Chestnut silviculture in Mediterranean Countries: problems and prospects

Sweet chestnut was widely spread across all the circummediterranean by man because of his flexibility in different uses. Even if chesnut silviculture is rather simple, deseases and ring shake reduce the possibility of utilization of his wood. So it is necessary to locate the stands for high quality wood production in very good sites with good forest praticability and leave the marginal sites to the free evolution for other species. In order to minimize the ring shake defect it is necessary to maintain constant and maximun the radial growth with the necessary thinnings.