chestnuts trees in balingup


Chestnuts in Balingup


On our property 'Chestnut Brook' the main commercial crop is sweet chestnuts.
We have approximately 200 chestnut trees, ranging in age from a recent
9-10 years to more majestic 60-80 year old trees.

On this page you will find information on the following:

treesTrees harvestHarvesting gradingGrading marketingMarketing yieldsYields other usesOther Uses

The trees

Chestnut trees are deciduous and when fully grown are magnificent looking trees.  Chestnuts are grown throughout the temperate areas of Australia, although the majority are found in north-eastern Victoria.

The edible part of the chestnut is well protected during growth.  The kernel, or meat, of the nut is covered by a skin called the pellicle.  This is encased in an outer shell and then finally held in a very prickly burr.  When ripe, the burr splits open and the nuts fall to the ground.  Chestnuts should not remain on the ground for very long or they deteriorate, so during the harvest period we collect them every day and place them immediately into our cool room.

  Harvesting the nuts

chestnut in burrWe grow two varieties of chestnuts here in Balingup, and harvesting takes place from mid March through to early May.  This means we are working hard and our cool room is in use when the other local stonefruit orchards are finishing for the year.

Ideally, the nut falls free of the burr leaving the burr still attached to the tree, but often the split burr falls with the nut still inside it.  Harvesting is done by hand, and the nuts removed from the burrs manually by hand (wearing pigskin riggers' gloves), or by rolling the burrs under your thick soled boots.  The sooner the nuts are removed from the burrs the better.

Purpose-built machines such as suction harvesters or dehuskers are being developed in Victoria, but they have their own problems; and our our total production of saleable nuts is not enough to make this expensive equipment an economically viable alternative.

  Grading the nuts for sale

The chestnuts are graded after they have been removed from the burrs.  Any equipment used for grading chestnuts comprises some method where the nuts fall through holes of various diameters.  We currently grade our chestnuts according to the five industry recognised sizes, although generally the 'small' size nuts are not sold.  Our two donkeys love chestnuts, and we use these small nuts to supplement their feed when the paddocks are still rather bare in late summer.

The sizes are by diameter:  

Small 

 20 - 25mm
Medium   26 - 29mm
Standard  30 - 32mm
Large 33 - 38mm
Special   >38mm


  Marketing

Most of the chestnuts we grow are packed into 5 kg boxes before transporting to Donnybrook, where they are sent overnight in refrigerated trucks to the the Perth markets at Canningvale.  

In addition to this wholesale outlet, we sell both fresh and hot roasted chestnuts from our stall at the Balingup Small Farm Field Day, which occurs each year on a Saturday in late April. 

  Yields

As our trees vary in age there appears to be no hard and fast rule regarding the yields we get each year.  Chestnut trees can produce good yields, although it may be 15–20 years before they are in full production.

High-yielding trees, 30–60 years old, may average over 100 kg of nuts each year.  Some trees may be inclined towards alternate bearing, and very large trees 50–60 years old have been known to bear as much as 270 kg chestnuts in the one year.  We also have a few very old trees which do produce many nuts but they are too small to sell.  The spring and summer rainfall pattern has a large influence on nut size (even in the presence of irrigation), and therefore also on the total yield.

There is considerable variation in yield between varieties, and some of the varieties that produce highly priced, large chestnuts are rather shy bearers.

  Other uses for chestnut trees

shelter Larger chestnut trees have potential as shelter trees in summer.  Small stock such as sheep can easily walk under the lower branches, munch on the lower leaves and suckers, and keep cool.

stock feed Nuts which are undersized or damaged can be fed to cattle, pigs and horses.   Sheep and donkeys also love them.

furniture The timber of castanea sativa is used in Europe for furniture.  The wood is also used for round poles and plank fencing, floor boards, panelling, window frames and doors.  The wood is reported to be relatively hard, durable, fine-grained and easy to split, but not flexible.

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