Fruit and Nut Trees

Chestnut castanea, is a genus of eight species of nut trees and shrubs in the beech family. Most of the species are large trees growing to 20-40 m tall. The leaves are ovate, 10-30 cm long and 4-10 cm broad, with pointed, widely-spaced teeth. The flowers are catkins produced in mid summer with an unpleasant odor. Flowers of both kinds are borne on every tree.

The fruit is a spiny capsule 5-10 cm in diameter, containing one to seven nuts. Chestnut trees thrive on neutral and acidic soils but do best on sandy or sandy loam soil that drains well.

The nuts are an important food crop in eastern Asia and in southern Europe. They differ from other nuts in being mainly carbohydrates with little or no protein. They can be eaten boiled or roasted or ground into flour and use to prepare bread, pasta, cakes and for cooking with traditional dishes. Chestnuts taste somewhat sweet.

The wood is very durable and is made in items used for fencing, flooring and wooden barrels for the ageing of balsamic vinegar. Post made from the wood can last for more than 50 years in the ground.

The chestnut is easily propagated by grafting on seedling rootstock or by butting. Rootstock for grafting should be seedlings of the same species. For seedling trees nuts must be gathered as soon as they fall and stored over the winder and plant in early spring

Chestnut American castanea dentata This large tree produces the sweetest nuts of all species but is now almost extinct as a result of the chestnut fungus, Endothia parasitica

Chestnut Japanese castanea crenata
The Japanese chestnut varies in size from a small bush to a large tree. It produces the largest nuts of all the species. Seedlings can produce nuts as early as two years.

Chestnut Chinese castanea mollicima
This long-lived, hardy and attractive tree is the most successful of all the species in terms of nut production. It is tolerant to a wide range of soil and climate conditions and also resistant to the chestnut blight Endothia paracitica.

Chestnut Spanish castanea sativa
This is a medium to large tree that grows almost on any type of soil and can withstand hard frosts. A good tree can produce at least 100kg of nuts.

Chinquapin castanea pumila
This is an attractive, evergreen tree native to northern America. It grows 20-30 meters tall, adapts to many soils and it is very cold tolerant. Nuts are sweet and resemble pointed round acorns.

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Macadamia is a genus of eight species in the Proteaceae family, with a distribution to eastern Australia; seven native species and Indonesia; one species. Two of the eight macadamia species produce nuts that are a valuable food crop and of a commercial importance (M. integrifolia and M. tetraphylla). The rest of the genus possess poisonous and/or inedible nuts.

Mavadamias are small to large spreading evergreen nut trees growing from 6-40 m tall. The tree has ovate or elliptical in shape leaves, 6-30 cm long and 2-13 cm broad, with spiny-prickly edges and beautiful foliage color change of yellow-green-red-pink. The flowers are 5-30 cm long, (individual flowers 10-15 mm), white, pink or purple in color and with four petals. Bees are the major agent in pollination but wind may play some role.

Macadamia nuts are round, very hard woody with a pointed apex, containing one or two seeds. When mature, (20-25 years), individual trees can produce 50kg of nuts that have delicious flavor and crunchy texture if they are properly collected and dried out as they fall. Macadamia nuts are counted by many to be the prime edible nut

Macadamia nuts are rich in oil, 65% to 75% and prized for its high content, close to 22% of the Omega-7 palmitoleic acid. This high content in palmitoleic acid plus macadamia’s high oxidative stability makes it extremely suitable in cosmetics, especially skin care products.

Macadamia trees are commonly propagated by grafting and do not produce commercial amounts of nuts until they are 7-10 years old, but once established can produce nuts for over 100 years. M.tetraphylla species can be readily propagated from large fresh seed, directly from the tree, placed with the white spot facing down in warm, dampen sand.

Additionally mature tip cuttings of 3-4 leaf nodes or 10 cm long can be rooted in damp warm sand. They will develop a tap-rooting system and if allowed long enough in the sand will produce grape-sized feeding tubercles consisting of (thousands of small radial roots in a clump.

Macadamia nut trees are very tolerant to different types of soil but favor a fertile, well-drained soil and a rainfall of 1,000-2,000 mm, and temperatures above 10°C, (optimum temperature 25°C). They are ideally suited to a frost-free, mild climate with a good deal of rainfall distributed throughout the year. However, once established and toughened they can withstand moderate frosts.

Macadamia nuts are toxic to dogs. Ingestion may result in weakness with the inability to stand within 12 hours of ingestion. Recuperation is usually within 48 hours. In Australia there are a host of pests and diseases that trouble macadamias.

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by steve stamos

The Common Hazelnut tree Corylus avellana is a species of hazel native to Europe and Asia. It is usually a shrub reaching 3-8 m tall, but could reach 15 m. The leaves are rounded, 6-12 cm long, deciduous and hairy on both sides. The hazelnut tree is originated along the Black Sea around Turkey through the Mediterranean region.

The blossoms are produced very early on in spring, earlier than the leaves. The male flowers are pale yellow up to 12 cm long showy catkins, the female very small and mostly hidden in the buds, with just the red 1-3 mm long styles visible. The fruit of the hazelnut tree is a nut, developed in bunches of one to five, with each held in a short leafy husk which envelops about 75% of the nut. The nut is more or less spherical to ovoid, up to 2.5 cm long and2 cm wide, brown with a light mark at the base.

The nuts fall out of the husk when mature, approximately 7-8 months from pollination. Corylus avellana It is readily distinguished from the closely related Filbert Corylus maxima by the shortish husk; in the Filbert the nuts are fully enclosed. The name “hazelnut” applies to the nuts of any of the species of the genus Corylus. There are numerous cultivars of the Hazel. The bulk of commercial Hazelnut is raised as graft onto stock of the Turkish Hazel Corylus colurna.

Common hazelnut tree is cultivated for its nuts in commercial plantations. The kernel is edible and utilized raw, roasted or ground into a paste. The Hazelnut is extensively utilized in confection and also in combination with chocolate. Hazelnuts are popular as a coffee flavoring, particularly in the form of Hazelnut café latte. Vodka-based Hazelnut liqueurs, such as Frangelico, are as well growing in popularity.

Hazelnuts are harvested annually when autumn comes to a close at which time the trees drop the nuts and foliages. Hazelnuts are rich in protein and polyunsaturated fat. Furthermore, they contain important amounts of vitamin B1 and vitamin B6.

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