Hazels?

[patandchickens]

Who out there has grown hazels (filberts, whatever you want to call them)?

Extensive reading has failed to produce a convincing picture for me of whether they are likely to do ok here. I am not interested in a meaningful nut harvest, just would like to hear firsthand reports of what sort of conditions the shrubs themselves will tolerate and how well they will grow.

Thanks for any info,

Pat, starting to contemplate a spring bareroot shrub-and-tree order from her favorite canadian source www.goldenboughtrees.ca which I strongly recommend to anyone on the correct side of the border

 

[miss_thenorth]

Hi Pat, when I lived up north, beaked hazelnuts were a native plant there. I would go out into the bush in the fall and pick them. It is not a particularly attractive shrub, and the picking wasn't so much fun--but my love of hazelnuts won out. Your area sounds like it is similar to where the plants grew. It grew in around the highbush cranberries, dogwoods, etc. You will need gloves to pick them, and my trick for husking them was to set them out to dry, then put them in a pillow case and smack them against the sidewalk to loosen the husks. The husks are covered in very fine needle-like hairs, and if you don't wear gloves, you will have lotsa those slivers in your fingers.

I have not planted them and grown them, but like I said they grew wild in the claybelt. From how you describe your area, I would think that they would grow well.