Hope my newly ordered filberts grow well in Alabama

Thanks for the update. If you can grow south of me that gives me confidence to try in North Alabama.

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Iā€™m essentially starting over with planting hazels at our new location. Last year I air layeded about ten Jeffersons and these were recently planted. A couple of weeks ago I started grafting in a few pollinator varieties York, Yamhill, Theta, and a wild hazel. They are starting to push leaves.

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Auburn and DBang any updates? I am planning a row of hazelnuts in my Huntsville yard. Do you think full summer sun better than mild shade for growth? For bloom? It will either be N of the house or N of the fence and with extra shade from the neighborā€™s shrubs.

Interesting reading Rutgers NJ dissing the Oregon SU cultivars- good argument that only one genetic type of Eastern Filbert Blight (EFB) got to the Pacific NW and so when they claim good EFB resistance the claim falls through in Rutgerā€™s NJ plantations. E368: Choosing Plants for a Hazelnut Orchard in New Jersey (Rutgers NJAES) I will plant a few NJ types, but risk some OSU types since we have so few wild filberts locally, we are warmer/ dryer than NJ, and I wonā€™t have acres and acres of them next to each other (nor visitors from other filbert farms). Hope DBangā€™s hazelnuts arenā€™t within a mile of me though itā€™d be awesome if I could see his garden sometime.

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My opinion is that the more sun you can provide the better hazels will grow, however I have seen some videos where they are okay in part shade. By the way, welcome to the forum. It is a great place to hang out and learn. My hazels are hybrids and I donā€™t know how they will do long term so it looks like I will find out down the road. Good luck with your hazels and again welcome to the group.

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Just thought I would share as I am attempting to grow Hazelnuts in Texas. Not sure what the weather situation is in Alabama compared to Texas. We of course are very hot. 95-100 often in June-August. I have a bunch of different types all of differing ages. What I am noticing is some of the OSU Hazel selections are variable to their adaption to heat. I am not saying they donā€™t grow, they do provided care is taken to keep them moist in the hot summer months. But even doing that some look better than others in handling full sun and the heat. Jefferson, York, Felix and Yamhill are a bit less happy in the sun and heat, just they get some singed leaves and will drop some leaves around July (not defoliating, just losing maybe 10% of the leaves, followed by new growth)ā€¦ This is with being rigorous about keeping them moist. Note we got above 105 for a few days this past summer which is hotter than usual. That may have contributed, 105 plus temps are not typicalā€¦ When they lose some leaves the have another flush at the same time. Donā€™t know if that is normal or not but I donā€™t see it on my other types. Hopefully I will see some flowers on 4 year old Jeffersonā€™s for the first time soon. York seems least happy in direct sun with the heat so I had to move it to partial shade as it struggled in full sun. Yamhill does the leaf drop (10% followed by new flush). All three have a leaves that are have a lighter shade of green on their leaves compared to others I assume due to breading parents. My Barcelona is similar as these with some leaf drop followed by flush but it is my oldest tree at 8 years. Two years ago got my first hand full of nuts from Barcelona, so I know they can at least produce some nuts and Barcelona is flowering this year and looking pretty good. If Barcelona works here (by works I mean getting small harvest of nuts, not expecting yields like seen in optimal conditions in Oregon, hoping for a pound once fully bearing) then I suspect I can get other OSU cultivars to work too. My 3 year old Yamhill is flowering this year hoping for first nuts this year. My younger OSU plants Polly O, Dorris, and Theta look healthier with nice dark green leaves and little of no leaf drop but to young to bear. I suspect these latter ones are better suited to the Texas heat and sun (again with ample moisture). They just look really healthy by comparison

Worth noting that the OSU blight resistant trees cannot handle east coast blight and have not fared nearly so well in Rutgers NJ experimental orchards. I donā€™t know if there is blight issues in Texas as there are little or no wild hazels in this part of Texas so may not be an issue here. East coast is different ball game so bear this in mind and look at the Rutgers tests of the OSU varieties with single gene gassaway resistance. Given this I hedge my bets as I did not not what might grow here so I have other varieties.

I have 7 year old Oikos Precocious European/American crosses and some have produced nuts for me (again I donā€™t expect 10 pounds per plant, if I get a pound I am happy, not there yet though). Note Precocious is not a cultivar but a group of plants selected for larger nuts and blight resistance. So no two Precosious are exactly alike. 3 out of 4 have medium nuts, one I got made lots of micro nuts, too small to even eat. I also got Oikos Select One (American Hazel selections), again not a cultivar, but a selected group of plants with larger nuts compared to wild Americans, but small compared to Europeans still. They are 5 years old and are starting to produce. Small nuts but larger than typical Americanā€™s with a bit thinner shell. They are growing sort of like Jefferson. Growing but donā€™t look as robustly health as Dorris etc. but growing, producing catakins and starting to produce nuts.

