Perhaps you’ve forgotten since high school biology, but the pollen parent contributes 50% of the genetics of a seed. To ensure I have the highest possible quality seed I remove all the catkins from plants that have been determined to have unacceptably small nuts (=not crackable by commercial and many smaller cracking equipment). This means that the pollen cloud remaining in the plantation to create this year’s seeds have all met the threshold criterion of adequate nut size. This takes a lot of time to sample and evaluate each bush’s nuts and then to remove the catkins of the inferior plants. My small size of 140 bearing bushes last year gives me an advantage as larger operations cannot manage their pollen cloud due to the labor involved. Small niche operations specializing in genetic improvement are key to improving the quality of hazels planting stock reaching the marketplace. It can be devastating and financially challenging if, after 4 or 5 years of carefully tending your plants, you find that a significant fraction of them are below industry standards. Start with the best you can find!

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