appear at the base of the plant. 
• In winter, prune the oldest growth to ground level to reduce the overall size of the shrub by one third; this will make the shrub more productive.
• Pruning any branches that are crossing over is  also a must.
2. Harvesting:
• Nuts are ready when their nutrient surrounding husks turn yellow, usually in autumn. 
• Shake the nuts from the tree onto a sheet lying under the shrub and store in a dry, airy space in containers that breathe.

How To Grow Almond Nuts In Garden

Endemic to the eastern Mediterranean from Turkey to Greece and North Africa, the ancient almond has long been cultivated, since the 10th century BCE in China and from as early as the 5th century BCE in Greece. The tree will grow to around 6-10m tall and can live up to 70 years.

Interestingly, the almond isn't actually a nut but a fruit or drupe, with an outer hull and a hard shell around the seed. Few cultivars are self-pollinating so you will need to have several trees or practise hand pollination. 

• Location: 
• Plant in a sunny position sheltered from wind. 
• Almonds are deciduous and like a warm, dry summer and a cool to cold wet winter. 
• While almonds are frost! tolerant, select a variety that will grow well in your area. 
• If there is a possibility of frost, choose a laterflowering cultivar. 
• They do need around 300-500 hours of winter chilling for flowering and fruit set. 
• Soil should be well drained, rich and airy with plenty of organic matter and a pH of around 7. 

• Water: 
• Almonds have high water requirements but they also need good drainage. 

• Fertiliser: 
• Apply in spring before new growth appears and again in autumn.

Pruning & Harvesting Tips For Almond Nuts

• Pruning: 
• Almonds are usually pruned to have an open centre. 
• Fruiting spurs will start to decline in production from around the age of 4-6 when it's time to prune any older wood to encourage new fruiting. 
• Harvesting: 
• Almonds can take 3-4 years to start producing fruit with maximum cropping at around 6-7 years. 
• After that, trees will produce for up to another 50 years. 
• Fruit is ripe when the seedcoat turns brown. 

The fruit in the centre of the tree will be the last to ripen but once it does you can harvest the whole crop in one go by knocking the nuts down as they start to drop. The husk will need to be removed and the kernels within the shell can be stored in the dry.

How To Grow Cashew Nuts In Garden

Related to the cashew, pistachio is a very slow-growing, medium-sized (8-10m) deciduous tree from the Middle East. It can be exceptionally long-lived and some trees have been estimated  to be around 700 years old and still productive. Technically not a nut but a seed, pistachios have been consumed for at least 9000 years. 

• Location: 
• Pistachios prefer full sun and well-drained, deep soil that also retains moisture. 
• Preferred pH is 7-7.8 but they will tolerate quite a varied pH if need be. 
• A desert plant, pistachio is hardy drought and will handle highs of 40°C down to lows of -18°C. 
• It requires chilling time of 600-1500 hours of winter temperatures below 6 degrees.
• Water: 
• Pistachios need adequate water while filling nuts but they don't like wet, humid conditions (or windy locations).  
• Fertiliser: 
• Their needs are fairly limited  because of their slow growth but application of organic fertiliser and trace elements can be done during the main growing season.
• Pollination: 
• Pistachio trees are either male or female and both are needed  for pollination and nut production. 
• The problem is male trees flower earlier than females so most people plant one male to several female trees. 
• The flowers are wind pollinated and this can mean that quite often the fruit will set at the top of the tree.

Pruning & Harvesting Tips For Cashew Nuts

• Pruning: 
• It's important to prune trees for the first 5 years to get a good strong structure. 
• Cut back to 3-4 main scaffold branches that spread out around a single trunk. 
• Once this is established, very little pruning of mature trees is required.  
• Harvesting: 
• Pistachios can take around 5-8 years to fruit but another 15-20 years before they bear fully. 
• But they will continue to produce fruit for another 60 years and even longer. 
• Most of the time, fruit is ripe when the shell splits and the kernel becomes loose inside the shell. 

The nuts can be shaken from the tree and once harvested the husk should be removed fairly quickly! to avoid staining of the cream shell and main reduce the risk of fungal aflatoxin.

How To Grow Chestnuts In Garden

Chestnut is a fast-growing, longlived deciduous tree up to 35m in height. There are various species around the world and quite a few hybrid cultivars too, as the trees readily hybridise. 

