First Catkins on Hazelnut

I wasn’t sure when the catkins show up and this might not be representative of the time either. This section is on a Yamhill grafted onto York this year. Hoping for many more to pop out soon. Last year I had blooms but no pollen.

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Seems early to me but I guess this is when catkins appear in my location. This is a picture of Theta and I also saw some starting on York.

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I just put 4 trees in so it’s going to be a bit before I see catkins! York and Theta are 2 of them too. I may lose one or two as they are at my cottage and conditions there are always rough. Very few plants actually grow well there.

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Hope they grow well for you. Other than watering during dry spells the first year I haven’t had to give them much attention.

This what I’m looking for. It’s on property owned by my daughter. I can only visit it once every couple of weeks.

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I think mine are five years old and they have gotten almost no attention at all from me. The only issue I had was some caterpillar was eating many leaves, as in most of them. Eventually enough wasps found that food source and the damage is minor now. I have had a few nuts but so far the squirrels beat me to ‘em.

The bushes get a lot taller than I had thought, mine are pushing 20’ at this point.

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My hazels are starting the third year and the tallest is already about 8’ and would have been taller If I had not removed the tips during the winter. I planted these in an area that I wanted a higher screen so the height works well for what I want.

Any photos? I would like to see what bigger plants look like. All I have are whips.

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I will post a few pictures later. Scott’s are probably much bigger than the ones I have.

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Bill,
I don’t know one nut from another but your post peaks my interest.

I found this article about hybrid hazel nut that is easy to grow and can grow in a bush form. That really interests me.

Are your hazel nuts all hybrids?

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The hazels I have are all from the blight resistant breeding program and they are listed as carrying the resistance gene for blight. Breeding in the native resistance gene should over a period of time increase commercial production in my opinion. I had plenty of blooms the second year and I’m pretty sure they would have had a decent crop with an adequate pollen supply.

@Drew51. @mamuang Theta at 8’. The highest parts are grafted Jefferson


Jefferson at 7’.

York at 6’

2018 Jefferson layered

Everyone say cheese for the group photo

Yamhill is grafted onto Theta and York

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You keep them in a bush form ,right? Look bushy to me.

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Cool, thanks. Yes, I want them bushy, they will be a hedge. Seems like it will be easy to do.
I have seen tree form and they are fantastic looking, very wide trees! Although I need a hedge!

I have catkins on Yamhill now also. Had a fair bit of success grafting the scions that you sent me this spring Bill. Here are a few of them:

Theta on Yamhill

York on Yamhill

Epsilon and Theta on Jefferson

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The grafts look great. Both of us should get excellent cross pollination going forward. I’m still thinking that Jefferson will make up most of my group but that could change once I can sample each of them.

Listed in the pdf is an excellent display of pollen exchange and nut size of some of the hazels.

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I have my hazels as a bush (multi-trunk) but it might have been smarter to establish a trunk so a metal squirrel deterrent could be used.

Thanks. Forgot about our common nemesis. They eat oak nuts. I am sure hazel nuts would be their gourmet food.

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Here I see squirrels eat them in August before they even are ready. They’ll be in tree stripping it bare, which is why I didn’t even bother with them.

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