i planted mine in 5.5 ph heavy clay with no amendments and they grew 8-10ft with just some mulch to keep the weeds out. they are on a slight slope. i only fertilized last year out of 5 years with composted chic. manure.
3 Likes
Mulch is key. 2" of woodchip mulch is 1st on my list
2 Likes
Hazelnut trees do not seem to mind much about drainage. I planted in a low area, with the planting raised to a mound about 2"-3" above ground. No mulching either. They are very hardy.
3 Likes
So my clay is alkaline, pH ~7.5-8. I have added compost too dressing and wood chip and leaf mulch. Expecting better results to come but may need to acidify
1 Like
Iāve considered single stem due to being able to cage against voles. Glad to hear itās commonly done. I have two 3 yr Trazels, that are slowly growing and look easier to keep single. My 3 yr Precocious is strongly multi stem and Iāve left it that way so far, hoping the voles will leave at least a few. From Oikos. Also have a 2 yr HazelBurt (Fedco). Iād planned to get more from Oikos but looks like I waited too long. Itās a trial for sure as we have a lot of native hazels and do indeed have blight, which they manage to survive though they look pretty rough on bad blight years. Just hoping my planted hazels are far enough away or have some immuity. Sue
2 Likes
Hi Sue! Youāre way up north zone:) Prune out any EFB, now is fine, and burn. you may want to order seeds from Grimo in early September from their hardiest selections also. The hardiest I have is Aldara, clonal. Its seedlings are open pollinated, so they may not be exactly z3 hardy, but with those genes, its a worthwhile addition to your good start. Then 3-4 years from now you can cull the worst, save the best for planting, eat the rest!
Jujube, A little granulated sulfur should do the trick. With the mulch over rootzone, Or broadcast over rootzone,then mulch over top. as long as the sufur is in the moist zone the bacteria can eat it and release the S acid. Use 1/4 cup at 1st. Its a lot easier to raise the ph than lower it. shoot for 6.5ph.
2 Likes
knock on wood, no blight here so far. i didnt know if my hybrids were resistant or not but so far so good. i bought and put in 2 ecos and a winkler from oikios last spring. they closed not long after that.
2 Likes
I planted one American hazel in 2021 and it had about 20 sprouts in one year. Looks like a lot of work would go into keeping it as a single trunk. My hybrids also have some sprouts but only a few. Iām going with a single trunk on the hybrids but the American can just do what it wants to. On another topic, are there any American varieties big enough to justify planting them for the nuts?
Iām good as of now with no blight observed. I have four hybrid varieties and Iām hoping if one doesnāt make it the others will.
1 Like
my 4 American hybrids have filled in to a 15ā x 6ft hedge. i prune out the weak ones and a few out of the center to let air in but i dont really think its necessary. nothing bothers them here so far. i have wild beaked hazels growing under my big trees that are bullet proof as well.
1 Like
Hi Auburn,
Nut size and quality are some of the big issues with americana and hybrids. Some of the āWisconsinā seed source I have is decent sized, presumably Badgersett and related genetics, is hybridized with euro, with the goals of a bush that is mechanically harvested by a modified blueberry shaker.
The new zone 6-7 Rutgers varieties are confectionary, smaller types of nuts very similar in size to The Beast hybrid. Unfortunately I believe Beast to be z5
2 Likes
I planted 3 each of hazelbert and beaked hazel from HFT in 2014. The beaked hazel were dead by July. In July I found a potted beaked hazel locally about 18 inches and multi-stemmed. It was dead by late August. The hazelberts have grown reasonably well, but do suffer occasionally from some winter die back. Do beaked hazelnuts need a lower PH than the hazelberts? My PH is 8.2. HFT offered to replace the beaked hazels the following spring, I declined as I thought there was no sense in putting effort into a plant that died so quickly. I donāt think I have blight in my area. Anyone else have some insight?
I like how @noogy is applying elemental sulfur. Just a note to those less experienced with fertilizers, do not apply it on top of grass or any plant with leaves near the soil surface. The sulfur will scorch them. If you apply sulfur, then aggressively till the soil it is safe to plant grass.
1 Like
Hi Chinook, Zone 4 where abouts? I belive the hazelbert hybrids are colurna(sp/ turkish. You might want a heterophylla(sp) asianxamericanaxeuro hybrid.
Push towards zone 3/4.
I would recommend Aldara, Dawn, Dermis clonal trees for starters.
i think beaked like soil 6.5 ph. probably why your having problems . they grow wild here but i much prefer the American hybrids, as theyre easy to harvest with no spines and once dried come out of the husk. beaked are alot of work for little reward. i think Americans are more adaptable to different soil as wellā¦
Iām in southern Alberta. This is a description of my variety from St Lawrence Nurseries in your country. āThe best of many crosses made by Fred Ashworth in the 1920s. All of the seedlings are of Skinner (Hazelnut) X Graham and Winkler (Filbert)ā I believe HFT initially sourced it from them. HFT are propagating them by seeding the nuts. To this point I have had zero nuts. I do have catkins and some of them do elongate in the spring, but no harvest. I hope to post some pictures this spring on this thread so those of you more knowledgeable than me can tell me what Iām looking at.
2 Likes
could be your seedlings are too closely related to pollinate each other. the pollen alleles might not match. i got lucky with the Arbor Day/ Badgersett crosses i got but i only got nuts in the 5fth year. you may need to add something different or at least graft a branch of something different to get pollination. Grimo has some interesting Asian crosses with American. i want a few myself. how old are your bushes? if you were in the states i would give you a clone off of my best bush. i plan to propagate it this summer. i wonder if nuts are legal to cross? i have some off my good bush saved in moist peat. could send you some to plant yourself but it would be 6 yrs. before you get pollen. i put in 2 ecos and a pure Winkler from oikios last spring.
Yes they are related. The seedling nuts all come from a single tree. But that tree had to be pollinated by at least 1 other tree, and my understanding is there are multiple other trees at this site. One of my 3 trees leafs out almost 2 weeks later than the other 2 trees, and they are not perfectly timed either. So my theory was I have too much diversity for pollination to occur. So I planted 2 more trees hoping that I could have better pollination timing between trees. These 2 are still too small to help out this year.
2 Likes
thatās definitely possible that more diverse pollinators may be needed as parents transmit pollen allelle dominance often
2 Likes