Hazelnut pictures

The business of reproduction in hazelnuts is hardly a showy affair. Unlike roses and the like, which have large, colourful flowers, the hazel has a male catkin to shed pollen (left, with some catkins open and some not shedding yet) and a tiny female flower that can barely be seen except on close inspection.

Nutlets at an early stage of development (left) and close to fully developed (right).

Different stages of development:

      1: tree with weak growth (July 2005)
      2: tree with strong growth (July 2005)
      3: tree with weak growth (July 2006)
      4: tree with average growth (July 2006)
      5: tree with good growth (July 2006)

The sorts of damage trees can suffer:

(1): tree with natural dieback

(2) tree with sucker dying back after dessicant spraying (this is deliberate sucker control)

(3) unexplained death of leaves - possibly blight?

We started with hazels on the understanding that they were a hardy and resilient plant, unlikely to suffer too much from pests and diseases. They are not, however, totally immune - the pictures to the right show some of the diseases that we have noticed afflicting the growing stems and buds (notice on the right the blackened bud). Death and peeling of the bark as in the picture on the left seems generally to result in the death of that growing stem.

And of course there's a good selection of creepy-crawlies that take up residence in our orchard. By and large (and in order to minimise chemical use) we do not control these to a great extent, although this would probably change if we started to notice significant damage or distress to the trees.