Hazel (hazelnut): planting and care in the open field

Cultivated varieties of hazel or hazelnuts, the care and cultivation of which has been practiced for thousands of years, are bred on an industrial scale in countries with a mild climate. In cold regions, they used to be content with smaller hazelnuts, which grow in abundance in clearings and forest edges throughout Europe, the Middle East and the Caucasus. In the second half of the XNUMXth century, varieties of hazelnuts appeared that could bear fruit even in the Northwest.

Botanical description of hazel

Hazel (Corulus) or Hazel is a genus of deciduous shrubs or small trees belonging to the Birch family (Betulaceae). It consists of 20 species, 7 of which grow on the territory of the countries of the former Soviet Union. Large-fruited varieties of hazel are called hazelnuts, planted in private gardens and industrial plantations as a nut crop. In nature, hazel grows in clearings or as an undergrowth, forming impenetrable thickets.

The genus Hazel includes shrubs 2-7 m high or small trees up to 10 m with light wood, smooth bark and flexible branches. Depending on the type, the crown can be spreading or compressed, compact. Hazel leaves are rather large, round or broadly oval, simple, serrated along the edge, often pubescent. The tip is sharp, and the veins are distinct and depressed, which makes the surface seem corrugated.

All types of hazel are monoecious plants with heterosexual flowers. Male catkins are located in the leaf axils. They appear on the shoots of hazel grown this year in June-July, but do not bloom until the new season. Female inflorescences are formed in buds located on the sides or on the tops of annual branches, from which only pinkish pistils peep out.

Flowering hazel occurs in early spring, before the leaves bloom. Depending on the region, nuts ripen from July to September. They can have a spherical or elongated shape and a brown color of different shades – from almost yellow to dark chocolate. Nuts are surrounded by a cup-shaped bed – plush, grow singly or connected in 2-5 pieces.

The culture bears fruit unevenly. Harvest years alternate with seasons when there are very few nuts. Varietal hazelnut and wild hazel bushes grow strongly in breadth, it becomes difficult to care for them. Therefore, the average life span of an industrial plantation is 75 years.

Popular types and varieties

Hazel is a nut-bearing genus of shrubs and trees, widespread in North America, Asia and Europe. Different species grow in warm climates and reach the Arctic Circle. Hazelnut, which is a cultivated large-fruited form of hazel, used to be planted mostly in southern countries and regions, but modern science has helped to develop new cold-resistant varieties.

Types of hazel

For domestic gardeners, hazel is of interest, growing in a cool climate or used to create varieties of hazelnuts. Our Country is the natural habitat of several species. All of them produce edible nuts and can be grown in industrial plantations and private gardens, some are endemic.

Common Hazel or Hazel

This type of hazel has a wide range – it grows in Italy and northern Norway, and feels great in any climate. It is a deciduous multi-stemmed shrub up to 5 m high. Hazel is distinguished by light gray smooth bark and flexible branches densely covered with large soft, pubescent leaves on the reverse side.

In the south, Common Hazel blooms in February, near St. Petersburg – from the end of April or the beginning of May. Spherical or oval, collected in 2-5 pieces, hidden in a large plush, brown nuts 18 mm long, up to 15 mm wide, ripen by August or September.

Hazel lives up to 90 years, from 1 hectare gives about 900 kg of fruit, is used in ornamental gardening. It is from Hazel Common that most varieties of hazelnuts are bred.

Hazel Large or Lombard walnut

This heat-loving species took part in the creation of many varieties of hazelnuts. Under natural conditions, Hazel Large grows in Southern Europe and Asia Minor, it feels great in the Crimea and Transcaucasia.

It is a tree-like shrub 3-10 m high with ashy bark and reddish-green pubescent young shoots. The nuts of the Hazel Large are cylindrical or oval, up to 2,5 cm long. It blooms in March, the nuts ripen by September.

Pontian hazel

This heat-loving species was included in the list as the ancestor of most Turkish, Caucasian and hazelnut varieties originating from the southeast of Europe. Pontic hazel is a shrub with rounded leaves and large flattened nuts, collected in 2-3 pieces, surrounded by a wide open cupule. Grows up to 6 m.

hazel

Widespread in the Far East, a multi-stemmed nut-bearing shrub 1,5-2 m high with an ovoid or spherical crown. Hazel tolerates shading, low temperatures and grows on different, including poor or dense, soils.

