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Do chestnuts need pruning and when is the right time to prune?

Although many growers do not prune chestnut trees due to their great height, annual pruning helps to better aerate the tree, renew fruiting and ensure greater production. Chestnut cultivation is one of the most valuable fruit tree crops with economic importance in the mountainous regions.

Chestnut pruning offers a significant increase in chestnut production, as well as allowing us to shape the tree to make harvesting easier. So let’s see in detail when to prune chestnuts as well as useful tips to achieve vigorous growth and a rich harvest of chestnuts.

1. When is the chestnut tree pruned?A good time to prune the chestnut tree is at the end of winter, between January and February, when the chestnut trees are still in their dormant period. In very cold and mountainous areas, chestnut pruning is done immediately after the last severe frost and can be done in the month of March. Chestnut pruning should be done on sunny and not rainy days to avoid fungal and bacterial diseases. Chestnut pruning is divided into shaping pruning done on young chestnut trees to give them the desired shape and annual fruiting pruning done on older chestnut trees.
2. How do we prune young chestnut trees? The main purpose of pruning young chestnut trees during the first 3-4 years after planting is to shape the trees into a cup-shaped shape. The basic elements of the cup-shaped branch in young chestnut trees include the formation of a central trunk 1 meter high, on which 3 central arms develop that form an angle of 50-60 degrees with the trunk.In more detail, each central arm of the chestnut tree has 2-3 well-formed main branches, the first of which starts at a distance of half a meter from the base of the central arm and is followed by the rest at a distance of every half meter and in the opposite direction from the immediately preceding one. Shaping the shape of the chestnut trees, in order for them to bear fruit quickly, must be completed over as long as possible and with light operations..
3. How do we prune chestnut trees for abundant production?Annual pruning on chestnuts in production includes maintaining the shape of the tree, removing dry, diseased and diseased branches, as well as branches that are entangled with each other. With this fruiting pruning in chestnuts, we achieve better ventilation and more exposure of the tree to sunlight and ensure a rich and better quality production.Several chestnut growers, every 3 years, carry out a more intensive restoration pruning to avoid the weakening of the trees and its reduction. Specifically, in restoration pruning, the long weak shoots of the chestnut tree are pruned, to form new and stronger shoots that will give new fruit.
4. And a secret for pruning the chestnut tree. After pruning the chestnut tree, we spray the shoots and the trunk with a copper formulation and cover the large cuts of the branch with inoculation paste to prevent disease attack.