• Location: 
• Chestnuts thrive in a Mediterranean climate – hot dry summers and cold wet winters - and they need full sun and well-drained soil: deep, sandy and acidic with a pH of 4.5-6.5. 
• Mature trees can withstand temperatures as low as -20°C but will need frost protection until grown. 
• They tolerate high summer heat and in fact need temperatures of 24-30°C to ripen the nuts. 
• Water: 
• Plants need thorough watering in but will become waterlogged in clay; hence, sandy loam is ideal. 
• Fertiliser: 
• While chestnuts are not particularly nutrient hungry, it's advised to apply fertiliser twice a year, once in early spring and again in midsummer. 
• Too much fertiliser can cause root burn. 
• Pollination: 
• The joy of chestnuts is that they are monoecious, producing male and female flowers on the one tree, and are classed as self-pollinating. 
• This means you need only one tree but for better nut production a second tree of a different cultivar is advised. 
• Flowering will occur in spring followed by the distinctive spikyhusked nuts. 

Pruning & Harvesting Tips For Chestnuts

• Pruning: 
• Prune when young to produce a central leader. 
• From there on, prune any branches that are crossing over or causing overcrowding. 
• Harvesting: 
• Nuts will be mature and ready in autumn. 
• Unusually, the husk-encased nuts fall to the ground naturally when ripe. 
• Trees can produce consistent crops anywhere from 3-10 years from planting depending on the variety, climate and whether they are seedlings or, the best option, grafted.

Best Recepies For Eating Chestnuts

• Roast: 
• Cut a shallow cross into flat side of shell – this stops nut overheating and bursting when cooking. 
• To roast, preheat oven to 200°C or 180°C fan-forced. Place chestnuts on baking tray and bake for 15-20 mins or until shells spilt open. 
• Boil: 
• Cut chestnuts in half across width of the chestnut before cooking. 
• Place in pan of cold water and bring to boil. 
• Simmer for 15-20 mins or until flesh is tender and separates easily from shell. 
• Microwave: 
• Place 6-8 chestnuts with shallow cross cut into flat side in single layer on microwave-safe plate. 
• Cook covered on high for 2-3 mins or until flesh is tender. 
• Grill/Barbecue: 
• Cut shallow cross into flat side of nut. 
• Place on tray under moderate-tohot grill or directly on barbecue grill. 
• Cook for approximately 20 mins, turning every few mins, or until shells blacken and spilt open. 
• Options on how to use your cooked chestnuts are endless: dips, desserts, soups, cheese platters, salads, savoury dishes, casseroles.

How To Grow walnuts In Garden

The Juglandaceae family was one of the first flowering plants to evolve on the planet. They are thought to have originated in the Persian region and Europe, but many species can now be found growing wild in many locations including the Middle East, Asia and the Americas. Walnuts have been used as a food source since at least Neolithic times, some 8000 years ago.

There are about 20 species of walnuts but for our purposes we'll concentrate on the Persian or English walnut, Juglans regia, a hardy deciduous tree that can grow to 20m or more and is the main species grown for commercial production.

• Location: 
• The English walnut prefers a warm summer, but not too hot, and a cold winter. 
• It can tolerate temperatures as low as -30°C but late frosts in spring can damage new shoots and flowers. 
• It detests salt spray so avoid coastal locations but grow in full sun – or semi- shade in warmer climates. 
• Walnuts prefer a deep alluvial soil with good drainage and slight acidity, pH 6-7. Soil needs to be deep because of the long tap root. 
• Water: 
• While walnuts are a thirsty crop, just 24 hours of being waterlogged can kill a tree. 
• Fertiliser: 
• A nitrogen boost in early spring.
• Pollination: 
• The English walnut is monoecious and male pollen is often shed before the female flowers open, resulting in poor pollination, so it's advisable to grow more than one cultivar so there's overlapping of the male and female flowers opening. 

Pruning & Harvesting Tips For Walnuts

• Pruning: 
• Trees naturally form a good spreading canopy. 
• No formative pruning is needed unless there are diseased or damaged branches. 
• Harvesting: 
• For fruit set, the English walnut needs a long chilling period of 700-1500 hours. 
• It can take up to 20 weeks from flowering to mature. 
• Mature productive trees can produce up to 100kg of nuts per season and still be productive when 75-100 years old. 
• Grafted trees will start to produce at around 5 years.