The nuts are rounded, flattened on top, with a thick skin, surrounded by a velvety large cupule, collected 2-3 at the ends of young branches. Their diameter is about 1,5 cm. Hazel blooms in early spring, about a month before the leaves bloom, the nuts ripen in September.

Hazel Manchurian

It is a shrub up to 4 m tall, common in the Primorsky and Khabarovsk Territories, the Amur Region. Under natural conditions, Manchurian hazel grows exclusively in the form of undergrowth. In culture it forms a tall bush with erect branches and oval leaves. Hazel can withstand frosts down to -45 ° C.

Pointed nuts with a thin shell are surrounded by a tubular cupule, much larger than the size of the fruit. The hazel is harvested in September.

Hazel tree or Bear nut

It is a tree with a height of more than 20 m and a trunk with a diameter of about 50 cm. Individual specimens of hazel can reach a height of 30 m and a thickness of 90 cm. It is distinguished by light bark and a narrow crown. Hazel tree is common in mountainous regions and on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, Transcaucasia, and the upper reaches of the Kuban River.

It grows slowly, comes into fruiting late, lives up to 200 years, rarely gets sick, but gives a poor harvest. Hazelnuts are collected in 3-8 pieces, flattened laterally and have a very hard thick skin. Plush pubescent, large.

This species is of interest as a wood-producing crop and as a breeding material. When crossed with common hazel and large-fruited hazelnuts, excellent varieties have been created that produce high-quality nuts.

Varieties of hazelnuts

Hazelnut is not a form of hazel, but the collective name of its large-fruited varieties. They differ in comparison with species with higher yields. Heat-loving varieties have been known for more than 2 thousand years. Recently, resistant to low temperatures have been created, which make it possible to grow hazelnuts in Central Our Country and even in the North-West. There are forms with red and green leaves.

Circassian 2

A local Adyghe variety of hazelnuts, created in 1949. Adopted by the State Register in 1959, the originator was the North Caucasian Federal Scientific Center for Horticulture, Viticulture, Winemaking.

This hazelnut ripens early, resistance to pests, diseases, frost and drought is average. The variety is grown in the North Caucasus region.

Hazelnut forms a strong, sprawling bush, reaching a height of 4 m with a width of 6 m. Nuts for universal use are flattened, pointed, with an average weight of 1,6 g, with a large whole cup and a thin brown shell.

Taste score 4,5 points, kernel yield 45,2%, hazelnut yield up to 22,3 centners per hectare. The variety is recommended for industrial cultivation.

Office

An ornamental variety isolated in 1860 by the English gardener Kenon Ellacombe from an accidentally mutated common hazel bush. Further selection was aimed at fixing the original form of the shoots, leaving the nut crop unattended.

Hazel variety Kontorta is a shrub 1,5-2,5 m high or a tree up to 4,5 m, with a dense spherical crown with a diameter of 1,5-2,5 m. Twisted and twisted shoots are intertwined. Asymmetrical dark green hazel leaves are wrinkled, deformed, with pronounced pubescent veins, changing color to yellow in autumn. The growth rate of the variety is slow, annually the bush increases by 25 cm.

Fruiting rare, nuts are edible. The variety tolerates shading, grows on any soil. Planting and caring for Contort hazel is impossible only on acidic soils. It is recommended to include a strong pruning in the variety care complex.

Red Majestic

Red-leaved ornamental variety created by hybridization of Common Hazel and Large Hazel. It grows up to 3 m, a dense spreading crown in diameter reaches 3 m. The hazel branches of this variety are curved and twisted. The leaves are red-purple in the sun, green with a purple tint in the shade.

Hazelnuts are small, red-brown, edible, single or collected in 2-4 pieces, completely recessed into a red tubular cupule, ripen in September-October. Pollination by other varieties or types of hazelnuts and hazel is recommended.

The variety is winter-hardy, tolerates temperatures down to -34 ° C, shelter is needed only in the first years after planting. The tops of young shoots may freeze slightly after a particularly harsh winter, but in spring they quickly recover.

Planting and caring for Red Majestic Hazel is recommended in well-drained soils as a single focal plant or in large and small landscape groups.

