Cashew, Cajú

I've a number of cashew trees growing, lots of seedlings as well as they can be a bit invasive. There's a variety with a red cashew apple...Read More (peduncle) and another with a yellow cashew apple. They're growing next to my swamp which is non-perennial. They fruit well but the flying foxes clean most of them out as they're one of the earlier fruits of the season while there's not much else around.

During the wet season the watertable is about 20 - 30 cms below ground level where the main trees are. A lot of seedlings have grown in the swamp and spend a few months standing in water. The two tallest of these in the water are about 3 - 4 metres high. Like a lot of tropicals, they seem to be able to withstand long periods of inundation.

One tree I've pruned heavily so it can take a bird net. This gives me a better chance of getting some cashew apples before the flying foxes take the lot. The nuts are too much trouble to process. Sometimes when I do it's in a fire to burn the corrosive fluid out. It burns with a blue flame. When the flame turns yellow it means the shell of the nut is burning so it needs to come out.

This plant will grow in Hawaii, but I have not seen too many of them around. It was a prolific growing tree in Cuba, where I was born an...Read Mored grew up. I never saw it get to the size mentioned by another poster, though. Mostly, small trees.

We kids would also roast the nuts to get rid of the outer layers, but always remembered to stand away from the smoke, since even the smoke can make you break out if you are suceptible to the poison.

My mom (who is originally from Atlanta) would use the fruit in recipes same as she would have used persimmons. The fruit on it's own is very puckerish - same as a persimmon that is not quite ripe.

The picture I submitted is of my next door neighbor's tree. She has had it for about 7-8 years. It was planted in a bad spot so she has...Read More had to trim and shape the tree repeatedly. The tree responded positively and adapts. Fragrant small flowers who's scent travels to where I can smell it in my back yard, about 60' away. She roasts the nuts and makes pudding out of the fruit. The fruit which gets to be about the size of a large lemon, can be seen just beginning to grow in the inset photo, attached to the top of the cashew nut.

Here in Naples, I've never seen Cashew much larger than a small tree or large shrub. Perhaps the ultimate size is somewhat limited by th...Read Moree climate and soil conditions here. However, these are quite ornamental trees, and the flowers are extremely fragrant, spicy even. I've got one myself, which has proven to be much hardier than I expected. They begin to produce fruit early, and are of much interest in any subtropical garden- so long as there aren't any freezes in your future.