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I would like to grow hazelnuts from seed is this realistically possible or should I buy the trees already started. I have been told it can take up to 20 yrs for some plants to produce nuts. Thanks in advance.

Dead easy from nuts, but as you surmise they can take a long time to fruit,though 20 years is a bit excessive. Also you are at the mercy of genetics as far as getting trees which are heavy croppers etc. Personally I would buy ready to fruit bushes. A nursery near here sells decent size ones for less than £15.

Cheers cant seem to find trees in the nursery's about here will look into ordering them in.

I would expect fruits within 5 years - I have two hazles (native variety) in my back garden/stamp and and after coppicing back hard, it is only about two years before they are producing nuts again.

Tryhttp://www.hedging.co.uk/acatalog/Index_Other_Fruit___Nuts_24.html#aHAZN1  for mail order.

Quote from: Palustris on February 09, 2006, 16:28:15
Dead easy from nuts...

Thats good to hear, I've got some to try! Any hints on the best way of going about it?

Caz

If your going to grow a Hazel, why not plant one impregnated with truffles? - Double harvest!!!!! ;D

Not sure about truffles in them, but all that happens with our native hazels is that the squirrels bury them in autumn and forget where. The nuts then begin to grow the following spring. So I would guess you should sow the whole thing in autumn and leave to nature. You could try cracking the nut and sowing the kernel.

Had hazelnut trees (2 small) in back garden for about 5 years, bought from Marshalls. They produced nuts quite quickly, in the second year after planting I think. I moved them onto the allotment last year, but am still finding sprouting nuts in the back garden, so they do sprout quite easily, but have never deliberately grown them from nuts myself.

I forgot to say, you can sow the seeds now or even as late as may. I think they may need stratifying for high success rates, but you should be able to buy stratified seed. You should also be able to choose seed in accordance with where it was collected so you can buy seed from an area that matches your climate perfectly. Forestart is a good company for seed.

Good luck!

Truffle

I'm quite interested in the truffle thing with hazel trees. Anyone tried it?

Hi Grawrc,

Growing truffles is actually quite simple- you need to make sure your soils really quite alkali (pH 7.3-7.9 is best) so its a good idea to incorporate lime before you plant. Then you need to wait at least 3 years but then your tree may start to produce truffles!

They are not too hard to find if you just have a couple of trees. You can look around under the tree and brush the the soil aside, I know a guy in gloustershire who harvested 750g from 5 trees using this method.

You can buy them from: www.PlantationSystems.com and I reccomend the hazel trees with summer truffle to get the host reliable harvest in the quickest time frame.
Best wishes,

Truffle

Thanks Truffle
Clearly you have a nose for it. ;) The website you recommend is considerably cheaper than Franchi seeds where I saw them before. I might just give it a go. I'm assuming that  you have truffles?
Do you have to grow the hazels as trees or could you grow a hazel hedge with truffles?

Hi Grawrc,

Yep- I LOVE truffles.. I'm getting my last delivery of the Winter season truffles in about a week or so, I seriously suggest trying them fresh- they're pretty indescribable.

You can certinly grow the hazels as a hedge, I think thats  a great idea and I would quite like to try that myself! Its a good idea to plant the hedge away from other trees just to ensure you get the best yields etc. You will have to keep us all updated!!!

If you want to know anymore please just ask  ;)

Truffle

Hazel is a traditional native hedging plant, though it's fast growing  and needs ruthless trimming to keep it in order. Unfortunately, my soil is too acid for truffles!

Yes I'm rather partial to them myself! As one who is a frequent visitor to Italy I have had many opportunities to enjoy them. That's precisely why I'm thinking of growing some in the hazels. I had always associated them with places like Perigord and perugia rather than Edinburgh but it appears they will grow here too.

Its pretty amazing- the UK truffle species has been recorded growing naturally as far north as Lothian in Scotland. The UK actually once had a thriving truffle industry- I hope we can re-establish it!

The species that grows in the Perigord is the winter black truffle, the best one to grow in the UK is the UK Summer truffle. This tastes very similar to the ones in Perigord but is slightly milder- also its harvested in the summer which makes harvesting far more pleasurable.

Robert - don't dispair. If you did want to grow truffles you can easily lime the soil. There is one farm in Devon where the pH was 5.8 and is being limed to raise it to 7.6 for truffles!

Grawrc- Have you tried the Italian white truffles?

It might be worth considering then, hazels do well here.

Yes Truffle, but I think my favourites are the black ones. We often go to a little restaurant in Caprese Michelangelo where they do wonderful things with fresh truffles both white and black.

To get back on topic I was wondering whether I could plant a native hazel hedge with 2 or 3 of the pretreated trees interspersed. Hopefully the truffles would spread.

I also prefer the black ones, I find the white truffles quite garlicky.

The truffle-trees could be interspersed in a hazel hedge. The truffle could certinly spread throughout the hedge but conversely competing fungi could spread from the other hazels to the truffle-hazels. So it is a bit riskier using this approach as yields per tree may be lessened, or of course the whole hedge could end up producing truffles!  Really it would be best if all the hazels were truffle hazels- but thats quite an expensive option. 

In summation: Yes, you can intersperse the hedge with truffle-hazels and there is every chance that the truffle could spread throughout the hedge. However, you should use as many truffle-hazels as possible!

I love the idea of a truffle-hedge, I think I'll give this a whirl........