Patrick Joseph Okilan, an expert with National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) explains that before getting the seedlings from the nursery bed, you must have cleared the area designated for cashew planting. It should be flat and not water lodged.
“Peg the area in accordance to the spacing you choose from the three spacing types. One of the spacing is 6m by 6m if you don’t want to intercrop, but this spacing is for a short time such that when they start meeting, you start eliminating the middle trees such that you leave spaces of 12metres by 12metres which is the standard spacing and remain with 27 trees in an acre”, he says.
The other spacing is 10m by 10m but with this spacing, but after 10-12 years, the trees will start meeting. But here, you only need to trim the end of the canopy. This is because, cashew don’t fruit in areas with shades that cause low temperatures since it requires high temperatures to flower, fruit and require less rain for the fruits to grow.
Dig a hole of 2ft wide and 2ft deep, separating the black soil about 6inchs and the red aside. Get good matured soil and refill the hole completely leaving no depression and use the red soil and make a hill. Thereafter, place back the page such that you plant into the line.
He advises that while planting don’t use artificial fertilizers because it will make them grow so fast and even forget fruiting that a tree that would fruit at one and a half years, it will delay for another year. It’s better to use matured soils and keep the garden free of weeds.
They need continuous feeding where you add manure every after 4-5 years of harvest if you are to get the best harvest the next year.
What diseases affect cashew nuts?
Okilan says the most devastating cashew nut disease is powdery mildew, Anthracnose and dieback.
“These are the major diseases for cashew since it has less diseases yet they are all manageable. However, what it needs is prompt action. The moment to sight a disease react quickly because like for the case of powdery mildew, in one week it will have covered quarter of the tree and in three weeks all the tree will be covered”, he explains.
