INTRODUCTION AND ORIGIN
- Hazelnut (Corylus avellana L.) belongs to the family Betulaceae is typically a temperate zone nut crop and mostly grown in Turkey, Italy, Spain, Germany, France and England.
- Turkish hazelnut production of 625,000 tons accounts for approximately 75 % of worldwide production.
- The common hazel (Corylus avellana) is native to Europe and Western Asia.
- In Himachal Pradesh, it is found growing wild in Pangi region of Chamba district and locally known as Thangi.
- Hazelnut is also known as cobnut and filbert.
- In UK, a distinction is made between filbert, which have the husk longer than the nut, and cobnut, in which the husks are shorter than the nut. Hazelnuts are extensively used in confectionary to make praline and also used in combination with chocolate truffles.
CLIMATE
- The hazelnut tree is quite hardy but only produces satisfactory crops under moderate climate conditions.
- Temperature of minus 10 0C is critical, especially if accompanied by wind, which may kill both pistillate and staminate flowers.
- The chilling requirement of hazelnut is about the same as that of most commercial cultivars of apple and thus it can be grown successfully in the apple growing regions of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand and North-Eastern Himalayan regions of India.
SOIL
- Hazelnuts are more shallow rooted than most fruit and nut trees, and do not tolerate wet soils. However moisture retention in the soil is important since the tree can not tolerate excessive dry summer heat and hot winds.
- Soils must be moderately fertile and heavy clay soils should be avoided. Hazels will grow in pH ranging from 4.5 to 8.5, but around pH 7 is ideal.
VARIETIES
- There are more than 200 cultivars of hazelnut world over but only a dozen or so having the commercial importance.
- Important varieties are Tonda Romana, Barcelona, Negret, Tonda Giffoni, Tonda Gentile delle Langhe,Pauetet,Tombul
PLANTING AND PLANTING DENSITY
- The area for planting should be marked and cleared or sprayed with herbicide.
- Tree spacing is highly variable in the different countries, as they depend on the fertility of the soil, rainfall and variety vigour.
- A planting density of 860 trees/ha is recommended with rows 4m- 5m apart (to allow machinery access) and 2m- 3m within row spacing.
- To ensure adequate pollination it is advisable to plant atleast 10% of other varieties, evenly distributed throughout the stand.
- Planting is usually done during winter months.
- In the orchards of Oregon (USA), trained in vase, tree density normally varies from 270 to 400 trees/ha (6x6m or 5x5m), while in the South-West of France they oscillate between 666 (5x3m) and 800 trees /ha (5x2.5m)..
MANURES AND FERTILIZATION
- Prior to planting and up to bearing age, organic and inorganic fertilizers should be applied according to soil analysis as follow:
- Organic fertilizers like FYM should be applied at around 30 tons/ha if the soil organic matter is below 2 per cent. Where, the soil pH is around 5.5, it should be raised to 6.5 by liming but not more than 5 t/ha should be given in a single dressing.
- Fertilizer application to mature trees should be based on leaf and soil analysis. The fertilizer recommendations for hazelnut is 120 to 150 Kg/ha of N, 60 to 70 Kg/ha P and 100 Kg/ha of K.
TRAINING AND PRUNING
- The traditional training system in hazelnut orchards in the main production areas (Turkey, Italy and Spain) has been a multistem bush, according to its normal tendency of bushing growth.
- However, the training system used in the new orchards of United States, France, Italy and Spain is in vase with only one stem..
- Pruning systems
- Hazelnut bear its fruits laterally and terminally on wood of the previous season’s growth and the pruning after the tree has come into bearing should be such as to stimulate a moderate amount of new growth each year.
WEED CONTROLL
- Weeds compete the crop for moisture and nutrition and adversely affect the nut yield and quality, thus planting should be kept free of weeds manually or through the use of herbicides .
- The most used herbicides in mature orchards according their application time, are: Simazine, Diuron, Napromide, Oxifluorphen, Propyzamide, Trifluraline in pre emergency and Paraquat, 2,4-D, Aminotrizol, Glyphosate, Ammonium gluphosinate, Terbutilazine + Terbumeton etc. in postemergency.
HARVESTING AND YIELD
- When nuts change from green to brown and the abscission starts, is the best time of harvesting. Usually it comes in mid aut
- Hazelnut trees reach maximum production between fifteen and twenty
- Five years of age and the average yield per plant ranged from 2-2.5 Kg.
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