It’s been a while since I featured the hazels in a post so thought they deserved a boost. With last summer’s drought I had greater than usual mortality (67% of first year seedlings died). The ones that survived, however, are doing great! I was able to do replacement planting the second and third weeks of June this year. Luckily, after initial planting Mother Nature took over the watering. I’m also showing images of the other aged hazels and a little about their conditions. Note: because of the high value of each plant I go to extremes to protect individuals that most producers would not if they are cost conscious. With my limited space I need survival of as many as possible first time around since planting a large quantity isn’t an option. It makes better use of the land, too. However, full stocking rate isn’t the end all – each will be evaluated and removed/replaced if they don’t meet minimum requirements.

There are a lot of trees covered with nuts out there – some already sprawling under their weight. It should be a good harvest, though I want to apply some quickly-available soluble fertilizer to help them fill their nuts and reduce branch burnout. That is a condition where the plants sacrifice the life of the branch for the benefit of the developing nuts. Stay tuned for harvest report.