There are a number of different types of hazelnuts from all over the world.
The hazels we eat and use in many products come mostly from species in Europe (with Turkey dominating the market), but the plants aren’t cold or disease hardy when planted in most of the United States.
There are hazelnut species that are native to the northeastern United States, and these plants are very cold hardy and disease resistant, but the nuts these native plants produce are on the small side.
For many years, breeders in the U.S. have been crossing the American and European hazels to form new hybrids, and these hybrid hazels are what we work with. We get seeds from high quality genetic lines which are grown into the seedlings we have to offer.
What Are Seedlings?
Seedlings are plants that have been grown directly from a seed. They are genetic individuals whose traits that are not exactly known. Seedlings are in contrast with plants which have been cloned, as cloned plants are sure to have certain characteristics.
Often seedlings share characteristics with their parents, but exactly how much is shared depends on the species of plant. Having good parents certainly doesn’t hurt!
The nuts of these hybrid hazelnuts are super high in protein. They also have a very high oil content, which is incentivizing farmers in our region to invest in nut-oil processing equipment to get the northeastern nut-oil industry off the ground.
The wood of hazelnut is also very valuable. The stems can be cut to the ground regularly to generate excellent pole wood as a part of a regular coppicing schedule.
Become a part of the budding hazelnut movement! Now is the best time to plant hazelnuts in history!
Growth Parameters:
The exact size of seedling hybrid hazelnuts is hard to predict due to genetic diversity amongst seedlings. Generally, you can expect a shrub 8 to 15 feet tall, and probably 6 to 10 feet wide. Certainly accepts some shade, however will be most productive in full sun.
Plant at least two for cross pollination.
Also many hazelnuts prove to be fairly juglone tolerant (juglone is from black walnut trees, juggalone is from ICP 🙂 ), so experiment with hazels under black walnuts where other species aren’t thriving.
