Nut Grower's Guide: The Complete Handbook for Producers and Hobbyists (Landlinks Press)

239 Pages·2005·5.94 MB·English

by  Jennifer Wilkinson

Nut Grower’s Guide Jennifer Wilkinson
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Growing nuts is not only gaining popularity with r
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This is the first comprehensive handbook to cover Jennifer Wilkinson has been involved in

all relevant aspects for almonds, cashews, nut growing since in the 1970s when she G
began planting walnut trees in East
chestnuts, hazelnuts, macadamias, pecans, u
Gippsland, Victoria. Her interest in other
pistachios, and walnuts. Detailed material is i
tree nuts soon expanded and in 1996 she d
presented on site selection, from soil and climate
became editor of Australia’s only nut e
to aspect and topography through to previous land
journal, Australian Nutgrower, published
use and local pest species. Soil preparation,
by the Australian Nut Industry Council.
irrigation, planting and propagating trees are also As editor, Jennifer has travelled to nut
Nut Grower’s
covered. It also deals with the cultivation and orchards, processing facilities and research
processing of each of the major nut species and institutions in all states and New Zealand
also provides guidance on packaging and the and she regularly liases with growers,
processors, nurseries and researchers
wholesale and retail marketing of nuts in Australia
working on nut industry projects. She is
and overseas. Guide
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a recognised authority in the industry and e
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The Nut Grower’s Guide contains essential
planning to grow nuts commercially or i
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are seeking information about growing
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nuts, farmers looking to diversify and also for nut trees as a hobby. W
gardeners interested in growing nut trees in their The Complete Handbook for Producers and Hobbyists
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Nut Grower’s Guide

