Nut Growing Course for Macadamias and other Nuts for Sub Tropics and Tropics
- Learn identification and culture of nut crops in warmer climates
- Suitable for mild temperate to tropical climates
- Explore and discover plants you may not have even encountered before.
- Discover opportunities for self sufficiency or commercial production.
For most people, a nut is a type of food and a delightful food at that! Strictly speaking, not all nuts are edible; but this course is only concerned with edible nuts and in particular, the ones that are grown more extensively around the world in warm climates.
Tropical nut trees needs and tolerances can vary quite considerably even in tropical areas, for example certain tropical areas may experience frosts. There are so many varieites worth trying that it is worth learning about them all!
Lesson Structure
There are 8 lessons in this course:
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Introduction
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What is a Nut
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Review of the system of plant identification
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Main family groups of nuts
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Family Juglandaceae
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Family Corylaceae
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Family Characteristics
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Family Fagaceae
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Family Proteaceae
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Family Burseraceae
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Family Lecthidaceae
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Family Sterculiaceae
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Family Anacardiaceae
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Family Rosaceae
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Family Leguminosae
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Family Asteraceae
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Family Cucurbitaceae
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Family Palmaceae
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Family Pinaceae
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Information contacts (i.e. nurseries, seed, clubs etc.)
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Potential for Nut Growing
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Nut Plant Culture
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Terminology
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Soil and Nutrition Management
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Planting,water management, plant health, pruning, etc.
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Propagation of Nut Plants
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Seed
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Cuttings
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Propagating Media
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Hardening off Young plants
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Layering
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Budding and grafting
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The Macadamia
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Magadamia growing in Australia & elsewhere
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Cultivars
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Macadamia recipes
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The Pecan
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Nutritional components of the nut
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Culture
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Climate
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Propagation
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Cultivars
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Problems
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Uses
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Other Varieties which Grow in Warm Climates
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Pistacio
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Cashew
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Peanut
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Almond
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Baobab (Andersonia)
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Brazil Nut
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Coconut
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Guarana
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Cola
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Sunflower
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Cocao
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Coffee
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Sesame Seed
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Others are reviewd briefly, including: Pili Nut, Acacia, Hausa Ground Nut etc
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Selecting a site and planting a plot.
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Site Selection and management
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Site characteristics
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Climate
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Biological characteristics
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Water
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Other factors
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Using weedicides with nut plantings
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Growing, harvesting and using nuts.
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Harvest and storage of nuts
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Sorting, Cleaning, Drying
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Uses for nuts -food, crafts, timber etc
Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.
Aims
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Classify nuts into different plant families
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Find sources of organisations specific to nut production
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Describe the cultural requirements of tropical nuts, as most of the varieties we look at are for the tropics or warm climates.
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Explain the characterisitics of soils and plant nutrition,plant health, watering techniques,environmental protection for your crops,pest and disease management
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Techniques for pruning and maintenance
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Propagate nut trees; propagtion from nut seeds and cuttings grafting, layering, establishing rootstocks
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Describe the caulture of important warm climate nuts including Macadamia, Peacan nut trees, Pistachio, Cashew, Almond and Brazil nut.
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Discuss other varieties you never knew exsisted, are looked at
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Explain establishment and horticultural management of tropical nut trees.
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Explain site selection for successful cultivation, planting techniques and factors affecting the selection of a site.
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Describe the harvesting and storage of nuts.
WHAT IS A NUT?
Botanists define a nut as follows:
"A dry, indehiscent, one seeded fruit, somewhat similar to an achene, but the product of more than one carpel, and usually larger with a hard woody wall"
(Reference: A Dictionary of Biology by Abercrombie et al, published by Penguin).
If you do not quite understand this description:
Indehiscent simply means that the fruit does not break open readily and release the seed
(Note: Legumes such as wattles or peas in contrast are dehiscent fruits -they dry, and then drop seeds while the dry fruits are still attached to the plant).
