Among horticultural crops, the hazelnut species is considered the king. He received the honorary title for high productivity. Hazelnuts as a cultivated plant began to grow from ancient times. This is evidenced by the findings of archaeologists.
Large hazelnuts (Lombard), a typical inhabitant of broad-leaved and mixed forests, are called hazelnuts. The birthplace of hazelnuts is the eastern part of the Black Sea coast. This culture is widespread in Europe and America.
Currently, hazelnuts occupies a leading position among the crops of this species. The unpretentiousness of cultivation, ease of propagation, the nutritional value of fruits and the use of depleted land made the nut accessible to farmers and summer residents.
What is hazelnut?
This is a shrub that resembles hazel. Hazelnuts - wind-pollinated multi-stemmed large plant, the height of which ranges from three to eight meters. The leaves are dark green in color, serrated at the edges, have a round or oval shape. The flowers of the plant are of two types: male, in the form of earrings, and female - buds with bright red stigma-brushes inside.
If weather conditions allow, the nut blooms from the beginning of winter until March. Begins to bear fruit in the 4th-5th year after planting. A bush of hazelnuts with lace earrings in winter and bright yellow leaves in the fall attracts a person's eye with its beauty. This is a shade-tolerant plant, which allows it to be planted on the northern slopes. On sunny and protected from the wind, hazelnuts bear fruit better. Thanks to the powerful root system, the shrub strengthens the soil, so walnut planting can be placed on the slopes and in the lowlands.
It is very beautiful throughout the entire growing season, starting with the budding of buds and ending with leaf fall, hazelnuts. Landing and care provide for a range of activities. The crown of the bush is especially pleasing to the eye, covered with large velvety raspberry-colored leaves mixed with large nuts of a rounded or oblong shape. Hazelnuts, the planting of which does not require much effort, are appreciated both by the fruits and by its decorative effect. Therefore, this shrubbery is loved by gardeners and is happy to grow it in gardens.
Soil preparation
Hazelnuts are a fairly unpretentious plant, for the growth of which any soil is suitable, except for dry sandy, salty and swampy. Acidic soils are calcined per 1 sq. Km. m. half a kilogram of lime. However, hazelnuts, planted on fertile and moist soil, give higher yields.
First, in the area chosen for landing, you need to determine the rows and loosen them with the addition of fertilizers with potassium and phosphorus to the soil, if necessary. Next, you need to plow the earth to a depth of 30-40 cm and outline places for planting. Such deep plowing is done in order to provide air access to the roots and to retain moisture in the soil. For good fruiting, hazelnuts need a lot of nutrients that it takes from the ground. Therefore, it must be fertilized with manure or compost at the rate of 2-3 centners per one hundred square meters of land.
Landing time
Walnut shrubs are planted in spring and autumn, depending on the region. Planting hazelnuts in autumn is preferable in the eastern and southern regions, where it is carried out 2-3 weeks before frosts. This allows the plant to take root, gain strength, and quickly grow in the spring. In other areas, hazelnuts can be planted at any planting time of the year.
Choosing a place to plant hazelnuts
Better walnut grows on the eastern, northeastern and northern slopes, where daily diurnal temperature fluctuations are less and the danger of plant freezing and burns can be avoided. Hazelnuts prefer sunny, sheltered from the wind places. It needs to be planted at a distance of 4-5 meters from other plants with a large crown to provide a large area for nutrition.
In home gardens, hazelnuts, which are planted on the slopes of ravines or near the border, will grow in their natural form. And if you give the tree a certain shape, it will decorate your garden. Such a bush can be planted in a more honorable place.
Landing
After selecting a site and preparing the soil , a hazelnut tree is selected. Its landing in a hole half a meter deep is carried out in spring or autumn. To do this, the topsoil is mixed with potassium salt (50 g), superphosphate (150 g) and 2-3 buckets of humus. Fertilizers are evenly distributed in the pit.
Planting hazelnuts in autumn and spring is carried out as follows. They put a peg in the center and plant a seedling, after dipping it in the solution. And do not forget to put in a hole a little earth from under a hazelnut. The root neck is not covered with earth, but deepened by 2-3 cm to stimulate the growth of roots and their branching. The aerial part of the plant immediately after planting is cut off at the level of the 5-6th kidney. The seedling is shortened by 15-20 cm above the soil surface.
The planted shrub is well watered with 3-5 buckets of water in one hole and mulched. To do this, you can use needles, sawdust, humus, manure - which will be at hand. This way moisture is better preserved. To prevent seedling from barking, the mulch should not touch the trunk. After a week, you must definitely repeat the watering. An unpretentious culture is hazelnut. Landing and care will not require much effort.
Walnut Bush Formation
If someone does not like the shape of the plant in its natural form, you can form a future bush. For this, in the autumn, after the second vegetative period, 8-10 strong shoots are planned. They will be the future main trunks. Within 2-3 years, removing shoots and cutting extra shoots, you can form a bush at your discretion.
Pruning a plant is a prerequisite for obtaining a high yield. Form a bush for 4-5 years, until fruiting. In the future, so that there is no thickening, barren branches are removed. And already by the eleventh year of growth, rejuvenation is being carried out, for which three old trunks are cut every year. Instead, they prepare basal shoots.
Watering and feeding
Unpretentious in the cultivation of garden culture hazelnuts. Landing and care are not difficult. In order to get a high yield of nuts, it is necessary to water the bush several times a season. Especially hazelnuts need watering in the summer season, when the fruits grow intensively.
Increase productivity and fertilizing the soil. The most common type of top dressing is compost and manure, which is applied in 2-3 years once at the rate of 10 kg per square meter. Mineral fertilizers can be applied every year, especially when the fruits are tied. Use urea for this. Do not add nitrogen. It causes rapid growth of the bush itself, and yield decreases.
Very tasty and healthy fruits gives hazelnuts. Planting a nut in compliance with all requirements will not take much time. But you will enjoy the taste of the fruits and the beauty of the formed bushes for a long time.
Breeding
Propagated by seed and vegetative methods. When using seed propagation, the cultivar is not preserved. Planting hazelnuts from walnuts is used for mass cultivation and breeding of new varieties. To grow hazelnut seedlings, take not over-dried, well-ripened nuts. They are sown in spring or autumn in fertile soil to a depth of 6-8 cm.
During vegetative propagation , the characteristics and characteristics of the variety are retained, fixed and transmitted. It is carried out by layering, rhizomes, dividing the bush and grafting. Propagation of hazelnuts by layering is carried out by rooting young shoots without separating them from the bush. If rhizomes are taken as a basis, 2-3-year-old root shoots are separated from the bush and planted. When propagated by dividing a bush during thinning of hazelnut plantations, some bushes uproot. They are cut so that a root remains on each part, and planted in a new place. When propagated by vaccination, it is made in the spring by cuttings. This method of reproduction is used to ennoble bushes.
Beneficial features
Hazelnuts contain many nutrients: fats, proteins, carbohydrates and vitamins. Cores are used in the food and confectionery industry, oil - in the pharmaceutical and cosmetology. The calorie content of hazelnuts is higher than that of bread, milk and meat. Even pollen of inflorescences is used. It is the first bee feed after winter.
Walnut is a dietary product for anemia and enlargement of the prostate gland, varicose veins and thrombophlebitis, trophic ulcer and hemorrhoids. This product is recommended for people with diseases of the cardiovascular system. It is believed that hazelnuts bring health and happiness.