hazelnut trees

[Mitch]

Or is it a bush? I don't know. Anyway, anyone have these growing? I was gonna add them to my arsenal this winter. I've read deer will walk past oaks to get to a hazelnut tree and since my land is loaded with oaks so I'm hoping this is a nice change of pace. They will need to be tubed and protected because from what i've read all the critters love these things.

 

[ng270]

They are a shrub that will do a lot of suckering, so a cage might be a better option than a tube for them. I have a few that are native on my property, and have planted bare roots from MDC's nursery. I did not protect those I planted. They did get some browse pressure but established anyway. I am five years in on that planting and I am sure that they would be bigger had I protected them, but I was getting nuts on some of them by year three.

As to whether a deer will walk past a dropping oak to get to hazelnuts, I can't say, but I do know that I never find nuts under the bushes; virtually everything out there seems to like them, and the squirrels work mine over pretty hard without letting them hit the ground.

 

[KJS - ND]

Sounds like a good plan - adding something you don't have always seems like a good idea to me - can't go wrong w/ hazelnuts.

I have planted some the last couple years - I usually tube them the first growing season - mostly to help with watering/moisture retainage/spraying - also deer I suppose. I remove the tubes the first fall so they can harden off properly - sometimes trees in tubes keep growing longer than nature intends, then a hard freeze comes along and zaps them back to the roots - maybe not a problem down south.

Once the roots are established I think a little deer pruning can help shrubs get more aggressive on suckering - makes them become more of a bush, rather than a tree which I think we like for the most part. I have seen some browsing, but not killing by deer - been a couple years and no nuts yet, but we have a shorter growing season up north so will probably be quicker on production for you.

Good luck - keep us posted on your progress.

 

[KDdid]

I found two clumps of hazelnuts on my creek bank this year, and today I was walking past them, and was impressed by how far the root suckers had spread in one year. I collected several gallons of nuts, and have planted many of them in several places.


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