Trebizond

The hazelnut variety meets the best world standards, has been known for a long time, but was adopted by the State Register in 2017. Originators – Volkov V. G. and Fursenko R. V.

Hazelnut Trebizond forms an upright shrub 3-3,5 m high with a rounded crown of medium density. Large, one-dimensional blunt nuts of a variety with a flat base, the average weight of which reaches 4 g, ripen in medium terms. Consisting of two parts, the hazelnut pad is large and tightly covers the fruit.

The dense creamy pulp of the nut is sweet, rated 5 points. The yield of the kernel is 48%, the yield is about 25 centners per hectare. Planting hazelnut Trebizond is recommended throughout the Federation.

How to plant a hazelnut

Hazel is an unpretentious crop that grows well and bears fruit on different soils. Its cultivated large-fruited varieties, called hazelnuts, are also not very demanding on soils or planting sites.

Terms of planting

You can plant hazel on the site in spring and autumn. The main thing is that at this time the soil is warm and moist. Planting hazelnuts in the spring is carried out simultaneously or a little later with the start of field work, so that by the time the leaves open, the seedlings are rooted. In autumn, earthworks must be completed no later than 20 days before the first frost, otherwise the hazel may not survive.

Selection and preparation of the landing site

Unlike other crops, hazelnuts and hazel are less demanding on soils or topography. They can be grown even on steep slopes after creating terraces, or simply by digging holes. For planting hazelnuts, the western, northwestern, northern, northeastern and eastern slopes are used. The southern side of the hills is not suitable for growing crops – there the hazel suffers from a lack of moisture, spring frosts and blooms prematurely.

For planting and caring for hazelnuts in open ground, any soil is suitable, except for dry sandy, swampy or saline soils. But the culture gives preference to humus-calcareous soil. Groundwater should not lie higher than 1 m to the surface.

Care must be taken to protect the hazel from strong winds. Although the hazelnut root system is superficial, it is strong and well-branched enough to hold onto mountain slopes and not be uprooted during bad weather. But in open areas, the wind interferes with the pollination of hazel, knocks down ovaries and nuts.

When growing hazelnuts, sufficient illumination of the site is of great importance. In the shade, the bush will not die, but it will bloom poorly and give few nuts. Red-leaved varieties of hazelnuts will lose their decorative effect.

When growing hazel in the country, previous crops do not matter. During spring planting, the soil is dug up in autumn, and vice versa. If hazel is laid on a slope with a steepness of more than 10 °, holes are dug 1-1,5 m deep and wide, or terraces are equipped at least 6 months in advance. They should not be horizontal, but have a reverse slope of 3-8 °. Landing pits for planting hazel or hazelnuts on flat areas are dug with a depth and diameter of not less than 50 cm.

Acidic soils are limed at the rate of 500 g per 1 sq. m. On chernozems, sand and humus should be added under the hazel to improve aeration.

Seedling preparation

Hazelnut seedlings with a closed root system take root better. They cost much more than dug ones, but they can be planted all spring or autumn, even with leaves that have blossomed or have not had time to fall.

When buying hazelnut seedlings with an open root system, it is better to be personally present when they are dug up. If this is not possible, you should pay attention to the fact that the kidneys are in a dormant state – so it is more likely that the hazel will take root without problems. You need to carefully examine the hazelnut root. It should be fresh, intact, well developed and overgrown with a large number of fibrous shoots.

Before planting, the container plant is moistened, but not much, but so that it is easy to take it out. A hazelnut seedling with an open root is soaked in water with black soil for at least 3 hours. It should not be lowered into a clay mash. If the hazelnut root has been damaged, it is cut back to healthy tissue. Too long processes are shortened.

How to plant hazelnuts

Before planting hazel, a fertile mixture is prepared from the topsoil and humus. Lime is added to acidic soils, dense soils are improved with sand. There is nothing complicated in the planting of hazel itself:

1. The planting pit 2 weeks before the start of excavation is 2/3 filled with a planting mixture mixed with fertilizers – 150 g of superphosphate and 5 g of potassium salt.
2. The day before, the hazelnut ditch is completely filled with water.
3. A mound is poured in the center of the pit, a peg is driven in a little to the side.
4. A hazelnut seedling is placed on a hill, the roots are straightened and covered with a planting mixture. It is necessary that the near-trunk circle is below the ground level, but do not deepen the root collar.
5. The soil is compacted, 2-3 buckets of water are poured under each hazelnut bush, mulched.
6. The seedling is cut, leaving 5-6 buds.

