Stark doesn’t have varieties that will work in your climate. Your best options are Adams #5, Amling, Avalon, Hark, Kanza, Lakota, and Oswego. I don’t know enough yet about Bill Reid’s new releases to say if they could work. IMO, you could get seed nuts and start them for rootstocks, I could send you a few seedlings for rootstocks, purchase grafted trees from basspecantrees.com, or get some trees from Barkslip.
my hybrid hazels took 4 years for nuts from seedlings and are so easy to crack and eat. should give them a try. nothing bothers them here. would have to protect them from deer though.
Ditto around me, except for the ones they smuggle into my attic to bowl with while I’m trying to sleep.
I use a paint paddle after the boot method, no bricks and strain through another five gallon that I’ve turned into a strainer. They end up nice and clean without a pressure washer with one water change. I think the secret is to not try to do too many at once. You can reuse the second run of water pretty easily for the first run of the next batch. If you don’t wait for the hulls to be mush, they come off fairly clean already.
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@Fusion_power … i researched pecans a couple years ago… and spoke to David ? at rock bridge trees. He recommended amaling/kanza for my less than ideal location. He seemed to know what he was talking about.
I may do that yet… got to clear some land for our new home … when ever we get around to that. Will consider pecans again once i see what the space looks like.
@steveb4 … our locations are so different… but 4 years on hazelnuts sounds ok to me. I will have to look for varieties known to do well in the south east.
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The closest I’ve ever come to failing in a planting of any significance came in trying to garden in south central Florida. I am sure I could grow a nut tree about anyplace in Tennessee except swamp on far west or high elevation on far east end. But not everywhere might be economically feasable.
Large raised beds/several loads of topsoil and I can plant all months out of the year.
Planted tulips in January successfully in KY …a thousand of them…when the ground was frozen by covering them in six inches of topsoil that came from a seller of topsoil.
And I’ve dug trees in August …two inch caliper…and planted them and all of them lived with help of daily watering for awhile.
Fairly sure I could grow a pecan tree if I set my mind to it.
I have 4 mature hickory trees out in the field in the area we plan to build our new house.
3 of them are at the top of my only north slope area… and the 4th one is not far from those first 3… but it is more in the center of the field.
These are pigs and reds. They fruit but the nuts are less than desirable (for humans)… squirrels love them. They do not crack well… can only get small pieces of nuts out.
I am going to take those 4 trees out… they will make great firewood. I can then use that north slope area for apples, plums… things I want to bloom a bit later in the spring.
I am going to have to clear some more trees and widen the field some where we plan to build.
I will keep pecans in mind… if i did plant a couple in my less than ideal location soil wise… but i added loads of top soil, compost and rotting hay bales in their root zones… perhaps that would do it.
Our local farmers coop has mushroom compost right now… that they will deliver by the truckload. I have been thinking about getting a load or two of that.
They got it from a grower in west TN who told them it was made from mostly horse manure and wheat straw. It has been used to grow mushrooms one season…
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i would think euro. hybrids would be more heat tolerant but American hazels are hardy to z7 and also grow well in partial shade as they are a understory bush. i can send you some nuts from my 2 biggest, best producing bushes to plant out this fall. most should come up next spring . put some chic wire over them so the squirrels/ mice dont dig them up. let me know.
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The Monterey mushroom company has compost…I think they’re closer to Knoxville.
But, yeah, you can grow lots of things in
raised beds. (And a dump truck load of dirt is in fact a raised bed…even if it has no sides to the bed.)
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