Content
You can often hear a complaint from amateur gardeners that hazelnuts do not bear fruit. Moreover, the bush is already mature and even blooming. For many gardeners, hazel serves as a decoration for their garden plot, but does not produce nuts. The problem with fruiting can be solved, but first you need to find out the exact reason why the hazelnut does not bear fruit.
How many years does it take for hazelnuts to bear fruit?
Hazelnuts have been growing in the garden for decades. Seedlings grown from seeds begin to bear fruit for the first time at 6-8 years. With vegetative propagation, they begin to bear fruit after 3-4 years. Hazel productivity is growing gradually. Peak fruiting occurs in the age period from 7 to 20 years.
In order to prolong fruiting, the bushes are rejuvenated by heavy pruning. In the southern regions, flowering begins in March, in the temperate climate of the middle zone - in April. Hazel flowers are monoecious and wind-pollinated.
Male hazel inflorescences are earrings up to 10 cm long, and the female flower looks like a bud.It is formed at the top of an annual shoot and consists of a pistil and stigmas collected in a bunch. The larger the stigma, the more nuts will be formed during pollination. One hazel earring produces up to 4 million grains of pollen, this happens over 4-12 days.
Why are there no nuts on hazel?
The reason that the hazel tree does not bear fruit may be the low self-fertility of the hazel. If there is 1 hazel bush growing in the garden, then the probability of pollination and fruiting of the hazel tends to zero. To get a decent harvest in the garden, you need to have several fruiting hazelnut bushes. Moreover, they must be of different varieties and bloom at the same time.
For example, the hazel varieties Pirozhok and Borovskoy are good pollinators for Masterpiece hazelnuts. It is believed that for a good harvest, 10 hazel bushes require at least 2 pollinators. For good fruiting, they should grow within a radius of 10-15 m from the pollinated plant, located on the leeward side of it.
The following varieties are considered good pollinators:
- Tambovsky;
- Ivanteevsky red;
- Moscow ruby;
- First born.
Hazel varieties with a long flowering period of male inflorescences are considered effective pollinators. Maximum fruiting can be expected from hazelnuts if there are 4 to 6 different varieties growing in the garden.
Wrong choice of seedling
For each region, you can choose a suitable hazelnut variety that bears fruit in a given climate. You may not be able to wait for the nut harvest if you plant a southern variety of hazel at your dacha in central Russia. Information from the State Register can help in choosing.
Hazelnut varieties for central Russia | Maximum yield of 1 tree (kg) |
Ivanteevsky red | 2,2 |
Academician Yablokov | 5 |
Moscow early | 3 |
Kudraif | 2,8 |
Purple | 3 |
Firstborn | 5 |
Tambov early | 4 |
Almost all varieties of nuts have good frost resistance. The quality of fruiting is influenced by the flowering period of the variety and the weather conditions of the region. To prevent flower buds from suffering from return frosts, it is worth choosing hazelnut varieties that bloom for a long time and at a later date.
Incorrect landing
The fruiting of hazelnuts directly depends on the planting location. Fruiting is poor or absent if the tree is planted in a draft. The crop will bloom and set fruit if it is planted in a place protected from the north and northwest winds.
Hazelnuts bear fruit and grow poorly if the soil is too dry or waterlogged. It will not begin to bear fruit if it is in the shade of other trees, a house, a fence or a barn. The quality of fruiting can be affected by the composition of the soil.
Hazelnuts show maximum fruiting on fertile, breathable soils and alluvial meadows. On other types of soil, for full fruiting, hazelnuts need regular watering, at least 5-6 times per season.
Improper care
Often, an overdose of nitrogen fertilizers makes hazelnuts infertile and prevents fruiting. Excess nitrogen stimulates active growth of green mass to the detriment of flowering. Hazel bushes whose crown is too thick do not bear fruit.
Therefore, when hazelnuts enter the fruiting period, it is necessary to thin out the inside of the bush. Young branches cannot be shortened, since the nut bears fruit on annual shoots. By pruning you need to stimulate annual powerful growth.
The appearance of new strong shoots guarantees good fruiting. Some varieties produce a lot of root shoots. It depletes the bushes and leads to a decrease in fruiting.In the spring, when it grows to 8 cm, it must be cut out at the very base.
A hazel bush that bears fruit for 5 years may stop flowering. This is due to the aging of the branches and the lack of young growth. Annual anti-aging pruning helps restore normal fruiting. The need for it disappears after restoration of normal shoot formation.
