Learn how cashews grow and where they come from: the tree, the apple and the nut itself. Growing an exotic tree at home. Watch the video.
Homeland of the nut
Cashew nut came to us from South America, its homeland is sultry Brazil, which gave us amazing football, colorful carnivals and delicious gourmet cashew nut. Due to the content of a huge amount of nutrients, many scientists call it the product of the future. Later, the tropical fruit was cultivated in India, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and other hot countries. Also known as akazhu or western anacardium.
Cashew tree
The cashew tree is very beautiful, with a lush crown, the branches bend close to the ground, grows rather quickly and reaches a height of 10–30 m. It is also beautiful during the flowering period, which occurs in the spring or first summer months. Yellow-pink five-petal flowers are collected in delicate inflorescences that adorn the tree.
Apple cashew
Three months after flowering, the fruits ripen - red, pink, yellow apples - so they would be called by a person who does not know that they are cashew fruits. This fruit has a sweet and sour taste and has a lot of useful substances. It can be eaten both fresh and used for making syrups, preserves, compote. Due to its very poor storage, these fruits are not delivered to our homeland in Russia and Ukraine, you can try them only abroad.
Cashew
So we have come close to the most important thing - where are apples, if we are talking about cashew nuts? Yes, despite the fact that on the top of this very apple is the nut itself in a hard shell. Perhaps this is the only nut in the world that prefers to ripen outside the fruit, not inside. Without the help of a specialist, it is dangerous to extract cashew nuts from the shell, since there is cardol between it and the shell of the nut - a toxic and dangerous poisonous substance that causes serious skin burns. People who peel nuts from this substance must work with gloves using special equipment for cracking the shell.
Growing cashews at home
The passion for experimentation is in the blood of amateur gardeners. And the desire to grow an exotic fruit at home was naturally very tempting. Indeed, in the open field in our climate, this fruit will not survive, at a temperature of about zero degrees, the plant dies.
Cashews are usually propagated by seeds. Before planting in the ground, they must be germinated. To do this, cashew seeds must be soaked in water and left for two days, but the water must be changed twice a day. You must be careful, because you are not dealing with peeled nuts, but with the very poisonous fruits of cashews. Cardol from nuts seeps into the water and if you spill it inadvertently on your hands, you can get burned, which entails serious consequences.
Prepare seed pots in advance. They can be 1-2 liters in volume. The soil mixture should have a light consistency, in which moisture will not linger. One nut is planted in each pot. After 2-3 weeks, the first shoots will appear.
Young plant pots should be placed in areas where there is a lot of sun. Some stay of seedlings in the shade is allowed, but for a short time. It is imperative to monitor the humidity of the air. After all, the countries where cashews live have a hot and humid climate. The most approximate conditions you need to create a tree in your home. Frequent spraying is shown, and the trays containing the pots should be filled with pebbles and kept at a constant water level.
As a top dressing for the cashew tree, you can use common universal fertilizers used for indoor plants. The tropical plant grows very quickly, right after the formation of the next leaf, side shoots are chaotically shot out. Therefore, in order to give a tree a certain size and a beautiful crown, it is imperative to carry out regular pruning. Especially in the first years after planting, when the trunk and main branches are formed.
An exotic guest from South America is unpretentious and easy to care for. And two years after planting, you will enjoy contemplating on the branches thin-skinned juicy orange-yellow and red fruits with cashew nuts clinging to the very top of the apple.
The health benefits of cashews
What will now be said about the benefits of cashews is a tiny fraction of all the properties that have a positive effect on health. You need to read about this separately in our article: "The benefits of cashews." Nevertheless - in a nutshell.
100 g of cashew apples contain more than 500% of the minimum daily value of vitamin C required for a person. This is a storehouse of trace elements that have a healing effect on the body.
Cashew nut is rich in zinc, potassium, phosphorus, iron, contains a large amount of proteins and carbohydrates, vitamins A, B1, B2 and many others.
Not so long ago, Canadian scientists made a revolutionary discovery - it turns out that drugs created on the basis of cashew seed extract will help cure such a serious disease as diabetes. And not only to cure. It has been proven that eating cashew nuts protects against the development of disease, prevents it.
