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27.07.2024
- Sweet chestnut origin
- Sweet chestnut care and location
- Cutting sweet chestnuts
- Watering sweet chestnuts
- Fertilizing sweet chestnuts
Sweet chestnut origin
The sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa) is a deciduous tree that can grow up to 35 m tall and belongs to the beech family. It has been cultivated in the Caucasus for thousands of years and the Greeks later spread it throughout the Mediterranean. With the Romans, the sweet chestnut found its way over the Alps to the northern regions of Europe. In Germany, it is found mainly in the wine-growing regions on the Rhine. There are large areas of sweet chestnut forests in the Palatinate in particular.
Botanically speaking, sweet chestnuts are nuts, but unlike hazelnuts and walnuts, they contain little fat and lots of nutritious carbohydrates. At the end of April to the beginning of May, the lanceolate leaves of the sweet chestnut sprout before the flowers. They usually grow offset from one another on the branch and are up to 30 cm long and 8 cm wide.
The leaves are shiny dark green on the upper side and light green underneath. Sweet chestnuts start to flower when they are 20 to 30 years old. They do have male and female flowers, but the flowering times can be at different times, so that they are only self-fertile to a limited extent. It is therefore a good idea to plant several trees with slightly staggered flowering times. The greenish-white flowers appear in June to July in long inflorescences with a strong scent. The fruits are ripe from October onwards. Up to three nuts are in a prickly capsule.
Sweet chestnut care and location
Sweet chestnuts need a bright and sunny location and a mild climate. They only bloom in summer and are hardly susceptible to late frost. The ideal soil is deep, rich in humus, permeable and rather acidic, because sweet chestnuts do not like calcareous substrates. Waterlogging is a risk, which is why planting on a slope is preferable. The sweet chestnut is a deep-rooted plant with a well-developed root system. Although it only forms a few lateral roots, these are intensively branched and penetrate the soil well in vertical and horizontal directions.
Cutting sweet chestnuts
In the first few years, sweet chestnuts can be left to grow and form their crowns and do not require pruning. Over time, diseased, sparse and troublesome branches can be removed. In general, sweet chestnuts are trees that should be pruned as little as possible and do not require annual pruning.
Watering sweet chestnuts
Due to climate change, it is getting hotter in our regions and longer dry periods are the result. This has an impact on the environment and especially on the trees. Depending on the location and the climate situation, more frequent watering may be necessary than in previous years. Sufficient watering is very important for young and newly planted sweet chestnut trees.
The substrate around the tree should never dry out completely. This weakens the trees.
The water requirement of a sweet chestnut tree depends on several factors such as the length of the dry period and the condition of the tree. Generally speaking, 75 to 100 liters per watering can be estimated for young trees and 150 to 200 liters for older trees. To ensure continuous moisture, baumbad watering bags
With conventional watering, only a fraction of the water poured is absorbed directly by the tree. Large amounts of water only penetrate the surface of the soil and evaporate again. With the tree bath watering bag, water is released drop by drop to the tree through two small holes over a period of several hours. This ensures even moisture levels so that the roots near the surface can also absorb the water well.
By filling a watering bag, young trees are provided with sufficient water. For existing trees with a larger trunk diameter, two to three watering bags can be connected with a zip to water them.
Fertilizing sweet chestnuts
The trees have a high potassium requirement, so regular fertilization is recommended. To do this, two liters of garden compost per square meter are applied to the tree disk in spring.
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Great idea, easy handling and everything from ordering to delivery.
Michael K.
