Lesson 9 PBL

• In this lesson, instead of reading course notes you will complete a Problem Based Learning project based on what you have learnt throughout the course and through independent research. At the end of this lesson your report will be submitted instead of an assignment

Lesson Structure:   Nut Production BHT219

There are 9 lessons:

1  Introduction

• What is a Nut
• Identifying Plants Accurately
• Classification of Nuts into their Plant Families
• Juglanaceae,
• Coylaceae,
• Fagaceae,
• Burseraceae,
• Lecthidaceae
• Sterculiaceae
• Rosaceae
• Pinaceae
• Anacardiaceae, etc
• Review of Botany of Nuts: flowers and fruit development
• Resources

2  The Most Commonly Grown Varieties

• Overview of Nut Culture
• Comparing most common nuts
• Terminology
• Almond
• American Hazlenut
• Cashew Peanut
• Walnut
• Macadamia

3  Culture of Nuts

• Site Selection and Management
• Soils
• Soil Testing
• Water Management
• Nutrition and Feeding
• Plant Health: pest and disease, protection from wind, salt, air, etc
• Common problems with different types of nuts
• Planting
• Terminology
• Weed Management
• Pruning

4  Less Common Nuts

• Pecan
• Pistacio
• Pine Nuts
• Auraucaria
• Chestnut
• Filbert
• Brazil Nut
• Beech
• Oak
• Sunflower
• Pili Nut
• Cola Nut
• Cocao
• Hausa Groundnut
• Acacia, and more

5  Propagation

• Seed Propagation of Nuts
• Cuttings
• Layering
• Grafting
• Propagating Corylus
• Propagating Pinus
• Propagating aids and structures

6  Harvest and Post-harvest of Nuts.

• Harvesting
• Cleaning, Cracking and Shelling
• Drying and Storage
• Handling Almonds
• Cashews
• Chestnuts
• Pine nuts
• Walnuts
• Hazlenuts
• Pistacios

7  Marketing Nuts

• Overview
• Where to sell nuts
• Marketing Processes
• Market Research
• Uses of Nuts: Food and other uses

8  Workplace Health, Safety and Risk Management

• Duty of Care
• Risk Assessment in a Horticultural Enterprise
• Financial Risks
• Keeping the Workplace Safe
• Protective Clothing
• Equipment Safety (Tools and Machinery)
• Safety with Manual Handling and lifting

9  Special Assignment

• PBL Project Develop a plan for growing selected varieties of nuts in a specific location

Learning Goals:Nut Production BHT219

• Identify different nut crop varieties
• Compare the culture of different commonly grown varieties of nuts
• Determine the cultivation practices appropriate to a range of different nut crops
• Describe the culture of different less commonly grown varieties of nuts
• Determine how to propagate a range of different nut plants
• Determine appropriate techniques for harvesting a nut crop and specify an appropriate post-harvest treatment for a nut crop
• Develop marketing strategies for nuts
• Identify risk issues specific to the nut production industry

Practicals:

• Distinguish between common and scientific perceptions of the term nut.
• Compare the botanical characteristics of the fruits from five different nut genera.
• Describe the botanical classification of twenty different species of nut plants, including where appropriate, botanical interrelationships.
• Prepare a plant collection of twenty-five different nut varieties, including the following details on each plant:
  • Plant names (Common and scientific)
  • A photo, illustration or pressed specimen
  • Cultural details
  • Harvest & Post-harvest
  • Uses (eg. valuable products).
• Develop a resource file of forty items of information relevant to the nut growing industry, including:
  • Suppliers of nut plants
  • Trade or grower associations
  • Publications
• Perform simple tests on three different soils to determine:
  • Soil type
  • pH
  • Drainage
  • Water holding capacity
• Evaluate three different soils tested in 2.1 to determine nut varieties suitable for growing in each.
• Explain soil management requirements for at least ten different nut varieties, including:
  • Nutrition
  • Soil structure
  • Physical attributes
  • Explain the control of twenty different pests and diseases on ten different nut varieties.
• Develop guidelines for the culture of a specified variety of nut, in the learner’s locality, including:
  • Watering
  • Weed control
  • Soil management
  • Fertilising
  • Pest control
  • Disease control
  • Prepare a twelve month plan for cultural practices on a specified nut plantation.
• Explain different methods of propagating five different nut species, including:
  • Seed
  • Grafting
  • Layering
  • Cuttings
• Determine propagation methods for fifteen different nut species, including where applicable, rootstock variety names.
• Demonstrate how to prepare cuttings for two different nut species.
• Demonstrate three different types of grafts, suitable for propagating nut varieties.
• Determine seed germination procedures for ten different nut genera.
• Prepare a production schedule, for nursery production of a specified type of nut.
  • Propagate two different nut plant varieties.
  • Explain the operation of a mechanical harvester which can be used for nuts.
  • Determine when to harvest four different specified nut species.
  • Compare the efficiency of four different techniques for harvesting nuts.
  • Describe two different storage techniques for a specified nut variety.
  • Determine the optimum environmental conditions for the storage of three different nut species.
  • Evaluate three different samples of nuts, which have been stored using three different techniques.
  • Determine the commercial processing techniques used for five specified nut species.
  • Explain post-harvest handling of a specified nut species, by a commercial plantation in a specified locality.
  • Determine different ways in which nuts can be consumed.
• Compare different ways nuts are packaged for retailing, with reference to different factors including:
  • Physiological impact on the nut
  • Cost of packaging
  • Presentation
  • Explain the marketing of two different specified nut products, in your locality.
  • Develop a marketing plan for one specified type of nut.