Hazelnut planting scheme

The technology for growing hazelnuts provides for a planting pattern of 8×8 or 8×7 m, on steep slopes – 6×6 or 5×5 m, and exclusively in a checkerboard pattern. Deviation from the specified plan is allowed. On rich soils for hazel, you can leave a large feeding area, on poor soils – a smaller one.

How to care for hazelnuts

Hazel bears fruit well in natural conditions of different climatic zones. When breeding walnut varieties of hazelnuts, the culture, although it has become more whimsical, still remains a “plant for the lazy”.

Loosening the soil is of great importance when caring for hazel. At the same time, one should not forget that most of the roots lie at a depth of 10-35 cm, only some descend to 1 m. The shoots, thicker than 3 cm, are poorly renewed near the hazel. Therefore, loosening should be regular, but trunk circles should be processed to a depth of no more than 6-8 cm.

Watering and feeding hazel

Hazelnuts need regular watering. Without this, a lot of empty nuts are formed, the percentage of kernel yield decreases, and the yield drops by half. The quality of the product also suffers.

Depending on the region and weather, hazel is watered 1-2 times a month. Mandatory moisture charging is carried out several times per season:

• immediately after flowering;
• in mine;
• in June;
• twice in July, when the hazelnut kernels are filled and the next year’s fruit buds are laid;
• after November

Of great importance for hazel is the humidity of the air – it should be high. If the site has sprinkling or fogging installation – no problem. The rest of the gardeners can hose down the hazelnuts once a week. It is necessary to spray the jet in such a way that the pressure of water does not knock down the nuts; sprinkling is carried out in the afternoon or in cloudy weather.

If, when planting a hazel, the pit was filled with fertilizers, they begin to feed it after 3 years. Every autumn, the trunk circle is mulched with compost or humus with the addition of ash. In the spring, 100-150 g of nitroammophoska are embedded in the soil under each bush, and during the formation of ovaries, hazelnuts are additionally fertilized with urea.

On chernozems and nutrient-rich soils, additional doses of nitrogen are not applied – this will cause rapid growth of the aerial part to the detriment of fruiting. In addition, hazelnut shoots will not have time to ripen before the end of the season and will definitely freeze. Hazel will receive all the necessary elements with organic matter and ash.

On too poor soils, it makes sense to carry out additional feeding not with urea, but with slurry. For this:

1. The barrel is 1/3 filled with fresh manure.
2. Add water.
3. Leave the mixture in the sun to ferment for 2 weeks.
4. The contents of the barrel are stirred daily with a long stick.
5. The fermented slurry is diluted 2 times with water and hazelnuts are watered. For each adult bush spend 3-4 buckets.

A good result is obtained by spraying hazel leaves with urea or other nitrogen fertilizers. This is called fast top dressing, it can be done every 2 weeks until the end of June – beginning of July.

Trimming and shaping

The point of hazelnut formative pruning is to get a bush that has 8-10 but no more than 12 skeletal stems growing as far apart as possible. They should be evenly spaced in all directions.

Usually, in a high-quality hazel seedling, a bush forms independently, the gardener’s task is to remove weak and thickening skeletal branches in a timely manner. If 2-3 years after planting hazelnuts, root shoots are weakly formed, the entire aerial part is cut off at a level of 6-8 cm from the ground. The next season, many parostkov appear, which are allowed to grow freely, and in the second or third spring, the extra ones are removed, leaving the strongest and most well-located.

Further pruning of hazel is to remove excess shoots that appear at the base of the bush and dry shoots. It is impossible to shorten one-year-old branches – it is on them that male earrings and female flowers are formed, which ensure the harvest of next year’s hazelnuts.

Hazels begin to rejuvenate when the yield decreases. This usually happens no earlier than after 20-25 years, even in the absence of care. Total pruning is carried out only on heavily overgrown and neglected hazel trees. A well-groomed hazel is rejuvenated gradually.

Protection against diseases and pests

The main protection of hazelnuts from diseases and pests is the correct agricultural technology and preventive spraying with colloidal sulfur and copper-containing preparations. Thickened plantings of hazel are a breeding ground for infection, they are inconvenient to care for, and impossible to treat with chemicals.

