Catkins! I have four hazels planted and hadn’t really paid much attention to them, not expecting “fruiting” for some years yet. So I was rather surprised this winter to notice a dozen or more catkins on my spring 2018 planted Precocious (Oikos). Healthy, growing well, I decided to let it be multi-stem, its natural habit and hope for the best vole-wise as it’s too large now to cage. Snow is down enough to see (we’ve had some melt days) and all is well.
Since we’ve had some nice melt then freezing weather for that great “walk anywhere” (without snowshoes) time I’ve been wandering the orchard and to my surprise noticed that my small spring 2019 HazelBurt (Fedco) had a few catkins. Less than two feet tall, it’s doing great.
Two Trazels (Oikos) fall 2018 were slower to get going but doing fine now but no catkins yet.
But now I’m get that little surge of “hey, maybe someday - nuts!”, instead of just “nice bush”. You all (and a few catkins) give me hope. Happy Spring, Sue
I am not sure whether to put this one in the Hazelnut thread or the mid-atlantic thread. In any case I thought I would post some links some links from the Rutgers breeding program.
congrats on the catkins Sue! i don’t want to take away your moment but mine produced catkins for a few years before i got nuts. i think they have to be a certain age before they produce pollen. mine are from arbor day and finally produced nuts in 4th year. i too have Precocious and Winkler i planted last year. hoping to put in a few Asian line nuts from grimo next spring.
Recently I was looking to get a few more hazelnut plants and I came across this source for small quantities of seedlings from the Upper Midwest Hazelnut Development Initiative, sold by Hauser Superior View Farm, Bayfield WI. Hazelnuts – Hauser's Superior View Farm
“These open-pollinated seedlings from the Upper Midwest Hazelnut Development Initiative (UMHDI) breeding program are from seed collected from the best plants in the UMHDI’s breeding plots. Because every plant comes from and individual seed, each plant will be slightly different. Recommended for hobby growers or as a border and pollinizer rows in commercial plantings.
Zones 3-5. Orders will only be accepted from the following states: Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Iowa, and Illinois. ORDERS DUE MAY 15, PLANTS READY IN EARLY SEPTEMBER.” (they also have for wholesale, too)
I realize this will have limited interest but thought I’d pass it on. Being right next door (roughly speaking) and Upper Midwest hardy oriented, I was very happy to order a few bushes. Sue
NOTE – I forgot to add that there are other sources they list. Here is a link to that page of the UMHDI:
I have a property in a zone 6a-5b area in the intermountain region (west of the Rockies, east of the Cascades) and wanted to purchase the hazel cultivars Slate, Gene, and Alex, which according to this study performed better than other varieties in a zone 6 setting. Unfortunately, Grimo’s website says, “Sorry, no hazelnut trees can be shipped to the United States western states.”
Does anyone know another source for these hazels? Alternatively, can someone suggest similar or better varieties?
i believe the western nurseries carry cultivars for your area although ive never heard of the cultivars you listed. one green world and burnt ridge nursery come to mind. id go with what they most recommend.
The nurseries in the Pacific Northwest mostly sell OSU introductions. From what I understand, OSU hazels are best suited to the warmer and wetter conditions west of the Cascades and the eastern states. The intermountain region is cold and relatively dry, and I don’t think any of the OSU hazels are reliably bud hardy in a zone 6a-5b area. (Per the study I linked above, Gamma, Jefferson, and Yamhill would be the best of them, and they only produce half of what Gene, Alex, and Slate produce in identical conditions.)
With blight immune selection ‘Someset’, maybe Foggy Bottom can sell to you and send it. Z’s Nutty ridge has Grand Traverse and others too. Gene and Slate are from NY, Cornell I believe…
That’s correct, anything coming from OSU are immune to only 1 EFB isolate. East of the rockies, there is greater diversity of EFB, which the OSU varieties weren’t bred to resist. Their patent write ups clearly states that.
Bill, I really hope it works out for you with the OSU group. Sometimes one may be in an area without much native contagion, and those might last longer. I also have some OSU Wepster and Dorris. I got some cheap and was told the above, and haven’t seen any native americana and I’m close to Lake Mi., affording me more of a spore buffer. I’m also surrounded by clay/ loam and americana prefers sandier sites. I spoke with Tom Molnar of Rutgers and he suggested to keep a close eye on them, surround them with immunity and prune out any blight that shows during dormancy. He thought I could get 10-20 years, maybe…
Tree hazels hybrids may, in the long run, out produce filberts. Their main drawback is requiring more than 10 years to start producing. Tree hazels have hardiness, blight resistance and the ability to pack a tasty nut full of kernel in a short season. Deep root systems make tree hazels better equipped for summer water stress.
Can anyone with experience growing tree hazels corroborate these statements? And any suggestions for the hardiest and most productive and precocious cultivar?
I believe these were made into Turkish colurna x americana crosses, like Faroka, Grand Traverse. The Turkish hazels don’t release from husks and need to be collected by hand/ machine husked. In Turkey hand labor is readily available.
KSU has a planting of OSU hazelnuts and has never seen success with them. They grow into huge healthy bushes with zero or very low yields of nuts. Nuts are often blanks. They think it is the heat of KY summer’s that destroy the ovaries of the nuts. I can imagine Alabama it would be even worse.
I gave up on them after years of trying in KY. I am now trialing some superior seedlings from Z Nutty Ridge in NY and they are off to a good start after 1-2 years in ground. Fruiting we will see. One flowered this year and I hand pollinated it.
Native American hazelnuts do fine here, but the nuts are quite small.
I checked out ‘Grand Traverse’, ‘The Beast’, ‘Nitka’, ‘Cortland’, and ‘Geneva’ at Z’s Nutty Ridge. All sound promising. Unfortunately, Z’s says, “We cannot ship the Westcoast or Canada.”