I just last year planted a few Raritan from the Rutgers cultivars, with Somersett on the way. So far this looks healthy and robust and is taking the heat and full sun with adequate moisture. I also planted Grand Traverse and The Beast last year and so far looking robust and happy in the sun and heat with moisture. So if I am wrong and blight is here in Texas then these trees have more robust blight resistance if it becomes an issue (covering all my bets). Will be a few years before nut production.

I have a wild American hazel, and another Oikos American called Ecos. My wild American is doing well and produces typical small nuts very wellā€¦ Ecos is struggling in half day shade. I am getting Winkler too shortly. Why bother with the Americans? I am having some issues with catikins on Barcelona and I suspect (but donā€™t know for sure) that I may experience catikin issues with Jefferson, Felix and York. The wild American produces ample catkins as do the Precocious and Select One. Yamhill is producing a few catkins this year and they are doing fine so far so they are more robust than Barcelona. What are the catkin issues? Windy hot weather is an issue drying out and killing catkins in the summer and the cold snaps of 0 degrees last year, and 8 degrees this year both are killing a lot of them. As I understand European catkins donā€™t like hot windy weather that dries them out and I read they are hardy down to about 14 degrees. So catkins on the Barcelona are getting killed. So I have the Americans which have more cold hardy catkins that I can used for pollination. Yamhill catkins seem more hardy and survived 8 degrees and windy heat. Precocious is also fine with the windy heat and cold to 8 degrees but not 0 degrees. Select One also has robust catkins. No catakins yet on Dorris, Polly O, The Beast and Grand Traverse yet but given their handling of the heat I suspect it will be less an issue, but cold could be a problem. Usually we donā€™t get down to 0-8 degrees until we did the last winter and this winter.

So to summarize my strategy: Americans for the hardy catkins for pollination (and Precocious European/American cross). Possibly more robust Dorris, Theta and Polly O which handle the heat which I also hope will produce catkins that survive. The Raritan, The Beast and Grand Traverse are doing well, hopefully will be catkin producers and have strong blight resistance. It is a big experiment for me and if I find some are robust in the heat I will plant more and take out any that struggle too much and replace with those that handle Texas weather. I should stress I do not expect 10 pounds of nuts per plant in Texas. If I can get 1 pound each off of numerous trees, that is a success for me. If OSU varieties succumb to blight, I will plant more Rutgers plants. My Barcelona though has not show any issues with blight so hoping it is not as big an issue in Texas, but again hedging my bets.

I will update as my trees mature and see what happens. Precocious has worked, Barcelona is looking promising so maybe all OSU plants will be similar, donā€™t know yet. Thought I would share.

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@Darby740
I recently relocated in Alabama to zone 8a but your high and lows are more extreme than my area. In some summers our highs will get to about 100F and our lows will go down to about 20F. This winter was an exception and the temps were lower. Thanks for the detailed report from your area and I might comment more later but I did want to say that as the roots grow deeper you might see less leaf damage during the summer (I hope). Iā€™m still learning to grow hazels and I have much to learn. After growing Jefferson for about six years at two locations the catkins always get severe damage in both mild and colder winters. The good side is that the flowers appear to be okay. I have Theta that sheds its pollen late to provide a good source for Jefferson. Like you I have several varieties and I think long term getting the flowers pollinated is critical to getting a good nut crop.

This spring I planted The Beast, Raritan, Felix, Grand Travers, Somerset. All but Felix are plugs and did great leafing out immediately on their 8-10" height, Felix is missing his mother (he was the one not ready to ship last fall) and finally the 4ā€™ high whip has leafed out from the buds which made me afraid it was dead for a few weeks. Thanks for your reports folks. I am in 7 and hope not to top 100 often- weā€™ll see how they do.

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BTW we have a town called Hazel Green within a few hours drive so hope that portends well for productivity and survival- though of course these are not American descent cultivars.

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Gulf coast zone 9a doesnā€™t appear to be a place where anything but the big but trees like pecan and walnut thrive.

Hazelnut/Filbert looks to be a stretch. Same with almonds. Was more hopeful there would be an almond that could make it since the tree is so closely related to peach.

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Halls Hardy almond types? Half peach/almond better choice? How about a trazel for nuts where you are?

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I can try grafting an almond variety or two onto some of my current and future trees. Donā€™t think Iā€™d spend the space and time for a full tree.

Cheap way to see if it will produce.

Hard to find any info on the trazel. I see itā€™s a hybrid hazelnut but donā€™t see much in the way of growing conditions.

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Both just guesswork for your climate. But Iā€™ve seen both here in eastern KS very healthy. Halls Hardy almond was in perfect condition when peach trees were stressed, trazel was beautiful and loaded with nuts yet Iā€™ve only seen one place that had a few hazelnut/filbert shrubs.

