Essential Cultural Practices for Healthy Cashew Growth

Cashew is a hardy, long-lived plantation crop, but its long-term productivity is not simply a matter of good soil and adequate rain. How well a grower manages routine cultural operations – from the first year of planting through canopy maturity – shapes the health, structure, and yield of every tree in the orchard. Practices like training, pruning, weeding, irrigation, and intercropping each play a specific role in determining whether a cashew plantation reaches its full potential or underperforms year after year.

Why cultural practices matter in cashew cultivation 🔗

Cashew trees can remain productive for 40 to 60 years, which makes early decisions especially consequential. Mistakes in tree architecture, weed management, or water use made in the first few years are difficult and costly to correct later. According to research published in the Journal of Horticultural Sciences by ICAR-Directorate of Cashew, proper canopy management through training and pruning directly influences vegetative growth, flowering, and ultimately nut yield. Beyond tree structure, every cultural operation – from how often weeds are cleared to how water is delivered – affects the productivity and longevity of the plantation.

Training and pruning: shaping the tree from year one 🔗

Training refers to guiding the physical structure of a young cashew tree during its formative years. Research from ICAR-Directorate of Cashew recommends that grafted plants be trained during the first 2-3 years to establish a well-defined plant architecture, which in turn makes subsequent intercultural operations like weeding, fertilizer application, and pest management far easier to carry out efficiently.

The practical steps during early training include removing lateral shoots from the rootstock portion periodically until the graft is well established. The grafted plant should be shaped by removing branches and water shoots from the main stem up to a height of 0.75 m to 1.0 m from the collar region during the first 3-4 years. Weak and interlocking branches should also be removed at this stage. This ensures the scion grows vigorously and the canopy develops an open, manageable structure.

Pruning in mature and older trees 🔗

Once the tree moves past its early formation stage, pruning shifts in purpose – from shaping to productivity maintenance. In older plantations, deadwood, water shoots, crisscross branches, and branches crawling on the ground accumulate over time and reduce nut yield. ICAR researchers report that removing such growth alone can increase cashew yield by 30-40 percent. Leader shoot pruning should be carried out at least once every 2-3 years alongside the removal of unproductive growth. For tall-type cashew varieties, the main trunk may be topped at 4-5 meters from the ground after the tree is 4-5 years old, which helps keep harvesting operations manageable and improves light interception across the canopy.

Weed management: protecting young trees from competition 🔗

Weeds compete directly with cashew trees for water, nutrients, and light – and this competition is most damaging during the establishment phase when root systems are still developing. Consistent weed monitoring and removal during the early years is one of the highest-return activities a grower can invest time in.

The standard practice is to maintain a weed-free circle of at least 1.5 to 2 meters in radius around each tree, particularly in the first three years. Within this zone, manual weeding, hoeing, or mulching is used to prevent weed establishment. Three to four weeding cycles per year are typically needed during this period. For persistent weeds with crawling roots that are difficult to uproot manually, post-emergent herbicides such as glyphosate at 6-7 ml per litre of water applied in June-July can be effective, though care must be taken to avoid contact with the tree’s base and roots.

Mulching as a complement to weeding 🔗

Mulching the tree basin is an effective and low-cost complement to weeding. A 10-15 cm layer of organic material – dried leaves, grass, coconut husk, or wood chips – applied around the base of each tree suppresses weed regrowth, conserves soil moisture, regulates soil temperature, and gradually improves soil organic matter as the material decomposes. The University of Florida’s IFAS extension notes that mulch should be kept 20-30 cm away from the trunk itself to prevent moisture buildup against the stem, which can encourage rot and disease. As the cashew canopy grows and closes over time, natural shading progressively reduces weed pressure in the inter-row spaces, decreasing the frequency of weeding operations needed in later years.

Irrigation: when and how much water cashew needs 🔗

Cashew has a reputation for drought tolerance, but this characteristic applies mostly to fully established trees. Young trees require consistent moisture to develop strong root systems, and even mature trees benefit from targeted irrigation during critical growth phases.

In India, cashew faces significant moisture stress between January and May – a period that coincides with flushing, flowering, and nut formation. Water stress during these stages leads to poor fruit set, premature nut drop, and reduced harvests. Protective irrigation at fortnightly intervals at approximately 200 litres per plant during summer months from January to March has been shown to improve fruit set and nut retention substantially.

