Edible chestnut - from the Beech family. He is not a fellow horse related to the Sapindov. These are different plants, but due to their resemblance, they are often mistaken for related species.
Botanical Description
Castanea sativa - edible or noble chestnut - is common in the Atlantic coast of the United States, the Mediterranean, Western Europe, Transcaucasia, and the Far East. Natural habitats: hillsides with fertile, moderately moistened soils.
Chestnuts - fast growing deciduous trees and shrubs. The trunks of adult specimens are straight, powerful, covered with a thick wrinkled brownish-brown bark. The root system is superficial. Crowns are thick, regular broad-pyramidal or ovoid. The buds are scaly, round, pointed. The petiole leaves are simple, dark green, on the branches are arranged in two rows, forming a kind of spiral. Leafy plates are leathery, oblong, 7–25 cm long, oval or wedge-shaped, with pointed tips. The edges are serrated. The surface is lined with feathery veins. In spring, young foliage is surrounded by short tongues of light pink stipules, which crumble in summer.
Chestnuts - monoecious plants. Creamy or white bell-shaped flowers up to 1 cm in diameter are collected in one loose pyramidal inflorescence. Most of them are staminate, and a few pistillate are located at the base of the hands, the size of which reaches 5-15 cm. Pollination occurs with the help of insects. In the spring, chestnuts are good honey plants.
The fruits ripen in late September. Outside, they are completely covered with pluses with long spikes: several prickly balls hang on thin stalks. In summer, they are light green, and by autumn they turn brown. Inside are golden brown nuts. The chestnut fruits are slightly larger than hazelnuts, their shells are smooth and thin, the kernels are light, contain a lot of starch and protein.
The lifespan of trees is at least 100 years. There are natural monuments whose age exceeds 2000 years.
Differences between edible and inedible chestnuts
Nuts look like horse chestnut fruits of the same name in shape, size and color of the shell. Inedible species are bitter in taste, their pericarp remains green when the nuts are fully ripe, and their surface, instead of long spikes, is dotted with blunt tubercles. This type of nut is used as a pharmaceutical raw material; it is unsuitable for eating.
Horse chestnut trees also have clear differences. The leaves of their dissected palmate shape are located opposite on the branches, petioles are long. Flowers are 2-3 times larger than that of edible chestnut.
Application
Fruit
Edible chestnut is an ornamental and fruit plant. Its nuts are a valuable food product that can be consumed independently or as part of dishes. In the kernels, in addition to the main nutrients, they contain:
- B vitamins;
- tocopherol;
- carotene;
- vitamin C;
- organic acids;
- iron;
- phosphorus;
- potassium;
- magnesium.
The fruits of the chestnut are fried, stewed, added to baked goods, to meat, potatoes, pasta dishes, vegetable snacks, sauces and marinades.
Sowing chestnut honey has a bright, bitter taste, it is dark red, flowing, does not sugar for a long time. The composition contains more minerals and antiseptics than other species. This product is useful for use at any age: as a preventive and therapeutic supplement, a natural sweetener.
Landscape design
Lush curly crowns, beautiful flowering and a shallow root system make the chestnut a suitable plant for landscaping gardens, squares and adjoining territories, in the presence of infrastructure elements hidden under a layer of soil. Trees can even be planted over cellars.
Wood
Chestnut wood is of industrial interest due to its high hardness. In technical properties, this material is comparable to oak. The sapwood is light, the core has a bright brown color. The core rays are narrow, annual layers are pronounced. The material is used in construction, for the production of glued beams, plywood, flooring, trim panels, furniture.
Since wood contains many natural tannins, barrels are made from it for the maturation of wines, cognac, brandy and other types of alcoholic beverages.
In medicine
Flowers, young shoots and tree bark contain flavonoids, tannins, saponins and essential oils. Based on them, pharmaceuticals are produced for the treatment of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, nervous, vascular and endocrine systems, atherosclerosis.
Decoctions and tinctures of chestnut bark are used as a cosmetic for skin problems or hair loss.