Most often, hazelnuts are sick:

• powdery mildew;
• brown leaf spot.

Of the pests of hazel should be distinguished:

• nut weevil;
• nut mustache;
• catkin gall midge;
• aphid;
• shield;
• bugs.

Hazelnuts and other pests infect during the period of mass reproduction. To protect the hazel, it is imperative to loosen the trunk circles by 6-8 cm in spring and autumn. Row spacings need deeper processing. You can destroy insect pests on hazelnuts with the help of insecticides.

Preparation for winter

Hazel has good frost hardiness if grown in regions where the climate is similar to the natural habitat of the species. She doesn’t need shelter.

If you plant varieties of hazelnuts in accordance with their frost resistance zones and in accordance with the rules of agricultural technology, seedlings need to be insulated only in the first year. For hazel, not so much negative temperatures in winter or during flowering are terrible, but even a small minus after pollination. To preserve the hazelnut ovaries, smoke is carried out, the plantings are covered with agrofiber or lutrastil.

Features of growing and caring for hazel in different regions

It is easiest to grow hazelnuts in regions with a warm climate. Care there is minimal, and the choice of varieties is huge.

Growing hazel in the Urals

Common hazel and other winter-hardy species common in the cold regions of Our Country grow in the Urals without any problems. But in varieties of hazelnuts, male earrings can freeze slightly – they form in June or July of the previous year, winter on young shoots, and open in the spring. If frost damages the shoots, they recover quickly, and pollen flowers no longer produce.

To prevent this from happening, you need to choose varieties of hazelnuts that are resistant to cold. Of those entered in the State Register, these are:

• Academician Yablokov;
• Ivanteevsky Red;
• Kudraif;
• Moscow Early;
• Moscow Rubin;
• Pervenac;
• Purple;
• Sugar;
• Tambov Early;
• Trebizond.

For pollination to occur at all costs, the male flowers must be preserved. For this, branches of hazelnuts with male earrings are bent to the ground in autumn and fixed. You can just put a stone on a branch. Snow will cover the shoot, and the earring will survive.

In the spring, the load is removed, the flexible hazelnut branch straightens and takes its previous position. True, there is a danger that there will be no snow, or the earring will burst out in the shelter. But pollination does not require many male flowers. It is enough to tilt a few branches with earrings for each variety of hazelnuts – then the likelihood that at least something will be preserved increases.

Otherwise, planting and caring for hazelnuts in the Urals does not differ from other regions.

How to grow hazelnuts in Siberia

The State Register has hazelnut varieties recommended for cultivation throughout Our Country. There are no such that are intended specifically for Siberia. Common hazel, which became the progenitor of most varieties of hazelnuts, does not grow there under natural conditions.

Planting and caring for Common Hazel in Siberia is generally irrational. They have their own species, such as Manchurian and Miscellaneous, which give enough nuts and grow without problems.

Varietal hazelnuts in Siberia have long been an imported product. But recently, the Barnaul Research Institute of Horticulture of Siberia named after. M. A. Lisavenko and an experimental gardener from Biysk R. F. Sharov created varieties specially designed for the region:

• But yes;
• Lentina;
• Biysk Zelenolistny;
• Biysk Krasnolistny;
• Biyskiy Sharov.

In Siberia, planting and caring for hazel is carried out under the protection of fences or buildings, in places where there is a lot of snow in winter. The main problem when growing hazelnuts in this region is not that the bushes will not survive the winter, but that the earrings will freeze. You can save them in the way recommended for the Urals.

Planting and caring for common hazel in the Moscow region

Hazel and hazelnuts in the Moscow region grow without any problems at all. By some strange whim of nature, the capital and its environs are an island of the fifth frost resistance zone, surrounded by a colder fourth one. Only the southernmost varieties of hazelnuts will not grow there. Those that live near Kyiv will winter, and require the same care in the Moscow region.

Hazelnut pollinators

The beginning of the hazel vegetation is considered to be flowering, which occurs before the leaves bloom, when the temperature rises to 12 ° C. Hazelnut catkins lengthen, anthers burst and yellow pollen fertilizes female flowers with the help of wind.

If during flowering the temperature drops to -6 ° C, this does not affect the yield of hazel. But after fertilization, a cold snap to -2-3 ° C is detrimental to the ovaries.