Irrigation volumes by tree age 🔗

The water requirement of cashew increases with tree age and size. A general guideline for supplemental irrigation is approximately 20 litres per tree in the first year, scaling up to around 200 litres per tree per application by the fourth year, depending on soil moisture conditions and rainfall. Irrigation frequency is adjusted based on actual soil moisture – cashew does not tolerate waterlogging, and proper drainage after heavy rain is essential. Drip irrigation is an efficient method for larger plantations as it delivers water directly to the root zone, reduces runoff and weed growth, and minimises water use. Basin irrigation – where shallow earthen basins are maintained around each tree to collect and hold water – is a practical alternative for smaller orchards. Once trees are four or more years old, supplemental irrigation is only necessary during prolonged dry periods, as mature trees can largely sustain themselves on seasonal rainfall.

Intercropping: using the orchard space productively 🔗

In the early years of a cashew plantation, trees are widely spaced – typically 7.5 m × 7.5 m or 8 m × 8 m – leaving substantial inter-row space unused. Since cashew does not begin bearing economic yields until the third year at the earliest (for grafted plants), this underutilized land represents a significant opportunity for additional income through intercropping.

Research on cashew intercropping systems confirms that growing short-duration crops between young cashew rows does not negatively affect cashew growth or canopy development, provided crop selection is done carefully and intercrop cultivation does not interfere with cashew management activities.

Suitable intercrop choices 🔗

Pineapple is widely regarded as one of the most profitable intercrop options in cashew plantations during the establishment phase. Studies on cashew intercropping identify pineapple as the most profitable intercrop during early growth stages. Its low canopy means it does not shade young cashew trees, its water needs align well with cashew management schedules, and it takes 18-24 months to mature – providing a reliable income stream during the pre-bearing period.

Short-duration vegetables are another practical choice. Field trials in Maharashtra under the AICRP-Cashew programme found that vegetable intercropping with yardlong bean and cowpea gave the highest economic returns, with yardlong bean producing the best land equivalent ratio. Notably, leguminous intercrops like cowpea, yardlong bean, and groundnut offer an additional agronomic benefit – they fix atmospheric nitrogen, which enriches the soil and supports cashew tree nutrition simultaneously.

Other commonly recommended intercrops include ginger, turmeric, chilli, okra, and cucurbits. A hedge-row planting system at 10 m × 5 m spacing is particularly well-suited to intercropping as it creates wider lanes between cashew rows, accommodating crops like ginger, turmeric, amorphophallus, pineapple, and various vegetables with ease.

Managing intercrops as the canopy expands 🔗

Intercropping is primarily a practice for the first 4-5 years of a cashew plantation, before the trees’ spreading canopies begin to close and reduce light availability in the inter-row spaces. As shade increases, intercrop options narrow to shade-tolerant species, and eventually most intercropping becomes impractical. Farmers are advised against intercropping cashew with more than two crops simultaneously, as research shows that combining three or more crops at once can negatively affect cashew growth through increased competition for nutrients and light. Tall-growing crops like sorghum, pigeon-pea, and millet are generally avoided as they compete strongly with young cashew trees.

Integrating cultural practices for a productive orchard 🔗

Cultural operations in cashew are not isolated activities – they work together as an integrated system. Proper early training reduces the pruning burden in later years. Effective weed management improves the efficiency of irrigation and fertilizer application. Intercropping during the juvenile phase generates income that helps offset the cost of these cultural operations. Irrigation at the right growth stages supports flowering and nut retention. Each practice reinforces the others, and consistency in carrying out these operations is what separates high-yielding plantations from those that underperform despite good planting material and soil.

The window for early training, the timing of weeding cycles, and the choice of intercrops all need to be decided before and during the first few years of planting. Waiting until problems become visible – overgrown canopies, severe weed competition, or moisture-stressed trees – makes corrective action far more expensive and less effective than preventive management from the start.

What do you think? Given the wide variety of intercrop options available – from pineapple to legumes to spice crops – which combination do you think would be most practical and profitable for small-scale cashew farmers in your region? And considering that pruning alone can increase cashew yields by 30-40 percent, do you think this practice receives the attention it deserves in typical farm management?

References

1. https://www.redalyc.org/journal/5770/577074696002/html/
2. https://www.agrifarming.in/cashew-farming
3. https://www.agricultureinformation.com/forums/threads/cashew-nut-plantation.65113/
4. https://ask.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/HS377
5. https://en.pagacas.com/cashew-care-weeding-pruning-creating-canopy-watering-fertilizing-renovating-old-gardens-blo89
6. https://wjarr.com/sites/default/files/WJARR-2021-0268.pdf
7. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282428531_Intercropping_in_cashew_orchards
8. https://www.ijcmas.com/9-6-2020/R.%20C.%20Gajbhiye,%20et%20al.pdf
9. https://unyfa.fo-library.org/videos/cashew-nut-cultivation-complete-guide/