Divisi
How to grow Cashew
Anacardium occidentale · Anacardiaceae
Photo: Wilfredor · CC0
Cashew is a tough evergreen tree that lives and bears nuts for 20 years or more. It thrives where most crops fail — on poor, sandy, dry land — driving a deep taproot down to find its own water. Its fruit grows upside down: one kidney-shaped nut, sealed in a hard shell, hangs below a swollen, juicy cashew apple. Plant a grafted tree and it starts bearing in about 3 years; a tree grown from seed takes 5 years or more, and its nuts are a gamble. You do not pick cashew — you gather the nuts as they fall. Two dangers run through the whole crop: the flowers are fragile, and powdery mildew and the mosquito bug can wipe them out in the dry-season flowering weeks; and the shell holds a caustic (burning) oil (CNSL) that harms skin, so the nuts are handled and shelled with care.
Wibowo Djatmiko (Wie146) · CC BY-SA 3.0 
Strobilomyces · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Days to maturity
- 60–90 days
- Row spacing
- 800 cm
- Plant spacing in the row
- 800 cm
These are general figures for the crop, compiled from published agronomic references including FAO and CABI. The right choice for your field depends on your soil, rainfall and the yield you are aiming for.
Will cashew actually do well on your land? Check your field against every crop in the catalogue — free, no signup. Run the free crop check →
Other names for Cashew
cashew · cashew nut · cashew apple · anacardier · noix de cajou · pomme cajou · cajueiro · caju · mkorosho · korosho
Working in buckets, bags or paces? The farming glossary turns the measures growers actually use into kilograms and hectares — what a 20 litre bucket of each crop really weighs, and how to size a field by walking it — alongside the Shona, Swahili, Ndebele and Yoruba words used in the field. Open the glossary →
Growing cashew, stage by stage
Your cashew orchard, year by year: raise a grafted young tree through its first risky dry seasons, shape it into a strong, open tree, then — every dry season it flowers — guard the flowers from powdery mildew and the mosquito bug so the nuts set, and gather, dry and store the fallen nuts before they spoil.
- Pick the spot and plant your young trees
- Keep the young tree alive
- Grow the frame and shape the tree
- Flowering — protect the flowers to get nuts
- Nuts fill and the apple swells
- Collect the fallen nuts
- Dry and store the nuts
18 step-by-step tasks in the app
Every task for cashew — what to do, when to do it and why it matters — with the amounts worked out for your own field, reminders as each one falls due, and warnings before extreme weather.
Pests and diseases that attack cashew
1 more threat tracked in the app
Divisi tells you which of these is a risk on your cashew right now, when to walk the field looking for it, and what to do the moment you find it.
Frequently asked questions
How long does cashew take to grow?
Cashew takes about 60–90 days from sowing to maturity, though the exact length varies with variety, temperature and how the season runs.
What spacing should I use for cashew?
Space cashew rows about 800 cm apart, with roughly 800 cm between plants within the row.
What pests and diseases attack cashew?
The ones covered in this guide are Capsids (mirid bugs), Cashew stem and root borer, False codling moth. Each has its own page explaining how to identify, scout for and control it.
Grow cashew with a plan, not a guess
Divisi turns this guide into a dated plan for your own field — what to do each week, reminders as tasks fall due, and warnings before extreme weather. Free for farmers, works offline.
Or check your field first