Filberts vs Hazelnuts, what are they called where you live and why?

   / Filberts vs Hazelnuts, what are they called where you live and why?
  • Thread Starter
#21  
Did you know filberts are not self-fertile? You have to have a pollinator to get a crop. I can't remember if the pollinator is male and the nut bearing trees are female, or if it just has to be another species, but remember that we planted one tree in 20 as a pollinator and the rest for nuts.
I did not know that. I would guess the females produce the nuts. We have a bunch of filberts bushes/short trees all around our property. We've planted 4 but the rest are volunteers.
 
   / Filberts vs Hazelnuts, what are they called where you live and why? #22  
Our Philberts had nuts on them this year, first time bearing fruit ( 50 years old ). I guess it must of been the heavier than usual rain for about a month and a half this spring. Didn't know they needed the the extra water early in the season.
If I irrigate them in the spring, will that help them bear fruit? Or is this just an ideal growing season for them this year?
South Central Washington at 1900' elevation.
 
   / Filberts vs Hazelnuts, what are they called where you live and why? #23  
Late 1970's had a row of them on the property at our rear. Squirrels hoarded them and crows dropped them on our cedar shake roof to break them open. Always had to clean gutters frequently to prevent overflowing and oddly enough frequently found T-bone from steaks on the roof. Always had way more than we wanted for our own use.
 
   / Filberts vs Hazelnuts, what are they called where you live and why? #24  
Did you know filberts are not self-fertile? You have to have a pollinator to get a crop. I can't remember if the pollinator is male and the nut bearing trees are female, or if it just has to be another species, but remember that we planted one tree in 20 as a pollinator and the rest for nuts.
Yes I did. Growing Corylus commercially is a complicated business. In all varieties the male catkins and female flowers develop at diferent times. Some varieties are better suited than others to give or receive what is required for pollination. It is essential to have male catkins' pollen available at the right time for a receptive female. The order of maturity has to be carefully worked out, and after much research I eventually decided on 3 varieties that should in theory give me a good chance of increasing the chances of a good harvest on a new grove. I had previous experience of natural wild hazels and a small planting so was not a complete novice.

Of course Sod's law came into place. I was hospitalised with a heart problem at the same time as big bushfires (in Portugal then), the local wild pigs were displaced and broke through my boundary, then found all the nice fungus smelling root balls of the newly planted hazelnuts and killed the lot - only about 500 so not the end of the world. The heart op meant I had to sell upand retire anyway.
 
   / Filberts vs Hazelnuts, what are they called where you live and why? #25  
Did you know filberts are not self-fertile? You have to have a pollinator to get a crop. I can't remember if the pollinator is male and the nut bearing trees are female, or if it just has to be another species, but remember that we planted one tree in 20 as a pollinator and the rest for nuts.
I must have forgotten that. Ahh. Romance.

Over here on the middle-east coast US, we say hazelnuts > nine times of ten, but I learned the word "filbert" at an early age from the cartoon, Rocko's Modern Life. Filbert was a supporting character, and I later learned that the creators named him after the nut (thus the spelling), and that's how I learned that "filbert" is another word for hazelnut. Other than that, I don't recall the last time I heard someone use the word "filbert".

A: "Sometimes you feel like a nut."
B: "And sometimes you are one!"
 
   / Filberts vs Hazelnuts, what are they called where you live and why? #26  
Yes I did. Growing Corylus commercially is a complicated business. In all varieties the male catkins and female flowers develop at diferent times.
Perhaps I should have clarified that response. They are, strictly speaking, self-fertile. Yet because of the way the male catkins mature first a single tree (or even a grove of a single variety) is unlikely to produce a reasonable quantity of nuts because so few of the female flowers will be receptive when the catkins shed their pollen.

Hazels growing in the wild manage to produce nuts (albeit a variable quantity) and I was told today that northern Scotland has had a particularly good year this year, so to expect a delivery of some in the next few days. Good timing I have just about finished the almonds I brought with me from Portugal. Still plenyt of olive oil, fortunately.
 

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