Nut Grower’s
Guide
The Complete Handbook for
Producers and Hobbyists
Jennifer Wilkinson
© Jennifer Wilkinson 2005
All rights reserved. Except under the conditions described in the Australian Copyright Act
1968 and subsequent amendments, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, duplicating or otherwise, without the prior permission of the
copyright owner. Contact Landlinks Press for all permission requests.
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Wilkinson, Jennifer, 1949–.
Nut grower’s guide : the complete handbook for producers
and hobbyists.
Includes index.
ISBN 0 643 06963 1.
1. Nuts – Australia. 2. Nut trees – Australia. 3. Nut
industry – Australia. I. Title.
634.5
Published by and available from
Landlinks Press
150 Oxford Street (PO Box 1139)
Collingwood VIC 3066
Australia
Telephone: [phone]
Local call: 1300 788 000 (Australia only)
Fax: [phone]
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.landlinks.com
Landlinks Press is an imprint of CSIRO PUBLISHING
Frontcover photos by the author except for Macadamia hedging photo by D. Huett.
All drawings and photos includedin the text by the author unless statedotherwise.
Set in 10.5pt Minion
CoverdesignbyJoWaite Design
Typeset by J & M Typesetting
Printed in Australia by BPA Print Group
Nut Growers.indd 2 21/9/05 9:59:41 PM
Acknowledgments
Firstly I would like to thank the many nut growers, nut processors and researchers for
sharing their experiences and technical knowledge with me. In particular I would like to
thank the following nut industry people who answered my questions when I was
researching this book and also offered words of wisdom on the specific nut chapters:
Chris Bennett and Peter Freeman for their help on almonds; Peter Shearer and Patrick
O’Farrell for their help with cashews; Jane Casey and Joe Rinaudo for their help with
chestnuts; Basil Baldwin and Peter Wheelwright for their help with hazelnuts; Kim Jones,
Andrew Heap and Graeme Hargreaves for their help with macadamias; Jon Craven, James
Payne and Ross Loebel for their help with pecans; Chris Joyce and Cathy Taylor for their
help with pistachios; and Leigh Titmus and Harold Adem for their help with walnuts.
Thank you too to Alan Broughton and Robyn Grant for their help with organic
agriculture, and to Russell Needham for his help with the business side of growing nuts.
I would also like to thank CSIRO Publishing, Briana Elwood and Ted Hamilton in
particular, for publishing this book and for their professional expertise and personal
support.
Of course no book can be written without significant support from family and
friends. To all my family, thank you for your patience and encouragement, and a special
thank you to my husband Norm for his constructive criticism, technical advice,
meticulous editing and for all the cups of tea and coffee and words of encouragement
brought to me at the computer.
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Foreword
As a grower of macadamia nuts and as an officer in other activities of the tree nut
industry in Australia I find it very refreshing to see a book published that is able to deal
successfully with horticultural practices for all the different tree nuts under the one cover.
Tree nut growers are experiencing a very strong growth in the demand for their
product. This is occurring as a result of scientific evidence proving that tree nuts are an
important part of a person’s diet.
In Australia there is a general shortage of home-grown tree nuts, consequently there
is quite a large quantity of tree nuts imported to satisfy this consumer demand. There is
an opportunity for our industries to increase the amount of home-grown product.
Jennifer has created a book that is right on the mark. It tells us the best ways to grow
tree nuts in the Australian environments. It provides the reader with just enough
information to make the individual a very good grower; there is not a wasted word.
Irrigation and nutrient detail is completely up to date. The amount of detail written
into each chapter and the order of its importance will give the reader plenty of incentive
to seek out further knowledge.
This is a ‘hands-on’ book. Jennifer has identified all the important ingredients
necessary to become a good grower of tree nuts. The reader can be confident that the
detail written into her book will be adequate to grow a product that will meet the
stringent quality standards that the Australian consumer expects of their home grown
products.
Good growing to all.
Phil Montgomery
President Australian Nut Industry Council Ltd
March 2005
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Contents
Acknowledgments v
Foreword vi
Introduction ix
Chapter 1 What’s in a nut? 1
Chapter 2 Nutproductionworldwide 9
Chapter 3 What nut grows where 15
Chapter 4 Propagation 21
Chapter 5 Planting a nut orchard 29
Chapter 6 Managing a nutorchard 39
Chapter 7 Organic nut production 61
Chapter 8 Success in business 71
Chapter 9 Almonds 81
Chapter 10 Cashews 99
Chapter 11 Chestnuts 109
Chapter 12 Hazelnuts 125
Chapter 13 Macadamias 141
Chapter 14 Pecans 157
Chapter 15 Pistachios 175
Chapter 16 Walnuts 189
Chapter 17 Other tree nuts 211
Appendix 1 Nut tree notes for gardeners 219
Index 225
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Introduction
It is no secret that nuts have been a valued food since prehistoric times. Nut harvest was a
time of ceremony for hunter-gatherers, and today nuts continue to be considered
gourmet food. In fact, consumption of nuts and nut products is increasing and medical
authorities are recommending more nuts in the diet for health reasons. This is very good
news for nut growers.
Nut production in Australia has increased significantly over the past two decades.
The size of nut orchards has also increased. Yet while the greater efficiency of large
orchards and the positive market situation has generated interest from investors, the
majority of nut orchards continue to be run as family businesses. In addition, many
orchards are an important part of ‘lifestyle farming’ and provide loads of fun and
satisfaction for weekend and semi-retired farmers.
Of the eight tree nut crops grown commercially in Australia, production volumes of
four of these crops (almonds, macadamias, pecans and pistachios) is substantial and
supported by modern processing and marketing facilities. Production of the other four
nut crops is increasing at varying rates. Chestnut production has been relatively static for
some years but production is now set to increase as chestnut processing opportunities are
developed. Walnut production has also remained reasonably static over the past few
decades but crops from large new orchards have boosted recent production and a rapid
increase is expected within the next few years. It is expected that development of high-
capacity walnut processing facilities will follow. Cashew production has been investigated
since the 1960s but the difficulty in processing cashew product has thwarted
development. At this stage cashew production is limited to one commercial grower with a
few other plantations on the horizon. Hazelnuts have been grown widely in Australia for
many decades on small-scale orchards, but larger plantings are being developed and the
hazelnut industry is looking toward a positive future.
Different tree nuts are grown in different climates, from the tropics to cool temperate
zones. Each nut type has a particular set of cultural requirements and processing and
marketing systems. So what are these requirements and which nut grows best where? The
information in this book comes from a combination of first hand experience, personal
communication with others involved in the nut industries, and literary research. As editor
of Australia’s only nut industry journal for almost ten years, my knowledge of nut
production increases with each issue that is published. Similarly, as a walnut grower, my
knowledge of walnut cultivation and processing is fine-tuned as each season passes.
It is thirty years since my husband and I planted our first walnut trees and in that
time there have been huge technical changes to walnut cultivation. Perhaps the greatest
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