Varieties of hazelnuts
My
primary question about hazels was --- is there a more prolific,
cultivated variety that I should plant instead of the wild shrubs
growing around my yard?
The answer is that here
in the eastern U.S., we have both Beaked and
American Hazelnuts, but both of these wild species produce small nuts
in thick shells. In contrast, all of the hazelnuts we buy in the
store are a completely different species of hazelnut --- European
Hazelnut --- which has big seeds and thin shells.
Unfortunately, we can't
just grow European Hazelnuts here. The
European species is very sensitive to an American disease known as Eastern
Filbert Blight,
which you can see in the photo above. If you try to grow European
Hazelnuts in the eastern U.S., your shrubs will wither away. Only
American and Beaked Hazelnuts are able to resist the fungal infection.
Is there a solution to
the small nut vs. dead shrub dilemma? You bet!
| This post is part of our Hybrid Hazelnut lunchtime series.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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