CASHEWNUT

Botanical Name- Anacardium occidentale

Family- Anacardiaceae
Origin- Brazil
Chromosome No.- 2n= 42
Soil:
• It grows up well in all soils.
• Soil should be well drained and fertile.
• Red sandy loam soil is best suited.
• Water stagnation and flooding are not suitable.
• Soils with pH more than 8.0 are not suitable.
Climate:
• Cashew is a tropical plant and can thrive even at high
temperatures.
• Young plants are sensitive to frost.
• Optimum temperature is 20 to 30℃.
• Temperature above 36 ℃ between the flowering and fruiting
period could adversely affect the fruit setting and retention.
• Excessive rainfall and high humidity at flowering may result in
flower/fruit drop.
Varieties:
• Maharashtra : Vengurla-1,Vengurla-2,Vengurla-
3,Vengurla-4,Vengurla-5,Vengurla-6,Vengurla-7
• Karnataka Varieties : Chintamani-1,NRCC-
1,NRCC-2,Ullal-1,Ullal-2,Ullal-3,Ullal-4,UN-50
• Goa : Goa-1
• Orissa : Bhubaneswar-1
• West Bengal : Jhargram-1
Propagation:
Mainly propagated by soft wood grafting, air layering and
epicotyl grafting.
Requirement of plants:
About 200 plants/ha can be planted.
Preparation of field:
Pits of 45 cm x 45 cm x 45 cm size are dug and filled up
with a mixture of soil + 10 kg FYM + one kg neem cake.
Spacing:
A spacing of 7 m either way is adopted
High Density Planting:
Spacing of 5 x 4 m accommodating 500 plants per hectare
Manures and fertilizer:
Fertilizer application may be done during November - December in
the East Coast areas. Wherever possible the fertilizer can be applied
in 2 equal split doses during June-July and October-November
periods under east coast area, a fertilizer schedule of 1000:125:250
g NPK/tree is recommended tree.

Manures I year old II year old III year old I V year old V year old
and onwards
fertilizers
FYM or 10 20 20 30 50
compost (kg)
N(g) 70 140 210 280 500
P(g) 40 80 120 160 200
K(g) 60 120 180 240 300
Intercropping:
Plough the interspaces after the receipt of rain and
raise either groundnut or pulses or minor millets till the trees
reach bearing age.
Irrigation:
Normally grown as a rainfed crop. Irrigation once in
a week from flowering to fruit maturity stage is good to
increase the yield.
Training and pruning:
Develop the trunk to a height of 1 m by removing
low lying branches. The dried twigs and branches should be
removed every year.
Rejuvenation of old cashew orchard by top working:

• Old and senile cashew orchards with poor yielder are

cut down leaving a stump of 1 – 3 m height from the
ground level. The emerging new sprouts are used as
rootstock for epicotyl grafting. Suitable scions are
collected and grafted on to the new sprouts.
Pest:
1. Stem borer:
Symptoms of damage
• Stem borer infection could be easily identified by the presence
of small bore holes at the collar region.
• Extrusion of frass (like coarse dust powder) through the holes
at the collar region.
• Oozing of gum at the base of cashew tree trunk.
• As a result of damage the leaves turn yellow and are shed and
finally leads to the death of the tree.
Control measures:
• Collection and destruction of affected shoots.
• Remove grubs from early stage infested trees and
drench the damage portion with Chlorpyriphos 0.2%
@ 10 ml/lit or Neem Oil 5%.
• Swabbing the bark of exposed roots and shoots with
Carbaryl 50 WP 2 g/lit. Twice a year before the onset
of South West Monsoon.
2. Tea mosquito bug:
Symptoms of damage
• Both nymphs and adults of this bug suck sap from the tender
flushes, young shoots, inflorescence, panicles, growing young
nuts and apples.
• Occurrence of dark brown patches on green tender stem of
young shoots and inflorescence.
• Feeding on tender leaves causes crinkling and curling. Affected
shoots show long black lesions.
• The immature nuts infested by this pest develop eruptive spots
and finally shrivel and fall off.
• Heavily infested trees show scorched appearance, leading to the
death of shoots and growing tips.
• Each nymph/adult during its life time damages at least three
tender shoots/panicles.
Control measures:
1. Spray schedule involving three rounds of spray viz., first
spraying with Profenophos (0.05%) at flushing stage,
second spraying with Chlorpyriphos (0.05%) at
flowering and third spraying with Carbaryl (0.1%) at
fruit set stage is most effective.
2. Remove the volunteer (self-sown) neem plants in and
around cashew plantations.
3. Proper monitoring of the pest situation is very important.
3. Leaf minor:
Symptoms of damage:
• The larvae after hatching from the eggs, start mining the
epidermal layer on the upper surface of the tender leaves.
• As a result of feeding, the affected areas forms patches of
greyish white in color.
• As the infested leaves mature the damage is manifested as big
holes.
Control measures:
1. Collect and destroy the damaged plant parts.
2. Spray NSKE 5% two rounds, first at new flush formation,
second at flower formation.
Diseases:
1. Die – back or Pink disease:
Symptoms:
• Whitish or pinkish growth of the fungus can be seen on the
affected branches.
• The fungus penetrates into the deeper tissues and causes the
death of the shoots from the tip downwards and hence the name
dieback.
• In advanced stages, the bark splits and peels off. Some times
only one branch is affected, but often many branches turn
yellow.
Management:
• Prune the affected branches well below the site
of infection and destroy them.
• Protect the cut surfaces by applying Bordeaux
paste.
• If disease is severe, it is advisable to spray
Bordeaux mixture (1 %).
• Spraying is to be done twice, once in May-June
and the second during October.
• Collect all dried up and affected branches to
reduce the source of inoculum.
2. Anthracnose:
Symptoms:
• The fungus infests the tender leaves, twigs and forms reddish
brown, water-soaked lesions on the affected region. exudation
of lesion can be seen.
• The lesions enlarge and kill the shoots. The tender leaves are
crinkled and fruits shriveled.
• The infected inflorescences turn black. Repeated Infection of
the terminal shoots leads to the death of the tree in course of
time.
Management :
• Destroy all affected branches.
• Spray the plants with 0.5% Bordeaux mixture or Mancozeb
0.25%.
 Harvesting & Yield
Harvest
• The plant starts yielding 3rd year onwards. The peak picking
months are March to May. Good nuts are grey green, smooth
and well filled. After picking, the nuts are separated from the
apple and dried in the sun for two to three days to bring down
the moisture content to 10 to 12 %. Properly dried nuts are
packed in polythene bags.
Yield
• About 5 - 10 kg/tree/year can be obtained.