Friday, March 26, 2010

Hazels in full bloom



Well, it seems a little early, but the hazels have been in bloom for a full week now. Typically our hazels have flowered the first or second week of April. Evidently the warm March weather has been enough to get them going.
In our early years of growing hazels, I would get nervous during the bloom period...probably a vestige of my apple growing experience while growing up. Apples in bloom when hit with 26º temps will have nearly 100% crop loss. On several occasions during hazel bloom we've seen the temps hit zero degrees and once it reached -4ºF. The tiny red female flowers withered away and I thought that all was lost. As soon as the cold snap was over, though, they came out again. Were they the same blossoms? Did the plant make new female flowers? I don't know. Whatever happened, there didn't appear to be any crop loss.
So... it's cold, and yet the hazels are blooming merrily away.
On the side bar you'll see some pictures... The tiny, pink-red starburst feature on the tip of the bud, is a close-up of the female flower. (the male parts and female parts are separate on hazels) This is the structure that will develop into the future nut cluster.
The other picture shows both male and female flowers... The male catkins are the long, yellow-ish structures in this picture. They were elongated and shedding pollen when I took this picture. Higher up on the stem you can see the female flowers. If you don't know what you're looking for they're hard to see sometimes...
The plants in these pictures were of 3yr old ForestAg Hazelnut seedlings that had been planted directly into sod in the spring of 2007.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Getting ready to "stool"



It's the time of year when we've just finished de-tasseling (for breeding purposes... not necessary for production purposes) and we've begun setting up for "stoolbed layering" . In stoolbed layering, one superior plant can be multiplied over and over. The first photo in this series is of one of our superior plants prior to the beginning of the procedure...
In the early spring of the year, before the buds begin to swell, the parent plant is pruned to remove the most mature stems. Once this is done, the base of the plant will be covered with 6-10 inches of sawdust and left to its own devices. As spring advances and the plant begins to grow it will send dozens of shoots up from the root crown through the sawdust. Some time in Mid-June, these shoots will be treated with a rooting hormone and a constrictive band in order to stimulate root development. In the fall or the following spring, these new plants will be dug up and transplanted to their new home. This is a simple and effective way for growers to multiply their "best" plants.
The plant in these photographs is one of our "show pony" hazelnut plants. It has produced very steady crops of large and extremely beautiful nuts from a very early age. These nuts are perfect for in-shell markets. Once we have enough of these plants to satisfy our own needs, we will make them available for sale...

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Forest Ag's Hazelnut Blog: Introductory post

Forest Ag's Hazelnut Blog: Introductory post

Introductory post

Greetings!
This is but one of the blogs to which I occasionally post. For those who wish to keep things neatly categorized this blog will stick strictly to all things hazelnut... Links to my other blogs will be posted eventually.

The past two days of GORGEOUS March weather have been spent de-tasseling hazelnut plants that we don't want to cast pollen. Only our top producers get to do that. A few catkins have begun to elongate, but none are shedding pollen yet.
On the agenda for today is to coppice several "prize" plants to begin the stool-bed layering process.