Sweet Chestnut, also known as Italian chestnut. European chestnut is a native of mountainous regions of Western Asia, North Africa and Southern Europe. Chestnut tree is about 20-30m tall. Its fruit, also called as “burr” contained one to five nuts of dark brown color with light stripes.

Nuts are not eaten raw but they should be baked, boiled or roasted before eating. It is also used to make flour and for animal feed. Chestnuts are low in protein and in fat compared to other nuts. Its Carbohydrate content is relatively high and also it contains a wide range of vitamins and minerals.
 

It can be grown on variety of soil but gives best results when grown on well drained, deep fertile soils. Sufficient soil moisture should present in soil throughout growth period for good yield and growth. Avoid heavy and too wet soils. pH of soil should be in between 4.5 to 6.5. Avoid soil having high lime content. 

Kashmir Seedling Selection: Variety having high nut quality. Its blooming period ranges from March to April.

Crane: Mid-season variety having spreading trees. Nuts are medium to large size with cherry color.

Orrin: Early blooming variety with upright spreading trees. Nuts are black color with medium to large size.

Jersey Gem: Nuts are sweet, crunchy and yellowish color. Its fruits can be plucked in first week of October.

Meiling: Upright, spreading variety with medium to large dark brown nuts.

Nankings: Spreading variety with medium to large nuts. Nuts are dark color.

Hemming: The seeds of this variety are of good quality and are dark brown in color.

Other varieties: Abundance, Sleeping giant, etc.
 

Plough land thoroughly and bring soil to fine tilth. For planting purpose, dug the pits of size 1m X 1m X 1m, one month before planting. Each pit is filled with mixture of soil, farm yard manure or well decomposed cow dung and Single super phosphate. 

Time of sowing
December to January months are an optimum time for chestnut planting. In cool places, sowing should be done in February-March month.

Spacing
For plantation purpose, use spacing of 8mx8m.

Sowing Depth
Sow seeds in nursery at depth of 5-7cm.

Method of sowing
Transplanting of seedling in main field.
 

Chestnut is propagated by seed propagation or by vegetative propagation. Budding and grafting is done for propagation of chestnut. Tongue grafting is popular and gives good success.

Nutrient Requirement (gm/tree)

To obtained good yield, apply well decomposed cowdung@20-25kg per tree along with Nitrogen@ 500gm, Phosphorus@1000gm and Potash@500gm per tree. Apply this dose yearly.

Provide irrigation to young orchards specially during summer and early autumn. Chestnut is drought resistant plant so they don’t need much irrigation once get established.  

Plant start bearing about three to seven years after planting. Chestnut flowers in month of March – April and produced fully developed fruits in month of August and September. Mature fruits fall on ground. Collect these fruits and then dry them.