To get a good harvest, hazelnuts must be pollinated by other varieties or hazel. Even in private gardens, it is recommended to plant 3-4 varieties, despite the fact that the culture forms rather large bushes.

This is mainly due to the fact that often the male and female flowers of the same hazelnut variety do not open at the same time. And then, even under favorable conditions, pollination does not occur.

For southern hazelnut varieties, good universal pollinators are:

• Circassian-2;
• Furfulak;
• Kudryavchik;
• Lombard red or white.

In regions with a temperate or cold climate, it makes sense to grow a bush of Common Hazel in the garden, which perfectly pollinates varietal hazelnuts. In a small garden, you can simply graft the view onto a single skeletal branch.

If there is an opportunity and time, pollination of hazelnuts can be done manually. For example, keep pollen from male catkins at a temperature close to 0 °, and when the female flowers open, transfer them to them with a soft brush.

It happens that male and female flowers open at the same time, but the weather is calm. Then you can help hazelnuts by simply shaking the branches.

When does the hazelnut bear fruit?

With vegetative propagation, hazelnut varieties begin to bear fruit after 3-4 years, grown from seeds – after 6-7 years. Hazel gives a full harvest from 8 or 10 years. The skeletal branch lives for 2-2,5 decades, then dies off or is cut out. A hazel bush is able to renew shoots for 80-90 years, under favorable conditions in the southern regions – up to 150-180 years.

Harvesting

Potentially, hazel should bear fruit annually. This is exactly what happens in the southern regions – the harvest seasons alternate with those when there are few nuts. In the northern regions, often abundant fruiting of hazel occurs every 6-7 years. This is mainly due to the freezing of flower buds or non-simultaneous opening of male and female flowers.

Collection of fully ripened nuts

Harvesting hazelnuts is carried out as the nuts ripen. This happens when the plush (wrapper) turns yellow and the fruits crumble. If you pick hazel nuts from a tree, there is a high probability that they have not had time to fully ripen and will not be stored for long. In addition, unripe hazelnuts do not gain enough fat, carbohydrates, and proteins. The kernels of such nuts are tasteless and small. Delay in harvesting hazelnuts is fraught with the fact that birds, rodents and other “helpers” will steal the fruits. In the worst case, nuts that fall to the ground will begin to rot.

To facilitate harvesting, the space under the hazelnut or hazel is cleared of plant debris and other debris. You can lay a tarp on the ground.

A small harvest of hazelnuts is cleaned from pluses by hand, a significant one is threshed.

Collection of nuts of technical ripeness

You can collect hazelnuts by manually removing from the bush at the stage of technical maturity, when the plush has already turned brown, and the nut has changed color to light brown or yellow, but has not had time to crumble. They do this in several passes, cutting off the fruits along with the wrapper.

They do not remove the hazelnuts from the hazelnuts, but put them in heaps, where they ripen and fermentation takes place. Then the tannins from the wrapper oxidize the shell and make it dark brown, and give the kernels a characteristic taste.

Drying nuts

Hazel fruits are dried in a ventilated room for 1-2 weeks, scattered in a thin layer. You can take them outside to a shaded place for a day, and clean them at night so that moisture does not accumulate.

Nuts are ready for storage when their moisture content does not exceed 12-14%. You can determine this by sound – a handful of hazelnuts is shaken, if a knock is heard, it is packed in paper bags. At a temperature of 3 to 12 ° C in a dry room, they will be stored for a year. Keeping at 0-3 ° C will extend the keeping quality of hazelnuts up to 3-4 years.

To get roasted nuts, they are dried in an oven at 110°C.

How to propagate hazelnuts

Hazel and hazelnuts are propagated vegetatively or by seed. When planting nuts, varietal properties may not be preserved or not fully transferred.

By dividing the bush

For a private plot, this is the easiest way to propagate ungrafted hazelnuts, preserving all the characteristics of the variety. An old bush is dug up, all shoots are cut to a height of 15-20 cm, divided into parts. Each must have at least one stump and part of the root.

Layers

This method also preserves the characteristics of the variety if the hazelnut has not been grafted. It is not much more difficult than the previous one, but it takes time. Hazelnut cuttings can be of three types.

