When hub and I went for a walk in this post , I saw some fallen chestnuts in the parking lot. I picked it up , brought home and planted. Yesterday, I found more but most of them were all crushed by the cars that had parked there. I looked for some that may have escaped the wrath of those car tires and found two. Hub was saying he wouldn't want to grow any chestnut tree but I told him it doesn't have to become a tree. I'm planning to bonsai all of them but then I will have to grow them.
It is my first time to try growing chestnut trees and I 've already checked it out how to. I found out that it's essential that I have more than just one chestnut plant that's why I picked up two more. In as much as I want to pick up more as I would want to actually roast them, they were really all flatted out by car tires. In the Philippines, roasted chestnut costs 10 USD a kilo in Manila back when I was still there which is probably more expensive now. It's very expensive there but here, I could just go take a stroll in places where they grow and pick up as many as I want to. Nobody seems to care much about chestnuts out here. Maybe because it abounds in here. While I was writing this, I thought of @10k1 and thought, with the many fruits like chestnuts and apples in the woods here, @10k1 would definitely survive if he was passing through this side of the earth but this is actually where is headed for. Where supplies abound - they seem to get neglected.
I want to plant chestnuts because I love them specially roasted ones. I've read from Dr. Oz that chestnuts are the only nuts that have vitamin C and though they are starchy they could actually lower the cholesterol levels of the blood.
According to Dr. Michael T. Murray, chestnuts are not just rich in vitamin C but also B1, B2 and folic acid. I've heard from some old folks around here that during the WWII many families have managed to survive just eating chestnuts. It could provide a load of stock as alternative for rice as long as you put it in the freezer.
Like every seed with coats, chestnut also needs to go through stratification. That means, it needs to experience winter. It would mean I will have to put it under a peat moss in a sealed lunch box and refrigerate for months. However, since I am in time for winter, I've decided to use a different method. This is my logged experiment of planting chestnut directly to the ground.
Here are the steps I followed in planting chestnut from seeds.
Take the coat off the chestnut by sinking your nails on the tip and peeling it like you do with a banana. I could just leave the brown seed coat on them but these would attract the rodents. There's a certain smell attached to that seed coat that attracts rodents and other chestnut eating animals to find them. By doing this, I lower the risk of having my chestnuts being eaten.
Fill half of an empty pot with loam soil.
Bury half of the chestnut with their pointed tip facing upward in the soil.
Cover with more loam soil.
Soak with water.
Find a place where they would just get enough water and plenty of sunlight.
Check every now and then to make sure their soil isn't soggy otherwise, they'd rot.
I've checked the first chestnut I buried in the garden and the pot hasn't been dug so fingers crossed, I hope this becomes a success.
It isn't just chestnut I'm trying to grow. The day we went to Sonsbeek Park which I wrote about [here] , I found another nut that actually falls of the very same season as chestnuts do. It is my favorite nut and I've never gone to Sonsbeek Market without buying some to hoard because they happen to sell really fresh looking walnuts. Yes, walnut is my favorite nut.
While hub was checking out whether the car was safely parked I heard a thud followed by another thud. I looked up and saw four nuts about to drop from their split pods. Then one did, just before my face and it cracked open. I gushed; "Walnut!" The tree was pretty high and I couldn't reach any twig but I picked up the one that dropped in front of me and cracked open the nutshell. Yes, it was easy to split it open since it was already cracked. Hub said it must be dirty but I saw the nutshell split open and pop in front of me so I know that exposed part of the brain like nut there wasn't dirty. I popped it open and stuffed the whole deal in my mouth. It was my first fresh walnut. It taste like Pili nuts in the Philippines.
I looked for more and found another one which I automatically wrapped with a sniffle tissue and stuffed it in my coat pocket. I begged the tree to drop some more for when I get back. Guess what, it wasn't windy that day but I went back and found 7 more of them not cracked. I picked them all up and brought them home.
What made me want to plant my own walnut trees? Yes, I could buy them and will still be buying them till these seeds really get to grow and fruit but when that time comes, I'll reap the harvest of my "nutness" about it now. Walnuts have plenty of health benefits and one of the best is that like almonds it combats the growth of cancerous cells in the body. Its rich in vitamins and minerals that could aid inflammation, help keep our hearts healthy, control diabetes, keeps our bones health and better the body's metabolism. It also aids in getting a good sleep since walnut has melatonin - the hormone responsible in getting a restful sleep. If you feel a bit down chew 8 of them and you'll lighten up.
The next day, I looked up how to plant these walnuts and in as much as I would rather eat them all than stuff them in the ground, I had to control myself from doing so. I had to convince hub that like the chestnuts, I'll just bonsai them and grow them in pots as we really have nowhere to plant them anymore. Walnuts and chestnuts trees grow pretty big and require a huge ground to grow healthily.
These are the steps I followed for this experiment of planting walnuts without refrigerating them.
Like chestnuts they also need stratification but I've decided to use a short cut.
I banged each walnut on the floor. We have a tiled floor and it could stand the walnut so two to three drops and each of it cracks. One even popped open. Be careful in dropping them though, too hard a drop could cause the nut inside to crack, too. Two did and ended up being eaten.
The other 5 turned out just fine so I just had to carefully crack the shell open till half of the walnut is exposed.
Carefully, shake the walnut and pull it out like you're pulling a loose tooth. Jerking it could make the nut split in half and would have to be just - eaten.
Do not peel the shiny brown seed coat on it. If it comes off then good, if not leave it alone. Peeling it off the seed could also cause splitting that brain like nut into two.
Prepare a spacious pot that would cater the numbers of your walnut seed.
Place a plastic bag on the pot to put your soil in. Walnut seedlings are prone to die if the temperature drops way low so I'm growing them indoors. Planting them in plastic bags make it easy to re-pot them without damaging any root. I would just slit one side of the plastic open with shears and the soil automatically comes off the roots making it easy to untangle and separate seedlings.
Mix a loam soil with sand.
Bury half of each walnut carefully in the soil mix.
Cover with more soil mix.
Give a good soak.
Place on the well lighted window sill or where your heating is to boost germination.
Today is October 25, 2016 and it has been a week since I've buried the first chestnut and those 5 walnuts in their own respective choices of soil. Wish me luck that they germinate and grow Steemit.
I thought of not writing this one out but now is chestnut and walnut season and it's the best time to pick them up while taking a stroll and who knows - maybe some of you would join me - and do this experiment, too. You can never grow any chestnut and walnuts that you've bought in the grocery since most of them are stocks. Most gardeners and foragers advise that the moment you open a fruit - take the seed and plant it right away - applies with nuts, too.
I took each picture with my Samsung Galaxy A3 2016 edition.
sources:
What are the health benefits of eating chestnuts?
13 reasons to eat walnuts every day!
How to Grow Chestnut Trees
How to Plant a Walnut Tree
I usually blog about cooking, gardening and photography and if you happen to be interested in all of those, too ,
FOLLOW ME @
A THANK YOU shoutout to @steemverify for my verification logo