Author: Lynsey Payne

In a Nutshell

Lynsey Payne Chat Appletree Research, Fruit Press Tags: , ,

In a Nutshell… Set to and brutt your plats!
Some notes on Hazelnuts in Scotland.

The hazel is an important native tree to Scotland (they floated in to the west coast perhaps), and as we sell cobnuts and hazels at Appletreeman, I thought I would put down some notes on their cultivation. Unfortunately there is no information on how to grow them for profit in Scotland, and as most of the UK production is in Kent, and places like Piedmont in Western Italy and Turkey have a thriving hazelnut industry, I have had to glean some notes from old books and European papers. So let’s start with what we do know about their cultivation from these other areas…

We have a Hazel plantation near us, which is productive most years from trees closely spaced and about 25ft tall. They are very vigorous, having lots of ‘’water shoots’’ extending up through their centres to reach the light. The fruit is almost impossible to harvest… we have to wait for them to drop after the Squirrels have had their fill! If we are lucky, there may be piles of nuts surviving under the winter’s blanket of snow. The trees are 14 years old and almost perfect for coppicing now and making use of the rods for hurdle making etc. However they aren’t so good for nut production and collecting.

Corylus_avellana

Our native hazel is Corylus avellana. The filbert with its ‘’bearded’’ cover is C. maxima. W.J. Bean lists 10 species, Hillier’s Manual, 8 species. The 2004/5 RHS Plantfinder has 53 entries of species and varieties.They are all native to Northern climes. It is suggested by Bob Flowerdew that these two and C. americana and C. colurna have all interbred to some extent and account for our productive nut clones of today. (see refs. below).

The problem with our local C. avellana for production of nuts is partly due to them being on the very good glacial soils of Tayside, making very vigorous trees, and their close planting drawing them up to the light. So, don’t be too worried about planting on a stony or less favourable soil, though probably avoid wet areas and frost hollows. And don’t crowd them in. A nice well-drained slope with some protection from the East is probably ideal. And they quite like an alkaline soil, though this isn’t essential.

Our local hazels flower very early, sometimes February, usually March. The male catkins are forming, and extending from November, the little red females later. They are wind pollinated, so shaking the branches, or even performing pollination with a little brush on a nice early spring morning is ideal. Of course, you would need reachable branches to do this. Hopefully the male and female flowers will be open at the same time. Our native Hazel must undoubtedly be very hardy, though the non-cropping years are probably due to frost damage. I wonder if we should be investigating late flowering varieties here in Scotland? (See lists below from various authors).

Hazels to coppice at Duchess Woods

Hazels to coppice at Duchess Woods

When you receive a new tree, aim to have a short stem and 5 or 6 branches only. Tie these down or put spacers in to make these fairly horizontal – i.e. make a goblet shape. Any shoots coming up through the centre should be ripped off, and suckers removed also. This may be a continuous exercise every year judging by our local trees. When only 30cm long, allow these framework branches to divide.

So you have achieved a nice open centred tree in the first few years… maintain this framework and head back new growth to keep these trees just above head height so you can pick the nuts. The next stage is to allow lots of laterals to form on your main branches. Strong ones are cut back to two buds, weaker ones may be left. In March, after pollination, cut back the tips of the laterals to a pollinated flower. This is where your nuts will be forming. Then in August, all strong lateral growths are ‘’brutted’’, i.e. the ends are snapped to leave them hanging. This slows down the growth of the tree, lets air in, and puts energy into the nuts. The brutted shoots are cut back in the winter again.

Cross-pollination seems to be important for many varieties and clones, so don’t just buy one tree or variety. Each year try to find another to add to your wee collection. Plant them in a group to aid wind pollination, 4 m apart maximum.

So, in essence it is a bit like pruning a cordon apple tree on each branch if you are familiar with that. A vigorous tree, removed of all excessive growth, and prevented from crowding itself, and having some pollination partners, is the aim. Then there’s the birds, the squirrels and bud mites, and nut weevils to contend with…

Sanders, pge. 58 (see refs) has a good description of the pruning method described above.

Some varieties to look out for:

  • Kentish Cob ( Longue D’Espagne )
  • Webb’s Prize Cob
  • Bollwyller
  • Cosford – thin shelled, good pollinator
  • Pearson’s Prolific ( Nottingham ) – smaller tree
  • Filberts: Red Lambert
  • Trazel (cross between C. avellana and C. colurna) Chinoka and Freeoka.

The Victorians took a good interest in Hazelnuts, and Hogg listed no less than 32 varieties.(pages 426-433 in the 1884 edition). Including the following:

  • Atlas ( C. algeriensis, the Spanish Cob ).
  • Aveline De Provence
  • Barr’s Spanish
  • Bizane
  • Bond
  • Burchardt’s
  • Burn’s ( a grappes precoce )
  • Cannon Ball
  • Cluster ( a grappes )
  • Cosford
  • Daviana
  • Duke of Edinburgh
  • Eugenie
  • Frizzled Hazel ( C. laciniatus )
  • Frizzled Filbert
  • Hartington Prolific
  • Lambert Filbert ( syn Kentish Cob and Webb’s Prize ?)
  • Large Black Fruited ( a gros fruits noirs )
  • Lichtenstein’s
  • Liegel’s
  • Loddiges’ Barcelona
  • Merveille De Bollwyller
  • Norwich Prolific
  • Pearson’s Prolific
  • Primley
  • Prolific Filbert
  • Purple Filbert
  • Striped Fruited ( a fruits Stries )
  • St .Grisier
  • The Shah
  • White Filbert

The National Fruit Collection has Filbert Frizzled, and Kentish Cob, Butler, Ennis

The Kentish Cob Association lists the following trees:

