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Hazelnut Trees Are Easy! - Cornell Small Farms |
Hazelnuts in the Home Orchard | USU - Common Hazelnut Pests and Diseases
One of the things I was most eager for when I became a homeowner was finally having the space and time to grow my own fruit and nut trees. I was especially excited when I learned that hazelnut trees also known as filberts only take three to five years until the first harvest comes in.
We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. There are several different species in the Corylus genus, many of which produce the edible nuts we know as hazelnuts or filberts. Hazels are typically categorized as members of the birch family, Betulaceae, though some botanists have further split them into a subfamily called Corylaceae. Depending on species, hazelnuts typically range from eight to 20 feet tall with a foot spread, and can be grown as shrubs or small trees in USDA Hardiness Zones They have fuzzy, heart-shaped, serrated leaves that are a few inches in length, and produce showy yellow catkins in the early spring, followed by large nuts encased in papery husks in the late summer or fall.
Hazels are native to many parts of the Northern Hemisphere, and can be found growing wild in cool deciduous forests. They have been a symbol of wisdom and inspiration throughout history, with written references to hazels dating back centuries. They are mentioned in the Bible for their nutritional value and healing ability, as well as in ancient Greek and Roman mythology. It was said that Hermes, the messenger of the Greek gods, carried a staff made from the wood of a hazel tree to provide wisdom and guide him in his travels.
Grown commercially mostly for their nuts, the wood is also used for making baskets, tool handles, fencing, and lightweight coracle boats. They are also used to make praline and chocolate truffles, and are an ingredient in Frangelico liqueur. Filbert trees can be propagated in a number of ways. You can start them from seed, transplant nursery stock, or grow them from runners. Before sowing your seeds, you can test their viability by submerging them in water.
Discard any that float to the top. Next, score the seeds to aid germination. You can do this by using a file to carefully create a small slash in the outer seed coat. In the fall, plant the seeds in the garden 15 feet apart and two inches deep, with the slightly pointed side facing downward. Protect them over the winter with a cold frame or a thick layer of mulch. You can also start seeds in pots in the fall.
Plant one seed an inch or two deep in an eight-inch pot filled with potting soil. Germination takes several months, so be patient! Once the weather warms in spring, water regularly to maintain consistent moisture, and seedlings should appear after a few weeks. Alternatively, you can cold stratify seeds indoors by putting them into a zip-top bag filled with one part sand and one part peat moss. Keep it in the refrigerator over the winter and then move the bag to a warm place in your house for a few days, or until you see signs of germination.
After the seeds have sprouted, plant each seedling in an eight-inch pot filled with potting soil. Continue to grow the seedlings in the pots over the summer, keeping them in part shade, and transplant into the ground in the fall once seedlings reach eight to 10 inches in height.
Saplings purchased as nursery stock or started from seed the previous year can be planted in the ground in late fall or winter during dormancy, to prevent heat stress and reduce the need for watering.
Space transplants 15 to 20 feet apart and plant them in holes dug to the depth of the roots and twice as wide. You can also propagate filberts from the suckers that appear around the base of an existing shrub, or from underground runners.
During early dormancy in the late fall, dig up a sucker and the attached roots. Replant runners about 15 feet apart a foot below the soil line. Stooling, or mound layering, is a method that involves piling soil around the base of an established shrub, leaving it in place for a year, and then dividing the new rooted stems that have developed for replanting.
This technique is common in commercial growing, though it can certainly be done in the home garden as well. As a rule of thumb, filberts need at least four hours of direct sunlight per day for good nut production, and about 15 to 20 feet of space to spread out, so be sure to space your plants appropriately. Hazelnuts are monoecious, which means they produce both male and female flowers on the same tree, although they may not bloom at the same time.
While American hazelnuts can self-pollinate, European hazelnuts are self-incompatible, meaning that though a single plant has both male and female flowers, they are not able to self pollinate.
Additionally, not all varieties will cross pollinate. When selecting cultivars, it is important to plant more than one variety and pay careful attention to compatibility recommendations for pollination.
Even if planting a self-pollinating species, it is still recommended to plant more than one variety to improve yields. To plant bare root saplings or potted shrubs purchased from a nursery, wet the roots thoroughly prior to planting, then dig a hole as deep and twice as wide as the root ball and place it in the hole.