Conventional layering (shackles)

From a flexible hazelnut shoot at a distance of 30 cm from the top, 2 cm of bark is removed opposite the bud, or an incision is made into which a match is inserted. The wound surface is powdered with a growth stimulator and dropped with the damaged side down to a depth of 8 to 15 cm. The soil is compacted and watered, the top is tied to a peg. The following season, the hazelnut seedling is transferred to a permanent place.

Vertical layering

The hazelnut bush is completely cut off in early spring, leaving 8 cm stumps. New shoots will begin to grow, they are gradually covered with soil, leaving the tops on the surface. When the mound reaches a height of 20 cm, the earth is stopped adding. Throughout the season, the hazelnut bush is watered abundantly, and the next autumn it is divided and seated.

Horizontal Lines

In the spring, before the leaves bloom, at the hazelnut shoot 120-150 cm high and 6-8 mm thick, the top is cut off, horizontally laid in a groove 8-10 cm deep. The trench is not filled with soil, but the branch is pinned in several places. Shoots begin to grow from the buds, which are gradually covered with earth. By the end of the season, a mound about 10 cm high will form. The next autumn, the hazelnut shoot is dug up and divided into parts, each of which should consist of a shoot and a fibrous root.

Root shoots (otdtirkami)

Hazelnut and hazel shoots appear 2-3 years after planting in a permanent place. A bush during its life can form from 80 to 140 root suckers. The weak ones are cut out, the strong ones are used for replacement shoots and hazel growth, but can be used to propagate hazelnuts.

For this, the best 2-3-year-old offspring are selected, separated from the mother bush with an ax or a shovel, and torn out of the ground. Their root system is usually weak, seedlings are placed in a nursery for growing. In private gardens, hazelnut shoots can be immediately planted in a permanent place, 2-3 pieces per hole.

Vaccinations

To propagate hazelnuts by grafting, you need to have some experience – the culture has a thin layer of cadmium. As a stock, Common Hazel, Diversified and Tree-like (bearnut) are used. Cuttings are harvested in autumn and stored in snowdrifts.

In the spring they are vaccinated in the split, in the butt, behind the bark. It is possible to copulate with an eye in the summer, while the scion should be cut no more than 24 hours before the operation. The vaccination site is coated with garden pitch, tied and covered with polyethylene. After the graft and rootstock grow together, the cellophane is first removed, and after 2 weeks the fabric is removed.

All shoots are removed, shoots located below the vaccination site are cut out.

Green cuttings

This is the most unreliable way to propagate hazelnuts. It is laborious and gives a very low survival rate. The upper or middle part of the green cuttings is cut into pieces of 10-15 cm, the lower leaves are removed, treated with a root formation stimulator and planted in a cold greenhouse.

How to grow a rootstock for grafting hazelnut cuttings

Grafting hazelnuts on hazel makes it possible to breed especially valuable varieties, but cannot increase the frost resistance of southern varieties. Even if the root is preserved without damage, the earrings will freeze in winter, and this is what for a long time prevented the advancement of culture to the north.

The ideal rootstock for hazelnut varieties is Tree Hazel, it practically does not give shoots, which greatly facilitates care. But the species does not grow well in cold climates. So it makes sense to do such vaccinations only in the southern regions.

Common hazel is a good graft that can be used in the European part of Our Country and warm or hot Asian regions. Due to the peculiarities of the climate in the North and beyond the Urals, it is preferable (but not necessary) to graft hazelnuts on Hazel Diverse.

The best scion will be a seedling grown from a walnut in the area where the garden will be laid.

Growing hazelnuts as a business

Industrial cultivation of hazelnuts is possible in areas unsuitable for other crops. Hazel will feel good on steep slopes, and if you make terraces of sufficient width, mechanized harvesting is possible. On a large plantation, it is better to plant 5-6 varieties, and every 10 rows, plant a strip of Common Hazel for cross-pollination.

Growing hazelnuts on farms, in addition to saving arable land, has a number of advantages:

• ease of storage and long shelf life;
• the average yield of hazelnuts is about 20 centners per hectare;
• ease of cultivation and low cost;
• high demand for hazelnuts both from the population and from processing enterprises;
• high cost of nuts.

Conclusion

Hazelnuts, which are easy to care for and grow, can provide a family with nuts or become additional income even in small areas. Any gardener can easily cope with this crop and get a decent harvest.