Growth and Fruiting Characteristics, and Nut Qualities of Castanea crenata by Low-Concentrated Liquid Fertilizer

The objective of this study was to investigate growth and fruiting characteristics (e.g., nut qualities) of chestnut (Castanea cerenata) after applying various fertilizer treatments at the cultivation site in Suncheon. Fertilizer treatments were designed as follow: liquid fertilizer, chemical fertilizer, organic fertilizer, and control. Both liquid and chemical fertilizer treatments provided the best growth in height and basal diameter. In addition, these two treatments were very effective for crown width of the trees between both east-west and north-south orientation. The liquid fertilizer treatment was effective on total length of the fruiting branch and length of the bearing to terminate part. Both liquid and chemical fertilizer treatments produced the longest length of basal to bearing part compared to the other two treatments. The liquid fertilizer treatment showed the most thickened basal diameter of the fruiting branch and the greatest diameter of above and below the bearing burr part. Elongation Index of the fruiting branch (EI) was the highest with liquid fertilizer treatment and the remaining four indices (Production Index of fruiting branch, PI; Ratio of Diameter between below and above bearing burr part, RD; Growth Index of fruiting branch diameter, GI; Thickness Index of fruiting branch or dormant branch, TI) were the highest with the chemical fertilizer treatment. Total number of produced branch per fruiting mother branch and number of small and weak branches per fruiting mother branch were highest on the control and liquid fertilizer treatment; however, all treatments produced similar numbers. The chemical and organic fertilizer treatments produced a high number of fruiting branches per fruiting mother branch, while organic and liquid fertilizer treatments produced a high number of burr per fruiting branch. The rate of commercializing on the basis of nut weight and quantity was higher on control (87.5%) than chemical fertilizer treatment (84.6%); however, the rate was even lower on liquid fertilizer treatment (84.3%) and organic fertilizer treatment (82.7%). The liquid fertilizer treatment showed the highest average of nut weight, while chemical fertilizer treatment showed the highest average number of fruiting burr. There was no significant difference in average number of normal nuts per burr among treatments. The yield per tree was high on chemical (8.2 kg) and liquid (8.0 kg) fertilizer treatments, but there was no significant difference among treatments. In the rate of nut grade on the basis of nut weight and quantity, the liquid fertilizer treatment, 43.5% and 34.3% more than large nut respectively, produced higher value chestnuts compared to other treatments.