Refill the hole, mixing in equal parts compost and sand or peat moss if working with heavy clay soil. Tamp down as you fill in the hole to remove air pockets. The soil line should be even with the surrounding soil. While the mature trees are drought tolerant, young shrubs need constant moisture and should never be allowed to fully dry out.
Water each week during the growing season until they are well established, taking special care to water deeply during dry weather. One nice thing about hazelnuts is they can be shaped into shrubs or trees, depending on your preference and available space. During the winter in the first season of growth when the plant is still dormant, select a few of the strongest, largest, most evenly-spaced branches.
Prune off all other branches and cut back any other suckers at the base. Continue to remove other new branches each year in late winter or spring for the next few seasons until the leader branch has grown to a reasonable height. There are 26 different species in the Corylus genus, as well as a number of hybrids cultivated for nut production, disease resistance, and ornamental value.
Over the years, growers have developed a number of hybrids between the C. The European filbert, also called the common hazel, European hazelnut, or cobnut, is a beautiful deciduous shrub often found in the wild growing on forest edges, in wooded slopes, and along stream banks.
It is easy to grow as a shrub and attractive year round, producing showy yellow catkins in early spring and large, sweet nuts in the fall. This cultivar is very popular for the home gardener as well as for commercial production. It produces huge crops of rich and flavorful nuts and can be easily grown as a shrub or a tree.
It has something to offer in all four seasons, with bold yellow catkins in early spring and attractive green leaves that turn a bright yellow in fall. Two to four-year-old plants are available from Nature Hills Nursery. This compact cultivar produces average sized nuts with healthy kernels.
It produces a large number of catkins and releases large amounts of pollen during its flowering period. It is resistant to Eastern filbert blight and is a great choice for a pollinator, as it is compatible with many other varieties. Known generally as the giant filbert, C. It is similar in appearance to C. The American hazelnut is a great choice for northern growers. It is tolerant to both heat and cold, and is resistant to Eastern filbert blight, which can plague the European varieties.
Corylus americana. You can purchase two- to four-year-old shrubs from Nature Hills Nursery. While growing filberts is relatively easy, there are a few common issues to watch out for. Here are a few of the animals, pests, and diseases that you may encounter. Hazelnuts are delicious!
Deer and rabbits both enjoy munching on the leaves, branches, and catkins. And squirrels, of course, love to eat the nuts. There are a number of insects that also enjoy eating hazelnuts. Keep your eye out for these common pests to reduce damage to your crop.
The larvae overwinter in the soil, emerging as moths in spring and laying eggs on hazelnut husks. The young larvae that emerge then enter and feed on the developing nuts, tunneling their way through and completely destroying the kernels.
Try incorporating lots of flowering perennials like dill , daisies, and marigolds to encourage the presence of beneficial insects and reduce pests. Large-scale growers often use mating disruption pheromones to reduce the population of acorn moths in their orchards. The adult beetles munch on buds and leaves in the spring, damaging foliage, and lay their eggs in the developing nuts in early summer. The infected nuts do not drop, and often end up being harvested along with the healthy remainder of the crop, at best creating a nuisance for harvesting, and at worst effectively ruining the crop.
One way to remove weevils naturally is to place tarps under the trees during the late summer after a rainstorm, and shake each tree until the adult weevils fall to the ground.
They will remain still for a few minutes after falling, at which point they can be collected in a bucket of soapy water and disposed of. The diseases that tend to plague filberts are those that thrive in wet soils. You can do a lot to mitigate disease risk by planting your trees in places that are not waterlogged, with well-draining soil.
The fungus Anisogramma anomala causes cankers to form on branches and blossoms, leading to rapid wilting and dieback of foliage and branches. Cankers appear as dark, raised lumps on infected plant tissue. Remove and dispose of branches with cankers. You can learn more about Eastern filbert blight in our guide here.
Leaves infected with this fungus will become discolored and drop, followed by branch die-off and the eventual death of the entire plant. Yellow mushrooms may also appear at the base of the plant. Once this disease takes hold, plants need to be removed and disposed of. The best way to prevent armillaria is to plant resistant rootstock. Caused by the bacterium Xanthomonas campestris pv.
This is a particularly problematic disease in the Pacific Northwest. Remove and dispose of diseased branches. Bacterial canker, caused by Pseudomonas avellanae , is a particular problem in European hazelnuts.
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