Chestnuts Australia

Chestnuts begin to be harvested around 7 years after the planting of an advanced seedling. Full potential is realized in around 10 years. Grafted trees usually provide an economic return after around 4 years. Chestnuts prefer acid soils and should be grown on slopes as they prefer well drained soils.

Minimum spacing for chestnut trees is 6×6 m depending on variety a wider spacing may be required. Generally 3 varieties are planted and separate harvesting for each variety is undertaken.

The chestnut tree bears both male and female flowers in upright catkins, the male flowers in the upper part and female flowers in the lower part. In autumn, the female flowers develop into prickly burrs containing the nuts. The burrs split freeing the chestnuts to fall to the ground. Later in the season the burrs fall to the ground coataining the nuts. Heavy duty gloves, such as pigskin,should be used if the burrs are to be picked up by hand as they are very prickly.

Late March, April and May marks the chestnut season. Chestnuts should be collected from the ground quickly and kept cold to prolong their shelf life. It is estimated that each day they lay on the ground reduces shelf life by one week. This time is affected by chestnut variety and weather conditions. First harvested chestnuts fall free, later the burr drops and chestnuts need to be extracted from the prickly casing.

Right: Alpacas and chestnut trees at the foot of Mt Buffalo – Robinsons Chestnuts.

Mature trees (30 + yeras) can yield over 100 kg of nuts per year and oldr very large trees are recorded as yielding double this figure. Some varieties of chestnut produce larger crops on alternate years and adequate rainfall/irrigation also affects crop size.

Most large chestnut growers clean, grade and prepare their chestnuts for sale. There are five industry recognised sizes (by diameter):