Freezing
Very often, hazelnuts do not bear fruit due to return frosts. If during the flowering of hazel the thermometer drops to -3 °C, you can completely lose your nut harvest. Unfertilized female flowers survive at -8 °C, and pollinated ones die at -3 °C. The male inflorescences go into winter ready to bloom.
Pollen in earrings begins to gather dust during prolonged winter thaws and is sterilized when frost returns. At the same time, male flower buds that are at rest can easily withstand low temperatures down to -30 °C. It turns out that spring return frosts during flowering and prolonged winter thaws bring more harm to the crop.
Adverse weather conditions
The quality of pollination is affected by prolonged rains during flowering. High humidity prevents cross-pollination and rain washes away pollen. Experienced gardeners believe that rain does more harm than frost.
What to do if hazel does not bear fruit
Correct and timely formation of the crown helps speed up fruiting. Productivity depends on its quality. To rationally use the energy of a tree, you will have to master the basic techniques of gardeners:
- pinching;
- kidney blindness;
- control of the orientation of branches in space.
In the spring, you need to break out the top shoots of young bushes with your hands.Wound healing occurs in a matter of days. Tops are left near old hazel bushes. They serve as a reserve. They are used to rejuvenate the crown.
If the crown is frozen in winter, then you need to wait to remove excess shoots and tops. Some branches may first bloom and then die. In this case, the tops will replace them. Tweezing is used to speed up fruiting.
It is held from July 10 to 20; it makes no sense to hold it later. Pinching is pinching the crown of the shoot above the 3rd or 5th true leaf. It prevents the development of strong shoots and makes them overgrown.
To increase the number of flower buds, hazel branches are bent. Any fruit tree has more of them on those shoots that run parallel to the ground. This technique is especially effective for late-ripening hazelnut varieties.
Experienced gardeners speed up fruiting by resorting to coring. Making an incision above the bud stimulates shoot growth, while under the bud it weakens it. The kerbovka method is applicable to young trees.
Preventive measures for abundant fruiting
Having figured out why hazelnuts do not bear fruit, you can begin to eliminate the reasons. There are several ways to protect hazel from spring frosts:
- In the spring, when the night temperature drops to -5 °C, carry out fine-drip sprinkling, stopping it 2 hours before the sun appears.
- If there is no wind, use smoke. A curtain of smoke increases the air temperature by at least 2 °C.
- Carrying out foliar feeding before frost increases the resistance of hazel. Spray the crown 2 hours before the temperature drops. Use a 5% solution of superphosphate and a 3% solution of potassium sulfate.
- If the hazelnut bush is not tall, then before the cold snap it is wrapped with covering material.
If the hazelnut does not bear fruit due to the lack of pollinators, then the nut can be artificially pollinated. Tear the earrings and put them in a paper bag. Store only in the refrigerator. When the weather is good, lay a sheet of white paper on the table.
Place a vase with water and a hazel branch in the center. The pollen will fall onto the paper sheet. It needs to be poured into a bag. Apply pollen to the stigmas of female flowers in the morning with a soft brush.
Conclusion
Problems that cause hazelnuts not to bear fruit are better avoided during planning and planting than to correct them later. For your garden, you need to choose winter-hardy hazelnut varieties suitable for a specific climate zone, in which the male and female inflorescences do not freeze. Plant not one, but several varieties that bloom at the same time.
Hello. Thank you for the article. Question! Can I spray it with a solution of “ovary” or boric acid before freezing?
You can add more to the article. To ensure flowering occurs later than frost, place stones or bricks. The soil will later melt.
Good afternoon
It is unlikely that spraying before frost will increase the percentage of pollination of female flowers.If, of course, spraying is carried out specifically for this purpose. Any compositions are prepared on the basis of water, and in freezing conditions the treated flowers may die. To pollinate hazel, it is best to use methods that are as close to natural as possible.
• First of all, this is the planting of pollinating varieties. Pollinators must be planted on the leeward side.
• Secondly, bend hazel branches to the ground for the winter and cover them with snow. In this case, gardeners note a high percentage of pollination.
As for stones or bricks. Indeed, during the planting process, stones, bricks or slate are placed in the planting hole. But gardeners give different reasons why this is done. Some people think that this will help protect the root system from groundwater. Some people believe that this event helps to shift the flowering time. Some believe this helps increase yield.
There is another reason. When planting hazel trees, stones are placed so that the tree/shrub begins to bear fruit as early as possible. If, with normal planting, the crop begins to bear fruit in 5-7 years, then with the lining of a solid base, fruiting occurs 2-3 years earlier. You can put stones in planting holes not only when planting hazel trees, but also other fruit and berry crops - apple trees, pears, cherries.