It will start producing nuts approximately 2 to 3 years after planting, 8 years if grown from seed. It takes a multi-stem shape with an open base, often very extended. It produces red female flowers and yellow-brown male clusters on the same plant (but it is not self-fertile). A newly planted hazel tree doesn't start producing nuts until the tree is established.
A first hazelnut harvest can be expected between two and five years after planting the tree. Starter crops are usually small, but as the tree matures, the crops increase in size. A ripe hazelnut tree can produce up to 25 pounds of nuts in a single year. Once a tree starts producing, you can expect a new hazelnut harvest every year, for up to 50 years.
It takes about four years for trees to produce nuts. Hazelnuts begin to produce three to five years after planting. Walnuts are usually harvested in August and September, or until October, depending on the agricultural zone and variety. As the leaves and burrs begin to change color, you can start harvesting.
Although it's most famous for its nuts, it's useful to have hazelnuts on the farm for several different reasons. In spring, hazelnut shrubs produce yellowish male clusters and small red female flowers on the same plant. Almond trees in particular, which thrive where most peach trees grow, are relatively small in mature size (they average 15 feet tall) and are even a good option to consider growing them in containers. And by the fourth year, you already know that you have quite a few crops and that you can harvest some hazelnuts.
Hazelnuts grow quite quickly with an increase of 13 to 24 inches per year, according to the Arbor Day Foundation. Nitrogen-fixing plants, such as crimson clover or white clover, or plants that attract pollinators and improve the soil, such as comfrey, are good companions for growing hazelnuts. On August 21, Adam Koziol from EarthGen International Ltd was weeding his potted hazelnuts and found his first truffles in one of the pots. Due to their dense crown and obstruction of sunlight, hazel trees usually have very little grass under them, making it easier to detect and harvest walnuts when they fall to the ground.
Hazelnuts are also susceptible to the roundworm, which acts in a similar way to a walnut weevil and poke a hole in the nut shell. Hazelnuts form clusters and flowers in early spring (mid-March in the Midwest, where I live) and don't form leaves until several weeks later. While American hazelnuts can self-pollinate, European hazelnuts are self-incompatible, meaning that even though a single plant has male and female flowers, they cannot self-pollinate. Scientists are still studying the most effective ways to inoculate hazelnuts with truffle spores, but in the meantime, producers who have invested in Earthgen truffle-inoculated hazelnuts will have to wait and see what happens.
While most trees bloom and pollinate during the spring, the hazel tree is unusual because it blooms and pollination occurs during the winter. Like many nut trees, hazelnuts can also be attacked by root rot, powdery mildew, bacterial blight, and cankers.