The benefits and harms of the fruit
Chestnut fruits are useful for hypovitaminosis, physical exhaustion, disturbances in psychoemotional balance, blood pressure spikes, decreased immunity, and a tendency to inflammatory diseases. It is a source of vegetable protein, fatty acids, complex carbohydrates and biologically active substances. By the vitamin and mineral composition, chestnuts are comparable to other types of nuts.
The disadvantage of fruits is their mild taste. In their raw form, kernels lose to hazelnuts or walnuts, resembling raw potatoes. Heat treatment significantly improves the taste.
Refuse to use chestnuts should be:
- overweight or obesity;
- diabetes mellitus;
- peptic ulcer of the stomach or intestines.
A large amount of starch in the nuclei can aggravate existing disorders of carbohydrate metabolism, and coarse fiber can cause exacerbation of gastrointestinal tract pathologies.
Harvest Storage
Ripe fruits contain a lot of moisture. If you leave the harvest to be stored at room temperature, it will disappear after a few days - it will become moldy and rot even in shells.
To preserve the freshness of nuts as long as possible they must be placed in the refrigerator or in a dry cellar. Recommended air temperature: not more than +3 ° C. You can put nuts in boxes and cover them with dry sand, like potatoes or carrots. Suitable for paper or linen breathable bags. Do not use cellophane. Pre-fried or boiled nuts can be frozen. Subject to all requirements, chestnuts will last up to 6-7 months.
Landing
Chestnuts need a lot of space, fertile loose, well-drained soil of a neutral or alkaline reaction. If you plan to plant a tree in the garden, you need to remember that no crops can develop under its crown and near the roots.
It is better to place seedlings in the open ground in the spring. For a temperate climate, hybrid varieties are well adapted, whose cold resistance is higher than that of the southern natives.
Pits for the root system are dug with a depth and a width of 60–70 cm. For group plantings, the distance between them should be 3.5–4 m. A drainage layer 20–30 cm thick is laid at the bottom. The soil removed from the pits is mixed with an equal amount of humus , add dolomite flour and slaked lime: 300 g per bucket of earth. When planting around the root neck, a mound of 15–20 cm high is poured, the soil is tamped, preventing the formation of voids inside. The neck itself should rise about 7–10 cm. It is recommended to dig pegs in a row and tie up fragile trunks to them.
After finishing work, 15 l of water is poured under the root of each specimen.
Care
Throughout the growing season, it is necessary to strictly observe the regime of moisture and nutrition of trees. Young shoots are especially sensitive to this.
Watering the chestnuts is necessary once a week, excluding the time of heavy rains. When the seedlings reach the age of 5 years, the moisture content is reduced. In addition to periods of drought and heat, additional watering is required 1-2 times for the entire season.
Liquid top dressing recommended. In April: a solution of 10 liters of water with 1-2 kg of cow manure and 20 g of urea per barrel. In August - a similar fertilizer with the addition of 15 g nitroammofoski.
The soil around the chestnuts must be loosened twice a month to a depth of 7-10 cm, removing weeds. Trunk circles are preferably mulched with sawdust, needles or peat.
To prevent the defeat of powdery mildew and other infections, it is useful to spray the crowns with fitover twice a month, and tear off diseased leaves. To combat chestnut moths and pests, greens and trunks of karbofos and other insecticides should be treated.
Wintering
Before the onset of severe cold weather, young seedlings need to be insulated. The root system is covered with a thick layer of mulch to a height of 30 cm. In frost, the crowns are wrapped in burlap and tied with twine. Adult trees have enough snow protection. With the onset of winter, high snowdrifts are poured around their trunks.
Breeding
Chestnuts can be grown from seeds. Fully ripe, undamaged fruits are needed. Before planting, they are stratified, keeping 2 weeks at a temperature of + 2-3 ° C, then soaked for 5 hours in warm water. The material is deepened into the soil by 6–8 cm, at a distance of 20 cm from each other. You can do this in spring and autumn. Thin sprouts when they rise by 20-30 cm.
Chestnuts are propagated by cuttings during the summer. As the material used lignified shoots 25-30 cm long, with several developed growth buds. Slices are made at an angle of 45 °. To root, cuttings are deepened into a mixture of soil and peat, fed and regularly watered.