An Achene is a simple, thin walled fruit and contains only one seed. A strawberry in fact is a large number of individual tiny achenes which cover a fleshy receptacle (Note. The fleshy receptacle is what we eat as a strawberry; while the fruits and seeds are tiny gritty bits covering the surface).
Many types of plants have nuts as fruits; some are grown commercially as edible food products, and others are not.
Nuts are produced by the following trees; Quercus (oaks), Pecan, Filbert, Hickory, Macadamia,
Hazelnut and others.
Commercial Growers and Home Gardeners may be less rigid in the way they define a nut. Generally nuts are edible fruits or parts of fruits which are hard, relatively dry (unlike fleshy fruits), and are able to be roasted for eating, or in many cases, may be eaten fresh.
In some cases, the roasting may destroy undesirable chemicals in the nut, or may enhance the flavour.
In the strict botanical sense, a peanut would not be a nut, because there can be more than one seed inside a fruit; however peanuts are perhaps the most widely grown commercial nut in the world.
Nuts above all have a distinct advantage over other fruits in their keeping quality. Being a dry product, they are less susceptible to spoilage, and will generally store well without any sophisticated or expensive storage treatments. This characteristic alone extends their marketing life, and can eliminate many problems associated with other types of crops.
(Note: They may need protection from pests though (eg. rodents and other vermin).
There are many nuts which are grown and eaten in one region, but not commonly heard of in other parts of the world. This is particularly the case in many tropical areas, where nuts which are eaten by local people may offer significant potential for future commercial cropping.
There are literally hundreds of different nuts which can be grown, representing dozens of different families. Unlike other groups of plants, it is extremely hard to generalize when considering "how to grow nuts". You will find common needs for nuts which belong to the one plant family, however, between families, the requirements can vary greatly.
The tropical nut trees you choose will be dependent on your locality as conditions can vary quite considerably even in tropical area, for example certain tropical areas may experience frosts. Some tropical nut trees can tolerate mild frosts, macadamias for example, if grown inland, prefer growing in higher altitudes due to an intolerance to excessive heat, they do however tolerate light frosts and also grow well in coastal plantings.
Cashews conversely prefer hot tropical climates and a situation below 1000m they will tolerate poor soils, preferably acidic with a pH range around 4.5 – 6.5.
Brazil nuts are native to the Amazon and cannot be cultivated elsewhere. The majority of the Brazil nut harvest comes from natural plantations with individual trees in cultivated plantations yielding far less.
Who is this Course for?
- Nurserymen, Gardeners, Horticulturists, Plantsmen
- Businessmen, Farmers, Entrepeneurs
- Hobby Farmers, Home Gardeners, anyone interested in nuts for self sufficiency
- Students of Horticulture, Food and Sustainability ....
ENROL TODAY AND LEARN MORE
FREQUENT QUESTIONS
Why Choose This Course
- Unique course materials (developed by our staff) and more current than some colleges (many reviewed annually); as a result, ACS graduates can be more up to date.
- We work hard to help you understand and remember it, develop an ability to apply it in the real world, and build networks with others who work in this field (It’s more than just serving up a collection of information –if all you want is information, buy a book; but if you want an education, that takes learning to a whole new level).
- Start whenever you want, study at your own pace, study anywhere
- Don’t waste time and money traveling classes
- We provide more choices–courses are written to allow you more options to focus on parts of the subject that are of more interest to you; a huge range of elective subjects are offered that don’t exist elsewhere.
- Tutors are accessible (more than elsewhere) – academics work in both the UK and Australia, 5 days a week, 16 hours a day. Answering emails and phone calls from students are top priority.
- We treat students as individuals –don’t get lost in a crowd. Our tutors communicate with you one to one.
- Extra help at no extra cost if needed. When you find something you cannot do, we help you through it or will provide another option.
- Support after you finish a course –We can advise about getting work, starting business, writing a CV, etc. We can promote students and their businesses through our extensive profile on the internet. Graduates who ask will be helped.