Your learning experience with ADL will not only depend on the quality of the course, but also the quality of the person teaching it. This course is taught by Susan Stephenson and Andy Patterson . Your course fee includes unlimited tutorial support throughout from one of these excellent teachers. Here are their credentials:

Susan Stephenson
BSc in Applied Plant Biology (Botany) Univ. London 1983.
City and guilds: Garden Centre Management, Management and Interior Decor (1984)
Management qualifications in training with retail store. Diploma in Hort level 2 (RHS General) Distinction. 

Susan Stephenson is a passionate and experienced horticulturist and garden designer. She has authored three books, lectures at 2 Further and Higher Education Colleges, teaching people of all ages and backgrounds about the wonders of plants and garden design, and tutors many students by correspondence from all over the world.

Susan studied botany at Royal Holloway College (Univ of London) and worked in the trading industry before returning to her first love plants and garden design. She is therefore, well placed to combine business knowledge with horticulture and design skills. Her experience is wide and varied and she has designed gardens for families and individuals. Susan is a mentor for garden designers who are just starting out, offering her support and advice and she also writes, delivers and assesses courses for colleges, introducing and encouraging people into horticulture and garden design.

Susan is a Professional Associate and exam moderator and holds the RHS General with Distinction. She continues to actively learn about horticulture and plants and (as her students will tell you) remains passionate and interested in design and horticulture.

She also supervised the Area Arboriculture Team and was Exhumations Officer€“ in charge of collecting discovered remains and arranging identification (if poss) and interment of same.

Andy Patterson
PGCE Biological Sciences; Doctor of Naturopathy (pending); Registered Nutritional Therapist; Permaculture Design Consultant (PDC); BSc(Hons) Ecology;

Andy has been a biology and science teacher since 2002, and a natural health therapist since 1998. His original degree was in Ecology and is well experienced in the Life Sciences generally, from biology, medicine and clinical sciences to horticulture, ecology and the environment. he divides his time between a therapy clinic; teaching, tutoring & lecturing. Andy is a passionate believer in the power of education to transform people’s lives, and gives 100% support to helping students achieve their goal.

Andy has worked as a Biology lecturer in a number of post age 16 colleges, and 11-18 year age schools across the country during a 13 year career. This has included work as an Assessor for exam boards, 1 on 1 tutoring, working with small groups and whole classes. He worked on an award winning national Nuffield- STEM initiative using innovative educational techniques to develop sustainability awareness with KS3 school children. He has also managed a large vocational science area in a busy college and developed a successful Premedical curriculum which has helped many students on to successful medical careers

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Q. Practical work – How is this done?
A. To find out more about this part of the course please visit the section on How Our Courses Work here.

The most common way to produce nut trees is through grafting a scion (the fruiting wood of a particular

species or cultivar) onto a vigorous, disease resistant rootstock. Some plants such as Corylus
(hazelnut) however do not respond well to grafting and are usually propagated by layering and also by
seed.

Planting fruit and nut trees that have been grown from seed is not a recommended or common practice
(especially on a commercial basis). Seed grown plants are not genetically identical to their parents –
therefore a plant grown from a seed might not turn out to be exactly the same as the plant from which
that seed was collected. This means that is unlikely for you to be able to raise a seedling nut tree that
is vigorous and sets fruit reliably – if at all; fruit from seedling grown trees is also usually inferior.
Fruiting can also take a lot longer on seedling grown trees – walnuts for example can take 15 years,
hickory (filberts) can take up to 20 years.

However a very important characteristic of seed reproduction is that variation occurs within a group (or
groups) of seedlings – this is important to breeders as they select new varieties from batches of
seedlings, and then conduct trials on their selections. These trials take time and are used to determine
disease resistance, vigour, fruiting capability and so on – it is several years before the selected cultivars
become available.

Seedlings have two uses:

1. To provide rootstocks onto which selected nut tree varieties are grafted or budded. Large numbers of
rootstock are obtained is by raising them from seed of known vigorous varieties or species.

2. To breed new plants – growing seedlings is the most important way of developing new varieties as
stated before this is a long and drawn out process.

Most fruit and nut trees are budded or grafted onto a vigorous rootstock. The type of rootstock chosen is
dependant on growing conditions, soil and climate.

Grafting, layering, seed growing and other propagation techniques (used for various nut species) are
discussed in this lesson.