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Red-leaved hazel is a honey plant with excellent fruit taste. Thanks to the lush crown with burgundy leaves, hazel is used as an ornamental plant that fits perfectly into any landscape.
Description of the red-leaved hazelnut
Red-leaved hazel is a tall (more than 5 m), heat-loving shrub that grows in the central regions of Our Country and in the south. In the wild, a sprawling plant can be found in deciduous forests, steppes. Hazel prefers fertile, well-moistened soils. In one bush can be up to 9 trunks. Their bark is ash-gray, dense, smooth. In young shoots it is dark red.
In nature, the shrub has a sprawling, ball-shaped crown. Its diameter can reach 6 m. In artificially created landscapes, hazelnuts are shaped into a low tree. After planting, the culture quickly takes root and grows.
The leaves of the red-leaved hazel are large, oblong in the form of a river bream fish, which gave the name to the shrub. Their length is about 10 cm, width – 8 cm. In spring, their color is dark brown with a green tint, in summer – burgundy, in spring – yellow-orange. The bottom of the leaf is always lighter than the top. There is a small fluff on the veins.
Hazelnut blooms early, before the leaves appear, in late February, early March. Male and female inflorescences are on the same plant, appear simultaneously. Male flowers look like birch catkins, only pink, female flowers are in the form of buds collected in inflorescences.
Hazelnut fruits are oblong with a strong gray-brown shell. Grow 6-8 pieces on one cutting. The kernels are round, dark beige, nutritious, high-calorie with excellent taste. Ripen in late August or early September.
Red-leaved hazel in landscape design
Hazelnut bushes are planted as hedges. Their dense crown allows you to protect the garden from the winds. You can use a shrub for knocking tall trees. A flower bed bordered by dark red hazel plants will look advantageous at any time of the year.
It is good to plant lush purple bushes near the porch or under the windows of the house. Small groves of red-leaved hazelnuts on the plot look unpretentious and at the same time very impressive. Moreover, for good fruiting, it is necessary to plant several plants side by side, at a distance of 5 m from each other. For decorative purposes, red-leaved hazel is planted at a distance of 3 m between the bushes.
With the help of hazelnuts, you can fix areas of the garden that are prone to slipping: ravines, hills. Strong superficial roots of a plant well fix the soil on which grow.
The photo shows how red-leaved hazel is used in landscape design:
Varieties of red-leaved hazel
A large number of species of red-leaved hazelnuts were bred in Our Country, the near abroad, and in Western Europe. All of them are used not only to obtain nuts, but also to decorate the garden. Shrubs with burgundy leaves are used to arrange color accents among garden greenery.
Hazelnut Lambert red leaf
The plant was obtained in Holland by selection. This is a low-growing shrub (height does not exceed 4 m) with small red leaves. They remain such only in spring; at other times of the year, only the top of the hazel has a burgundy hue.
Hazelnut Lambert blooms early, in February. Frost is not afraid. It is planted as a pollinator for other varieties of hazel. The fruits of the shrub are small, but have good taste. Their weight does not exceed 2 g. The nuts can be harvested as early as mid-August.
Hazel Contorta red-leaved
This is the most unusual variety of hazelnuts. It has long curved shoots, shriveled leaves. The branches are densely covered with pink-red catkins in spring. In nature, it grows throughout Western Europe, in the Caucasus, in the Crimea. Due to its unusual appearance, Contort hazel is used as an ornamental plant.
Red-leaved hazelnut Kontorta is a low-growing shrub, its length does not exceed 3 m. The width of the crown is 2-3 m. After planting, the plant quickly takes root and grows. After the start of fruiting, growth may slow down.
The shoots of the shrub are dark brown, ornately twisted. The rhizome spreads close to the surface of the earth, the branches are long, strong, curved. The leaves are small, no more than 2 cm long, red in spring and autumn, green in summer. Their surface is covered with fluff, they look dented, as if damaged by pests. The bush blooms with earrings of a dark color, on top they are covered with yellow pollen.
Red-leaved hazel blooms in late March or early April. Prefers to grow in open, well-lit areas, on moderately moist soils.
Contort hazel bears fruit in September. Nuts are small, oblong, in a strong braid.
Red-leaved hazelnuts look unusual and bizarre in late autumn, when they shed their leaves, and twisted, as if curled shoots are exposed.
Hazelnut Warsaw red leaf
The variety was bred in Warsaw in the last century. This is a tall plant that reaches 7 m in height. The crown is lush, spreading, the size in diameter reaches 6 m.
The leaves are large, long, brown-red in spring, green in summer, bright orange in autumn. Their length is about 7 cm. In spring, the shoots are covered with numerous male inflorescences in the form of earrings. Their length reaches 7 mm.
Warsaw red-leaved hazelnut is a whimsical plant, vulnerable to frost and waterlogging of the soil. The shrub does not tolerate shading and drafts, bears fruit well on neutral fertile soils. Under adverse conditions, hazelnuts do not pollinate, they require a pollinator plant or artificial pollination.
Hazelnut Varshavsky ripens in early autumn. It has medium-sized fruits (about 2,5 cm in length), the fruit wrap is thin.
Hazelnut red-leaved Siren
The variety was bred in Poland in the last century. This is a low-growing plant (4-5 m) in the form of a bush. After disembarkation quickly gaining growth. Hazel is decorated with large oval leaves of dark red color with bright scarlet veins. Their uneven, sinewy surface is covered with a small fluff.
In spring, gray catkins appear on the shoots, which turn bright red when blooming. They grow in inflorescences of 2-3 pieces.
