Archives

Hybrid Hazel Seeds & Seedlings For Sale

Oct29

The harvest is in and I was gratified to see that 5 of the 6 plants I selected last year as seed sources were again in the top 8 producers. (The 6th had extenuating circumstances of severe crowding). This consistency between years indicates these lines are not prone to biennial bearing (i.e., alternating boom and bust production). The top 4 all produced 5 or more pounds of husked (dehusked?) nuts (moisture content not standardized. Data collected after 7 – 10 days of drying). I was especially impressed with the top producer, E027, who was also last year’s top producer. It went from 13.7 pounds in 2022 to 6.7 pounds but was still ahead of the second highest producer by almost a pound.

Some of you will know that here in southeastern Minnesota we were in extreme drought for a number of weeks this summer. I irrigated just 3 times and feel it did help fill nuts and preserve the health of the plants. The above data are more impressive when you understand that there were a larger number of blank/empty nuts this season. This is the plants’ damage-control mechanism when it senses it cannot fulfill its commitment to fill all the nuts it has started. Thus, many more nuts were initiated but tossed out in the post-harvest processing. In a “normal” year those blank nuts would have been filled – resulting in even greater yields. And most of these are only in their 3rd year of bearing – there are greater yields ahead!!!

Below are photos of the 6 seed lots being offered this year (grid = 1/4″) and a couple of the planting. At the end are links to the order forms. ORDERS MUST BE RECEIVED BY FEBRUARY 15th! I have limited space and only grow on a pre-order basis, not on speculation that I can find buyers once they are started.

I hope I can help improve your planting’s genetics/production. Thanks!

D114 plant and harvest. Not all fit in a 3/4 bushel trug
Hazels at peak color.

Seed Order Form

Plant Order Form

Updated 1/25/24

UPDATE: SEED SALES SUSPENDED FOR THE SEASON as of May 1st. CHECK BACK NEXT OCTOBER FOR NEXT SEASONS OFFERINGS! Advanced Genetics Hazel Seeds for Sale!

Oct11

The seed sales permit just arrived! The seeds I’ve harvested, husked and tended are available for sale. I have some real winners and am excited to share these with others working to build the hazelnut industry – especially in the upper Midwest. Seed will be available by 10s, 50s, and hundreds of seed. Pricing will reflect the relative value that I perceive based on 12 years of working with these hazels (and a Ph. D. in Plant Breeding & Plant Genetics/ UW-Madison), first at Badgersett Research Corporation and then on my farm.

2020 My First Hybrid Hazel Harvest

Dec14

After 5 years of anticipating the first harvest of hybrid hazelnuts, it finally happened! Twenty-eight of the 75 surviving plants I planted as first year seedlings in 2015 had at least one nut – and some had many more.

It was exciting to watch the nuts develop throughout the summer. Some of the larger bushes (5-7 foot tall) had a very obvious fruit set. Others I had to refer back to my notes to see which had had flowers in the spring and carefully search the plants’ branches. The clusters are beautiful aesthetically but also, as a farmer, it is great to see clusters of 5 or 6 nuts at almost every node on some plants. That indicates great yield potential.

  • Immature nuts
  • One gorgeous cluster
  • Clusters at each node

The total weight of the freshly husked nut harvest was 7 pounds but just three bushes accounted for 6 pounds. The size of the nuts was also encouraging. I went low-tech and drilled holes in the bottom of a couple of plastic storage containers – one had 5/8″ holes and the other had 3/4″ holes. The harvest from two of the heavy producers had a majority of the nuts between > 5/8″ & < 3/4″ with some > 3/4″. I dried down most for further analysis (% kernel, dried kernel weight, etc.), but kept nuts from 2 of the best for use as seed for next year.

  • One of the best individual bush harvests – just under 2# freshly husked
  • Nut size – the notebook lines are 1/4 inch apart
  • The husked nuts drying – some with 1-2 nuts and others with over a pound

Some plants were so heavily laden that I applied liquid nitrogen fertilizer two weeks before harvest so the branches did not cannabalize their own resources to fill the nuts and then die off. It was very interesting to see additional branches shoot out as a response – sometimes multiple branches 3 feet tall! More exciting news is that in an inventory I took just last week 80 plants have flowers for next year, including 60 from the 2015 planting and 20 from the 2018 planting. Time seems to pass faster as I age, but sometimes it doesn’t pass fast enough. Looking forward to 2021!

  • Red-leaved new sprouts will bear nuts in 2 years
  • A substantial crop of catkins – next spring’s male flower clusters

If you are interested in more hybrid hazel information, you may want to check out the book I co-authored with my friends and former employers at Badgersett Research Corporation:

Rutter, Philip, Susan Wiegrefe, and Brandon Rutter-Daywater. 2015. Growing Hybrid Hazelnuts: The New Resilient Crop for a Changing Climate. Chelsea Green Publishing, White River Junction, VT. 249 pp.