I planted some American hazelnuts about 4 years ago and so far they’ve proven to be a very easy and trouble-free crop. And then yesterday I just discovered beaked hazelnuts growing wild in a section of woods that I had started thinning out. I didn’t even know (or had forgotten) that there was even more than one species of native hazelnut. The big drawback of these nuts, though, is their size. The biggest American hazelnuts, which are substantially bigger than the beaked hazelnuts I found growing wild, are only about 1/2" x 5/8" x 1/2" in the shell, and the shell is fairly thick. I’ve read that some breeding efforts have focused primarily on yield, but I think I’d much prefer to just plant more bushes and get larger nuts. They’re hardly useful to me at all the size they are, even though they taste really good. So how big do native hazelnuts get? Where can I find the biggest native hazelnuts that anyone has selected or bred? I have also bought some of the newer blight resistant European hazelnuts, but they’re far from proven to grow and produce and survive long-term in North Carolina, so I’m very interested in whatever the largest native hazelnuts are, too.
Whinkler is pretty big, and is a selection out of american hazel. It grows on PEI, north of you by quite a bit, so is hardy here and likely at your location too.
Jocelyn
Jocelyn,
Do you have that variety yourself? You wouldn’t be able to quantify how big the nuts are in numbers, would you?
Thanks!
I have one nut in the fridge and i t weighs 4 and a half grams. There were 6 nuts, and I think this was about the usual size. The rest are outside or planted in pots.
Wow, that’s a lot bigger. I weighed 10 nuts from my bushes (which so far as I know aren’t selected for anything special), and they weighed 0.6 ounces, which makes the nut you weighed over 2-1/2 times as big as the nuts from my bushes. I think the nuts would really start to be worth something to me at that size.
Anyone know where I could get a bush in the US?
Are there other selections?
You might be interested in the Badgersett selections which are hybrids with a lot of American genes in them. I am just growing European blight-resistant ones which are so far doing OK for me.
How long have you been growing the blight-resistant European ones, Scott? And do you or did you have an expectation how soon blight would show itself if it was going to?
I usually figure five years for diseases to show up. My trees were planted in 2011 so I am starting to get optimistic but still not certain.
@jocelyn sorry to bring up an old thread but im really curious how your whinkler hazelnuts have performed? As far as quantity and also how would you compare size to store bought, would you say at least half the size? I have some planted but would like to plant a bunch more hazelnuts and cant decide between zone pushing european hybrid or buying a bunch more whinkler for next spring…
I have five winklers that should be about big enough to produce next year. I also have a Theta, which has been very slow to grow, and another new one I planted this past spring, I forget the name, to pollinate the Theta, since the Red Fortin did not survive. I probably planted them more out of curiosity than high hopes of nuts on my rural piece of land.
I guess if the theta makes it, and isnt freezing off in the winter it should start to produce eventually, unless pollination time is too early? That gives me hope for my area since i know you are north of me a ways. They should for sure be ripe before getting too cold in the fall i would think, it seems like hazelnuts all ripen pretty early - August/early September. Is Theta supposed to be more cold tolerant than say Jefferson?
The Red Fortin had a critter hole under it, which may be why that one struggled a few years, then croaked. The Theta struggled along, but is finally doing better. The winklers have grown much better, although I did lose one for unknown reasons. The new varieties, Dorris and MacDonald I planted this spring are doing okay. I also have pecans, butternuts, chestnuts, and Carpathian walnuts, but none are exactly rip-snortin’. They are mostly an experiment, as I have ample space.
I was told Jefferson isn’t hardy enough here.
I may have Winkler or a Winkler seedling, Grimo doesn’t know which they sent.
The nuts are about the size of a commercial nut, but with a thicker shell. Someone who saw them thought they could be Het3, instead of Winkler, so I don’t really know what I got. Het 3 is americana crossed heterophylla. Whichever it is, it is able to reliably expand catkins here and shed pollen. Most of my others freeze their catkins part way through elongation and never shed. Some years Farris G-17 sheds, but not all years. Slate struggled, never managed to shed, and finally died. Gene/Geneva struggles a bit and doesn’t shed. Crimson sheds at the neighbour’s place, and it’s americana crossed avellana. I’m trialling some Grimo 186 M seedlings, but it’s too soon to say much. I have two Quebec seedlings, they have hardy female blooms, but so far, the catkins have frozen out instead of completely elongating and shedding.
So Ive been doing some research on finding the best place to buy hybrid cold hardy hazelnut seedlings. I am considering planting an acer or so of hazelnuts after I clear out what is just an overgrown thistle patch at the moment. So far it seems z nutty ridge and forest agriculture sound like the best sources for buying hybrid american hazelnuts, but I have not seen these nurserys brought up on any old threads here. Has anyone ordered from these nurseries? Good or bad experinces? I couldnt find anything on garden watchdog. I know to stay away from badgersette as they have had some poor reviews the past couple of years.
If anyone is interested in learning about the breeding they’ve been doing for cold hardy hazelnuts i recommend checking out midwesthazelnuts.org i found some interesting info on this website. It sounds like several cultivars will be available in the next couple of years.
So I just foraged these from a wild tree I’ve been monitoring for a few weeks. I’m planning to plant them all out. Is grafting a thing for hazelnuts, and is it even worth the effort for a larger nut? These things are pretty tiny, I don’t think I can bring myself to crack enough to be worth my time haha
Little nuts are good for dieters. They keep one busy, eat as one cracks them. The time spent gives the illusion of having eaten a lot. 
My hazels haven’t produced yet, but haven’t had much attention on my part. Had knee surgery today, so hopefully next summer will be better.
I don’t claim to know about grafting however, Z’s Nutty Ridge told me to only graft onto hybrid hazel w/o exception. They recommended their hybrid. The difference being those American alone grow suckers that will die back so grafting becomes a temporary and clear Russian Roulette game that it’s possible for any of the suckers you graft to to die before you can come back to harvest the scionwood for next years need to re-graft.
W/o the gene for blight, it’s pointless. That’s what Tom Wahl told me & he said ‘we’re at least 10-years away from anything for Tom or I to grow in the mid-west.’ That was Tom in 2021.
That’s everything I know.
Dax