🌰 Sweet Chestnut
Nut Trees · growing reference
| To first harvest | ~4 years – ~5 years, by type |
|---|---|
| Spacing | 360″ in the row × 360″ between rows |
| Planted as | tree |
| Water | ~1–1.5 in a week |
When to plant
In USDA zone 6, for example: Plant around Mar 4, while the stock is still dormant — bare-root wants to be in the ground before it leafs out.
| Spring | |
|---|---|
| Zone 3 | Apr 3 |
| Zone 4 | Mar 26 |
| Zone 5 | Mar 15 |
| Zone 6 | Mar 4 |
| Zone 7 | Feb 18 |
| Zone 8 | Feb 1 |
| Zone 9 | Jan 9 |
Dates are the typical window for each zone's average frost dates — your own last frost can differ by a couple of weeks. Zone 10 and warmer is effectively frost-free: plant to the season, not the frost. Southern Hemisphere: shift six months.
Chestnut Types
- Chinese · ~4 years · 30–75 lbs/plant — C. mollissima — blight-resistant, zone 4–8, crops in 3–5 years. The safe homestead chestnut.
- Hybrid · ~4 years · 40–100 lbs/plant — Dunstan and kin — American × Chinese: resistant, with more of the American tree's timber form and flavour.
- American · ~5 years · 20–50 lbs/plant — C. dentata — the lost giant. Blight still kills it young; plant it for restoration work, not for a crop.
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