- Support from a team of a dozen professional horticulturists, living in different parts of the UK, and in both temperate and tropical climate zones of Australia.
About ACS
ACS was started in 1979 by John Mason, who at the time was a gardening author, horticultural consultant and lecturer in horticulture at several colleges across Melbourne (in Australia). Over the summer that year John discovered that there were thousands of applicants going to be turned away from horticulture courses at Burnley Horticultural College (now Melbourne University). There were simply too few courses being offered for the number of people wanting to study horticulture in Australia. This situation prompted a move to establish a correspondence course at Burnley; but after months of unsuccessful lobbying for support from government; John wrote a course, and with help from a colleague at Council of Adult Education, marketed it.
Standards were originally set in line with what were seen to be the standards of Australia's top horticultural college; and over the years, those standards have never been reduced. This makes our courses longer and more demanding than some other colleges; but it has also led to us building a credibility that stands tall in the horticulture industry across the world.
In the early 1990's John started visiting the UK and becoming involved with the horticulture industry there. Around the mid 1990's ACS began offering RHS courses, and in 2003, John was formally recognised for his contribution to British Horticulture by being made a fellow of the Institute of Horticulture. ACS, as a school, established an office and staff in the UK in 2001, and has expanded considerably since then. Today it is formally affiliated with five other colleges in the UK (including Warwickshire College); all of who license and deliver ACS courses.
A team of leading horticulturists work for the school's horticulture department, including 12 faculty members in both the UK and Australia
How You Study
- As soon as you enroll, we send an email to explain it all.
- We direct you to a short orientation video (downloadable over the internet) to watch, where our principal introduces you to how the course works, and how you can access all sorts of support services
- You are either given a code to access your course online, or sent out a CD or course materials through the mail (or by courier).
- Work through lessons one by one, each lesson typically having four parts:
- An aim -which tells you what you should be achieving in the lesson
- Reading -notes written and regularly revised by our academic staff
- Set Task(s) -These are practicals, research or other experiential learning tasks that strengthen and add to what you have been reading
- Assignment -By answering questions, submitting them to a tutor, then getting feedback from the tutor, you confirm that you are on the right track, but more than that, you are guided to consider what you have been studying in different ways, broadening your perspective and reinforcing what you are learning about
- Other - Your work in a course rarely stops at just the above four parts. Different courses and different students will need further learning experiences. Your set task or assignment may lead to other things, interacting with tutors or people in industry, reviewing additional reference materials or something else. We treat every student as an individual and supplement their learning needs as the occasion requires.
- We provide access to and encourage you to use a range of supplementary services including an online student room, including online library; student bookshop, newsletters, social media etc.
- We provide a "student manual", that is a quick solution to most problems that might occur
Recognition
- ACS has a highly respected international profile: by employers and academics alike. People are more aware of us than many other distance education schools –just do a search for “horticulture distance education courses” and see what comes up on the internet; or search for ACS Distance education on Facebook or Linked in, and see how many connections we have compared to other colleges.
- Recognised by International Accreditation and Recognition Council
- ACS has been educating people around the world since 1979
- Over 100,000 have now studied ACS courses, across more than 150 countries
- Formal affiliations with colleges in five countries
- A faculty of over 40 internationally renowned academics –books written by our staff used by universities and colleges around the world.
Extra Books or Reference Materials
- The course provides you with everything that you need to complete it successfully.
- Assignments may ask you to look for extra information (eg. by contacting nurseries, visiting gardens or searching the internet), but our school's resources and tutors are always available as a back up. If you hit a "roadblock", we can quickly send you additional information or provide expert advice over the phone or email; to keep you moving in your studies.
- Some students choose to buy additional references, to take their learning beyond what is essential for the course. If a student wants to buy books, we operate an online bookshop offering ebooks written by staff at the school. Student discounts are available if you are studying with us. The range of e books available is being expanded rapidly, with at least one new ebook being written and published by our staff every month. See www.acsebook.com
