How to grow hazelnuts

You can grow hazelnuts or hazels yourself even in Siberian frosts. This compact shrub is unpretentious to the conditions and, with good care, produces a bountiful harvest. After planting three-year-old seedlings, the first nuts can be seen after 1-3 years.

Hazelnut varieties

Only 20 were bred for home cultivation. varieties hazel The following varieties are most popular in our country for growing in garden plots:

• The Adygei variety is mid-season. It withstands frost and lack of moisture well, and is not damaged by pests or diseases. The fruits of this variety have a wide-round shape and form rosettes of 4 or 5 pieces. The nuts taste sweet and tart.

• The Ekaterina variety was obtained in 1961. This hazelnut forms a spreading bush with reddish leaves. The fruits grow large and long with a thin shell. The kernels have a dessert taste and reach a weight of 5 g. The ripening period for this variety is the last ten days of September. This variety grows well in the south.

• The Masha variety is also frost-resistant. Its fruits have an elongated shape and weigh about 2 g. The peel of these fruits is thin and tender, and the taste of the kernels is dessert-like, with medium oiliness.

• The Isaevsky variety is distinguished by high frost-resistant qualities. It can withstand frosts down to -42 degrees. This hazelnut has large, light brown fruits. The kernels have an excellent dessert taste.

• The Barcelona variety is distinguished by its large bush growth up to 5 meters. The crown has a spreading shape with large fleecy foliage of light green color. The nuts are large with a thick shell. The kernels have an asymmetrical shape and a sweet taste. The fruits ripen in the first ten days of September, the harvest is usually very high.

Hazelnuts at home

A warm, wind-protected place with plenty of sunlight is suitable as a site for hazelnuts. The best choice for this is bush place on the south or southwest side of the building. An alternative would be to protect the seedling with hedges, which are located at a distance of no closer than 4 meters from it. Otherwise, the plant's root system will suffer from a lack of nutrients.

Choose a flat area for the plant to make it easier to care for in the future. Hazelnuts do not like a lot of moisture, so a place where it is very humid in spring is not suitable for it. Also make sure that groundwater does not rise above one and a half meters from the surface.

The composition of the soil for a walnut bush does not require any special features. The plant feels best on chernozem soil and does not tolerate sandy, swampy or highly acidic soil. In this case, the plantings must be treated with lime. It must be applied a year before the expected planting date, 500 g per square meter of land.

Immediately before planting, you need to dig up the area and weed out the weeds. To ensure that the seedlings take root well, superphosphate (200 g) and potassium salt (50 g) fertilizers are applied.

Planting hazelnuts

Hazelnuts are planted in autumn in holes with sides of 80 cm and a depth of about half a meter. Humus or compost and soil from an adult walnut bush are placed at the bottom of the planting hole. The distance between seedlings should be chosen depending on the plant variety and the size of the crown of an adult bush. In general, it is at least 4 meters. Hazel requires cross-pollination, so the plants should be located nearby and it is good if different varieties are planted. In the first years, the space between the bushes can be given over to vegetable beds.

Before planting, the roots are cut to a length of 20 cm and moistened in a mixture of clay and liquid manure. Then the seedlings are placed in holes prepared in advance and covered with soil. In this case, the level of the root collar should be buried 2 cm and not covered with soil. This way the plant will grow and branch better. The soil should only be compacted in areas where roots are spreading.

Each seedling is watered with 2 buckets of water, and a layer of peat or humus mulch up to 5 cm thick is placed in the space next to the trunk. The branches of the seedling are trimmed to a length of 25 cm.

Hazelnut care

In the initial period, when the bush is just forming, special attention is paid to timely weeding weed and loosening the soil. In this case, the soil should be dug very carefully to a depth of 8 cm, so as not to damage the root system that is close to the soil surface.

For an adult plant, weeds will not pose a danger. Then the easiest way will be to mulch the soil around the bush. This will not only protect against weeds, but also protect the soil from washing out and weathering.

For a good harvest, hazelnuts need abundant watering. It is best to water the bush twice a month in dry weather. If the weather is rainy, there is no need to water the hazelnuts additionally.

Fertilizers need to be applied annually. From organic matter, hazel prefers humus, manure or compost in an amount of 15-20 liters and a small amount of nitroammophoska for each bush.

During the period of fruit laying, the plant is fed with urea or other mineral fertilizers. If the plant grows on fertile soil, nitrogen fertilizers are not used. Otherwise, the bush will begin to grow wildly, and the yield will decrease. On poor soils, it is necessary to apply nitrogen fertilizers in the spring, which will have a positive effect on yields.

For good plant growth and increased productivity, it is important to prune the bush correctly. It is carried out in early spring or autumn. All unnecessary branches are cut out from the middle of the bush, leaving only 8-10 skeletal trunks. It is important to provide good light access to all branches to increase yield.

A few years after planting, shoots begin to actively grow. It can be cut out completely, then the plant will form in the form of a tree. But you can leave some overgrowth shoots, cutting out unnecessary ones. Then the plant will form as a bush. After 15-20 years, it is recommended to rejuvenate the tree, gradually remove old skeletal shoots and replace them with new ones.