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I thought I would update my Hazel experiment here in Texas. I thought 105F was atypical last year, but we had an even hotter summer this year with many days over 105F reaching 110 on some days. Much worse. Boy was it hot. Anyway as noted before I work hard to keep the hazel trees moist (oh did I mention not having rain for nearly 2 months?) so if they suffered it was heat and sun. York, Ecos, Jeffersons, Felix, Grand Traverse, Barcelona, the Oikos Precocious faired the worst in descending order (York worst, Precocious least worst). The first two with 70% defoliated, next three about 50%, the remaining about 30%, the remaining leaves were singed but mostly green. As before the trees flushed some new leaves but not enough to have a fully leafed out tree by Sept. This happened while the heat continued. Yamhill and Theta hung in there well but eventually lost maybe 10-15% of their leaves, followed by a new flush of leaves. Of the other more established trees the stand outs were Polly O, Dorris, and The Beast. Of the less established ones Raritan didnā€™t do as well as Hunterdon and Somerset, but given how young they are with some planted this year they hung in there well. Hunterdon seems like it fared best, Somerset a close second and these seem like they will be good heat tolerant varieties. Raritan didnā€™t do as well but given their age, I think will be fine. The Corylus americaā€™s (wild southern sourced, Select One and Winkler) did well, some singing on the leaves with just a little defoliation.

I am going to shift my collection of trees to more Dorris, Polly O, The Beast and Hunterdon (and one more Yamhill) based on how they do in the extreme heat. I will keep the others and see how they do.

All the Corylus americanaā€™s, Yamhill and Precocious will be my sure thing pollen sources as I know they work for this purpose through winter cold and summer heat.

Should mention the preceding winter was not great with a hard late freeze and golf ball size hail in one storm, followed by this insane heat. Even with that I got a couple dozen of the following: Select One nuts, Corylus americana wild nuts (to small to bother with but they produced), Precocious nuts; and about 1 dozen Barcelonaā€™s (note these are all my oldest trees. Yamhill flowered for the first time but no nuts yet. Waiting on flowering for the rest.

Yes I know it is crazy me trying this in Texas, but I just canā€™t help myself. There are worse addictions lol. Hope that is helpful to any other crazy gardeners trying a similar thing.

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Good report. Thanks

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Very nice report. You are up against it in down state TX. I grew a few hazelnuts in Amarillo about 40 years ago. They produced some nuts, not many and no issues with defoliation. But Amarillo seldom got above 100 and averaged low 90s for summer highs.

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We have a smallish privacy screen hedge of American hazelnuts. About 10 years old right now. No issues with pollination, they were loaded the past few years. They get full morning/early afternoon sun but late afternoon shade. they were mulched them when they were babies with cardboard boxes covered with grass clippings. They get a few handfuls of dolomite at them in early spring as we have very acid soil. I feed them ā€˜espoma citrusā€™ in early spring when they leaf out but only feed them the once.

Even though they were loaded for the past several years, this year is the first year Iā€™ve gotten more than a handful, darned squirrels.

We tried the little organza gift bags one yearā€¦squirrels were delighted with the gift wrapping. Left those little bags in the tops of trees for our later enjoyment as a neener neener. Squirrels are jerks.

Like @Darby64 , we had a miserable summer this year. Not AS miserable as his, but pretty darned miserable. Weeks of 100F+ and other than 10 minutes of rain a few days ago, no rain since June.

So, this year I had to soaker my hazels (and everything else, sigh).

We noticed a few weeks ago that we never ever saw squirrels even near the hazels, in spite of the hazels being loaded. Not even testing to see if they were ripe yet. Imagine how thrilled we were to actually pick whole boxes of ripening clusters the past couple of weeks.

The one day, I happened to have the soaker hose actually on while I was picking.

Itā€™s a green soaker/sprinkler hose, flat, and the water sprays out of one side. Lay flat on the ground and it soaks, facing up and it sprinkles.

Since these are a shrub, I couldnā€™t get it ā€˜over in thereā€™ to soak. I set it on its side/edge, around the edges of the shrubberies to sprinkle ā€˜atā€™ their base.

It ā€˜hissesā€™ and makes the under growth ā€˜moveā€™.

Methinks the squirrels think snakes live in the hazels and are leaving them be.

IF this is the case, certainly, I plan to try this trick again next year. Theyā€™re on a hill so Iā€™m not worried about them flooding out.

Just thought Iā€™d offer this anecdote.

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Hey that is a good idea I never thought about. So far the squirrels know to venture into my yard for the acorns which fortunately are available at a different time then the hazels. So far the squirrels have not discovered the hazels but I worry they will. That watering idea is a great idea. Thankfully not a lot of them in my yard as there is a pretty robust predator population around that keeps numbers down but it doesnā€™t take many to clean out a crop.

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Iā€™ve got some of the OSU stuff and the Rutgers stuff in 3 gal containers right now. Iā€™ll make a list & more details about how happy theyā€™ve all been with our heat. They were teeny plugs when I got them & those get grown out at least a year to get bigger than a ā€˜bunny munchā€™.

Seem to remember some leaf browning/drop and some new growth but didnā€™t check to see which particular varieties were doing that.

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