So this is a question about remedying a severe case of procrastination.
About 25 years ago, the father of a good friend, a ‘tinkerer’ in the garden and orchard, gave me 3 young hazelnut plants to put in the yard of my new home. He said they were “crosses” he had done himself, and that I needed at least 2 to get cross pollination to get nuts. He had several big hazelnuts growing in his yard, which I got to try, and they gave nuts about 1/2 - 3/4 the size of standard store-bought filberts. Unfortunately two of the three died in the first two years, and as I was extremely busy with work and a young family I just let the other grow. My friend’s father started with dementia a couple years after the gift to me, and I could not get more info on what he was growing.
Well, I have a huge 15 foot high, 12 foot wide bush now that gets covered with ‘catkins’, but has never produced nuts (no pollinator, I know).
The question is, should I try to graft a couple of other types to some of the branches, or plant some other types nearby? And what types do you suggest I should use? I have little experience grafting, and have never tried with hazelnuts, obviously.
A couple thoughts:
What a Hazel tree really needs to produce nuts, is flowers; that’s what can be checked next ‘Spring’…really, late Winter. The flowers are tiny (see photo) and often have only a few red hairs. Another factor in nut making is sunshine; sunny locations will increase the odds of nut production.
Being a seedling, it may have reproductive issues of its own. Barring that, Hazel trees are not easy to graft (like apples) but it’s do-able; I’ve grafted a few, with over 50% takes. I suggest finding the location on the tree where you want the scion and clipping off a branch when dormant that will make vigorous growth/water sprouts next Spring; then grafting to the new growth when it is ‘significant’…gets a bit woody and has some young leaves. Hazels are pretty tough and they do their flowering, etc. pretty early, so when it’s apple/pear grafting time the Hazel branches are probably ready, but you can try a before and after, too. My most recent graft was onto year-old wood, so that could work for you, too. I think the new-ish wood is the best bet, though. I have only used a basic whip graft…kinda modified…extra long.
I’ve heard people mention male or female Hazel trees but I’ve never seen that. They have both blooms and catkins. (OSU [Orygun] says ‘round these parts they are Hazel nuts/trees; Filbert trees/nuts are in Turkey.)
Yeah, second leaf this year, might have Bs and Cs next year, if you mean second leaf for you and maybe was already 1-2 years old when you got them. The wild seedlings I dug up in the woods, and transplanted into sunny spots, that were already 2-4 years old still took another two years to make catkins…in their case they to had make new tap-roots.
Of the two cultivars that I have (3rd leaf for me), the Tonda de Giffoni has been very vigorous and had giant catkins this year and flower buds that didn’t do anything; the Dorris (OSU) struggled the first year with some kind of blight but shook it off this year and is vigorous and healthy but w/o catkins.
I’ll look into the pollination situation this year and make sure everything has a pollen partner. I have about 1,000 different cultivars available from which to get nuts and scions, and this year I grafted Normoka (lookin’ good) and Nixon (yes, from CA…aborted just into its second phase…hhmmm). Now that I think of it, the Normoka was on the new water-sprout wood and the Nixon was on older wood. These are both giant, easy-to-shell, and tasty nuts.
Photo = random nuts from Hazel orchard; Nixon is a little up and left of center…biggun.
Sorry eboone, I took off on a tangent there without addressing your specific pollenizer situation. I suggest looking around the countryside now and finding wild hazel trees to take scions from in Dec/Jan. They are typically near waterways, big and small. I will probably be looking into the viable cultivar possibilities this year but I’m not sure how much info I’ll find on varieties other than trees from developers (like OSU).
I can see why my statement would be confusing. My tree was planted about March of 2017 and they were in about one gallon pots. They looked like they had been rooted and grew out for one season and then sold. It’s probably wishful thinking but I was hoping to see a few catkins this fall and a few flowers next spring.
I’ve been seeing so many examples here on the forum of how different various places are regarding flowering times, animals and their behaviors, etc. It’s very possible that you’ll see at least catkins and maybe flowers this next season.
I just saw today that the Dorris had an entire limb with some kinda blight and I chopped it. It had the Normoka graft on it…blighted like the rest of it. Dang…next year I’ll try again.
My first two Hazel grafts ever were from my Dorris and TdG to the wild trees near the creek. They are doing well. Next year I’ll try to graft more cultivars into the wild trees, along with the ones in the orchard area.
@eboone did you ever find a source for grafting your tree, and did it produce for you yet? I have found a wild hazelnut tree that has a small amount of nuts I am thinking about harvesting, but I don’t know when they would be “ripe” in our area.
That is one project that has been neglected, sorry to say. I have found some ‘wild’ bushes in a feed plot on a PA Game Commission state hunting lands site, but have not yet done anything with this discovery
My large tree/bush had a single ripening hazel nut on it last year which the squirrels made off with
