What You Need to Know to Grow Your Own Chestnuts at Home

Growing food at home is an empowering thing. It’s great to go out to the garden and come back with a basket full of fresh, homegrown, organic produce. It tastes better. It is likely more nutrient-rich. And, isn’t it just grand that you’ve done it all on your own?

Often the next step after a veggie plot is to start imagining the yard as an orchard. Apples, peaches, plums, cherries, pears, and maybe even some figs can make for a wonderful mixed orchard that can be grown in (or instead of) many suburban lawns.

But, for some real calories, it’s hard to beat nuts, and chestnuts are one of the fastest-growing, most prolific additions a person can introduce to their fruit (and nut) orchard. The other good news is that chestnuts are pretty agreeable trees to grow and easy to find.

Things to Know

Before getting into the nuts and bolts of growing chestnuts, it’s important to understand a few things about chestnuts.

• The history of American chestnuts is a sad one. They once dominated the forests of the Eastern United States. Unfortunately, a blight disease was accidentally brought to the USA in the early 1900s, and it decimated the American chestnut within 50 years. There are hardly any survivors, and there is a huge effort to try to breed new American chestnuts that can resist the blight. This has not yet been successful.
• Chinese & hybrid varieties that are blight-resistant are, consequently, the best choice for growing chestnuts at home. These tend to be smaller, grow faster, and produce sooner. So, the news isn’t all bad in this case though we’d love for those American chestnuts to get back on the scene.
• Chestnut tree placement is something that needs careful consideration because the nuts are covered in spiky burrs that could cause problems over a patio, sidewalk, or stepping stones. Also, chestnut trees need quite a bit of room to do their thing. They get to be about 40 feet tall and wide.

Growing a Chestnut Tree

If growing a chestnut tree still sounds appealing and a good fit, then it’s time to get a little deeper into the details of how it is done.

• The needs of chestnut trees are straightforward and familiar to fruit tree growers. Like fruit trees, chestnuts appreciate full sun and well-draining soil. They also need a second tree of a different variety to cross-pollinate. Because chestnuts are wind-pollinated, the trees should be within 200 feet of one another.
• Pruning for success while the tree is young will help to create a strong upright specimen. Unlike fruit trees, the chestnut should be trained along a central leader. This leader should not compete for the top spot. Limbs should be allowed to grow no closer than a foot apart and never directly above the limb below it, spiraling around the trunk.
• Harvesting is what this is all about. The nuts come wrapped in burrs which are about the size of tennis balls. The good news is that the burrs keep animals at bay, but they are also something harvesters have to deal with. Mature nuts are dropped by burrs.

Processing Chestnuts

Once that wonderful harvest of calorie-filled nuts is collected, it’s important to pay attention to how they are processed.

• Weevils are a common issue in chestnuts. They lay eggs in the chestnut burrs in mid-summer, and their larvae bore into the nuts, eat a bit, and leave. The population can be kept in check by picking up nuts every day or two when they begin dropping. The weevils overwinter in the ground, so it’s best to simply prevent that from happening by removing the nuts and burrs that may be carrying them.
• Next, the nuts should be put in a water bath of about 120 F for 20 minutes to make sure any eggs or larvae present are no longer an issue.
• Finally, the nuts should be put on a drying screen until they are fully dry. They can be stored in a dry, cool spot that is just above freezing.

Eating Chestnuts

The classic way to eat chestnuts is to roast them. First, slit the shells along one side of the nut. Then, put them in an oven at 400 F for about 30 minutes, or for something fun, they can be roasted in a cast iron skillet via campfire.

Another great way to get chestnuts on the plate is to dry some thoroughly and grind them into flour.

Related Content:

• 10 Savory and Sweet Vegan Chestnut Recipes for Christmas!
• 15 Chestnut Recipes That Are (Mostly) Not Over an Open Fire
• All About Chestnuts: A Staple Crop from the Past for the Future
• Pasta with Creamy Chestnut Pesto [Vegan]
• Chestnut Soup [Vegan]

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