  • Kentish Cob is a reliable cropper, relatively hardy, with excellent flavour. It is recommended for domestic use. It is pollinated by Gunslebert, Cosford and Merveille de Bollwiller, and probably also by wild hazels.
  • Merveille de Bollwiller (also called Hall’s Giant) is a hardy, vigorous and productive variety with large nuts. It is pollinated by Kentish Cob, Cosford, Butler and Ennis.
  • Butler is a large mid- to late-season nut. It is hardy, vigorous and a heavy cropper, and a short-husked variety which de-husks freely when ripe. It is popular for modern commercial production, and is pollinated by Ennis and Merveille de Bollwiller.
  • Ennis is a very attractive large round nut with a superb flavour, but a tendency to produce a significant proportion of blank nuts. It is pollinated by Butler and Merveille de Bollwiller.
  • Purple Filbert (also misnamed Red Filbert) is an ornamental variety with red or purple leaves. It produces a small crop of thin-shelled nuts of excellent flavour but which are particularly susceptible to nut weevil. It is not recommended for nut production.

WJ Bean, Hardy Trees and Shrubs of the British Isle.

  • Corylus spp. listed:
  • americana
  • avellana,
  • chinensis
  • colurna
  • jaquemontii
  • cornuta
  • heterophylla
  • maxima
  • sieboldiana
  • tibetica

Some useful references:

RHS Fruit Yearbook, 1950 by J. Turnbull, pgs 106-109.
Bob Flowerdews’s Complete Fruit Book, 1997, pges 198-199
Hogg, R., The Fruit Manual, 1884. pages 426-433.
Sanders, T.W., Fruit Growing, (no date), pages 55-61 and 215.
http://www.treesforlife.org.uk/tfl.hazel.html
http://www.snh.gov.uk/docs/B850216.pdf
http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/HazelAwarenessleaflet.pdf/$file/HazelAwarenessleaflet.pdf
http://www.kentishcobnutsassociation.org.uk/a-brief-history-of-cobnuts.aspx

Finally, do hazelnuts float?
http://www.highlandperthshirenews.co.uk/general-landuse-environment/do-hazel-nuts-float

We’d love to hear from anyone who manages their hazels or cobs for their nuts in Scotland.

What is grafting?

Lynsey Payne Apple Bytes, Resources

What is grafting? It is the way in which gardeners have propagated their favourite fruit trees for centuries. There are many different ways of grafting, but they all involve joining up of the cambium which lies just under the bark of the twigs.

Side Veneer Grafting
Side Veneer Grafting

There is an easy amateur method called side veneer grafting, and for the more capable, saddle grafting. Using containerised trees you can relax in the warm, inside. Professional work would be done outside on field grown stock.

The principle is the same with all grafting and budding, that is to match up scion and rootstock as accurately as possible. Just fit one to the other and tie in with a few wraps of polythene – or biodegradeable tape. Do it in February, and remove the tape by July. The tree can be planted out the following year as a maiden.

Budding is a type of graft which uses a tiny bud of your tree which is inserted into a slot on a new rootstock. Chip Budding or T-budding are types of budding graft, which are usually done in August on trees growing outside.

Example of a T-bud
Example of a T-bud

If you want to graft a tree of your own, or learn a new technique, sign up for one of Appletreeman‘s grafting courses – check our events page for the next one.

The Tree Nursery in Winter

Lynsey Payne Chat Appletree Happenings, Fruit Press, Winter Tags: , , ,

Appletreeman rarely has a day off in winter! We are still lifting trees for delivery as bare root trees, and this can continue as long as the soil is not frozen solid and when all the trees are sold and delivered of course.  We are also in the process of cutting back 4,000 rootstocks, which are about 1.8m high, to the bottom bud. So there is quite a sizable bonfire to deal with at some stage! This job is done come rain or snow, though a half day is allowed in bad weather.

Appletreeman's Nursery In Winter

Appletreeman’s Nursery In Winter

These stocks were budded (a form of grafting) in August, so we have also been taking the polythene off which has been protecting the bud from drying out. These stocks will then sit as little 10cm high stumps until the bud opens up (hopefully) in May, and forms a new shoot and hence your named apple tree variety.

Budded Tree In January

Budded Tree In January

If only the ground would dry up, we would also be ploughing a new patch of field (we move every year) and be planting our next batch of rootstocks for grafting and budding heritage varieties for 2015. So no winter hibernation here!

Culzean Castle

Lynsey Payne Chat Appletree Places, Fruit Press Tags: , ,

Those of you who havn’t visited Culzean before are going to be impressed with the Castle’s clifftop view over the Forth of Clyde towards the Isle of Arran. But for me its the tropical feel to the Fountain Garden, the miles of easy paths in the woods to the Swan Pond and beyond, but especially the trees and garden plants in Happy Valley and the Walled Garden that are of interest. Its open 9.30 to sunset each day (well, except the walled garden on New Year’s Day!)

There are Parrotias, Sciadipitys and Myrtles with their beautiful bark to delight in Happy Valley, and a beautiful arch of old Scottish Apples at the back of the walled garden. If you want to see a good selection of Scottish fruit, visit in early autumn.

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You will find Oslin, Stirling Castle, Bloody Ploughman and East Lothian Pippin here which I planted in about 1992. They have been kept beautifully as cordons, some making strong growth and thick stems, though all were on dwarfing rootstocks.

There are also many fruit trees within the walled garden, including a unique Scottish variety, Culzean Seedling. Also of great interest to fruittreemen (& women) in the walled garden is the enormous Fig tree in the south east facing corner of the wall, which has layered itself along the ground to a large extent. It produces lots of fruit and has to be rigorously controlled each year, such is the advantage of a good wall to plant against. Do visit this gem in West Scotland and enjoy!