Hazel bears fruit at the end of summer. Nuts are located on one handle of 5-7 pieces. The fruits are large, oblong, the wrapper is thin and fragile. After harvesting and drying the fruit, the nut kernels are easy to extract. Taste qualities of nuts are high.
Hazelnut siren is a frost-resistant plant that can withstand temperatures down to -20 Cᵒ. It blooms early – in early March, before the leaves bloom.
Planting and caring for red-leaved hazel
Hazelnut prefers fertile, moderately moist soils that do not contain sand or clay. Hazel develops well in lighted open areas, grows in the shade, but bears fruit poorly.
Preparation of planting material and site
To get a good harvest of nuts, several hazelnut bushes are planted nearby. Choose an open area, well lit by the sun, not blown by the winds. Landing can be carried out in spring or autumn. Agronomists recommend rooting this crop in mid-September.
For planting, several seedlings of red-leaved hazelnuts with different ripening periods are selected. They will pollinate each other well. Seedlings are chosen with a small number of leaves, a well-developed root system. The length of the branches on the rhizome is at least 30 cm. One seedling should have 3 or more shoots. Before planting, the roots are soaked in special solutions to stimulate growth.
A month before planting, a hole is prepared. During this time, the earth will settle in it and compact well. Its size should be approximately 70×70 cm, no less. The bottom of the pit is covered with a bucket of humus with a glass of superphosphate and 50 g of potassium sulfate.
Rules of landing
For good survival and rooting, hazel is planted according to certain rules. It is important to observe the distance between seedlings (3-5 m), choose a site that is not flooded by spring floods.
Landing algorithm:
- In the center of the pit, a hill of earth is poured for rooting hazel.
- The roots are taken out of the solution, straightened, evenly laid out in the center of the bulk hill.
- The shoots are fixed vertically, tied to a wooden peg, which should be installed in the pit.
- After the roots fall asleep with loose earth and lightly trample.
- The root neck is left 5 cm above the soil level.
- The seedling is watered with 3 buckets of water.
Watering and top dressing
Red-leaved hazelnut loves moist soils, but does not tolerate excess water. After planting and watering, the trunk circle must be mulched with pine needles or sawdust.
Watering is repeated a week after planting. It is necessary to ensure that the moisture from the previous time is completely absorbed. Do not allow stagnation of moisture near the shoots and rotting of the roots.
In summer, watering is carried out 2-3 times a month. Water consumption per plant – 10 liters. It is important to prevent the roots from drying out in June and July. At this time, the fruits of the current year are being formed.
Red-leaved hazel should be fed after planting no more than 1 time in 3 years. Humus and compost are used as fertilizer. For 1 plant they will need 5 kg. At the beginning of summer, nitrogen fertilizers are applied in the amount of 100 g per plant to increase productivity.
Loosening and mulching
In the summer, several times a month, the trunk circles must be loosened. This should be done carefully and shallowly, since the roots are close to the surface of the earth. After watering, as soon as all the moisture is absorbed, the soil around the rhizome is mulched (covered) with mowed grass, needles, and tree bark. This will keep moisture near the root.
Pruning and shaping the crown
Pruning of the red-leaved hazelnut is carried out in late autumn after the foliage has fallen. It is important to thin out young plants up to 4 years old annually. This will increase the yield of the plant during the fruiting period.
The hazel is cut, starting from the center of the crown, forming a kind of vase. This will allow the sun’s rays to penetrate to the young, still unformed shoots. This increases the number of ovaries of nuts.
During autumn pruning, dry, damaged, too long branches are removed. Lateral shoots bend down and to the sides, fixed with a wire. This will facilitate the access of sunlight and air deep into the crown.
Preparation for winter
Young plants up to 4 years old must be wrapped for the winter with agrofiber or film. You can bend long shoots to the ground, fix with metal brackets. From above, the bush is covered with spruce branches. As soon as the snow falls, it is thrown on top of the bush. Red-leaved hazelnut older than 4 years, frost-resistant varieties (Maria Makarevich, Miracle of Vsesvyatsky, Pushkin Red) winters well without shelter.
Harvest
The plant bears fruit 4 or 5 years after planting. Harvesting of red-leaved hazel fruits begins in late August or early September, depending on the variety. Maturity is determined by the yellowing of the shell, the fruits begin to crumble. Nuts are plucked from the bush, fallen fruits are collected. From one hazelnut bush, from 2 to 4 kg of fruits are harvested.
After removal from the bush, the nuts are dried for 2 weeks. Hazelnuts are considered suitable for food, in which the pluses have fallen.
Reproduction
Varietal hazelnuts are propagated by grafting a bud or cutting onto a wild hazel bush. Do it at the end of summer.
In addition, there are other ways to propagate red-leaved hazel:
- seeds;
- root layers;
- shoots.
The easiest way is to divide the bush. At the end of summer or autumn, with the help of a well-sharpened shovel, I separate the plant with 2-3 shoots from the mother bush. Small incisions are made on them at a distance of 15-20 cm from the rhizome. This stimulates the growth of new branches. After the new bush is rooted according to all the rules.
Diseases and pests
Red-leaved hazel is a variety resistant to diseases and pests. Rarely attacked by aphids, scale insects, caterpillars, nut weevil. To prevent the appearance of insects on hazelnut leaves, it is treated in February before bud break with appropriate preparations. Re-spray the bushes after the appearance of leaves.
Red-leaved hazelnuts are prone to fungal diseases. To combat them, the bush is sprayed with a solution of Bordeaux mixture.
Conclusion
Red-leaved hazel is an unpretentious frost-resistant plant. Its fruits are loved for their high nutritional value, rich mineral composition, good taste. Using a minimum of agrotechnical means and techniques, you can get a good harvest of hazelnuts in the fall.
