Sweet Chestnut question???

[monkey boy]

When is a good time to gather sweet chestnut, i have found a few trees with the shells split open on the floor, but the nuts inside does not seem to look like they are ready to eat as some of them are a whitish Colour, If it helps I am based in Surrey.
Thanks in advance
Mb

 

[Ogri the trog]

Generally I'd have said the=at about this time of year would be the season to harvest....

However, the poor excuse of a summer that we've just had is likely to mean that the nuts will not ripen at all and that the trees are shedding them irrespective of their condition.

You might find a few that do ripen but I'm guessing that they'll be small and a few in number.

ATB

Ogri the trog

 

[Joonsy]

i have found there seems to be two sizes of chestnut that grow wild, one quite small and the other much larger, i'm not sure why, the larger ones seem to grow on the trees with straighter/taller trunks while those trees that spread out well seem to produce smaller nuts, i'm not sure why or even if its correct its just an observation of the places i know myself, i know of some straight tall trees that produce nuts aprox 4cm in size but generally most trees i come across have much smaller nuts, they are not quite ready here and the harvest is much smaller than last year too.

 

[monkey boy]

If I gather them all the same and keep them will they still grow and turn into a proper nut?

 

[Harvestman]

The sweet chestnut harvest fluctuates a lot. Some years are very good, but this is a bad one.

 

[Big Stu 12]

I been looking out in the woods today and all I have found is small, whitish, and badly formed ones, it a shame as I was with my lad that likes chestnuts, would of been good to roast some for him last night to go with his feast of marshmallows,

 

[vizsla]

I usualy wait till late october give or take a week

 

[swright81076]

We had a mooch in hagg wood today for chestnuts (cheers to Chiseller for the heads up), the trees had no husks on at all, the few we found on the floor were fully opened, but white pea sized nuts.
Don't know if someone beat us to it, or whether the horse chestnut mite has spread to sweet chestnuts too.

sent from my Jelly Bean'd galaxy nexus.

 

[aris]

There do not seem to be many conkers around either. I blame the weather.

 

[Craig88]

There do not seem to be many conkers around either. I blame the weather.

thats a good point actually, until i read this thread i hadn't realised that there arent hardly any around near me either. It must be as many of said, be down to the weather this year.

 

[squishy]

I havent even seen any for sale in the supermarkets yet we missed out collecting any last year too as they were all too small whereas the year before i was collecting bag after bag of them from just from a few trees! heres hoping next year is a bumper crop

 

[swright81076]

Asda have started selling them. Italian ones.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[squishy]

ooh, i'll have to keep an eye out in ours then, they didnt have any when i went in a couple of days ago. not seen any in morrisons or sainsburys either.

 

[swright81076]

Definitely asda, got em in castleford one, got 2 bags. £2 each. Morrison's staff didn't think they'd get any till after Christmas???

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[Kepis]

Saw them in our local Asda at £2.00 for a poxy little bag of them think i'll pass.

 

[Elen Sentier]

Hmmm, not as ripe as they were last year from your pic. I usually try to go down to Exmoor about this time and walk the chestnut woods above Porlock, usually fill an empty day sack and have chestnuts for the winter but they're much bigger than that. Poor summer likely the reason.

 

[Nice65]

It's a poor year for all tree fruits and nuts. We had a blowy wet spell while the trees were flowering, followed by more wet weather and a very poor growing season.

I haven't found a single chestnut worth picking up this year and the supermarket ones are priced at £2.50 for a small bag of around 20 Italian chestnuts suggesting its been a bad year right across Europe.

 

[Thoth]

I collected about a pound-and-a-half of decent sized chestnuts from a single reliable tree last weekend. There are chestnuts out there . . .