i was wondering if anyone had experience layering hazels? i know early spring is best but can i still do it successfully now?
I do some layering of filberts/hazelnuts. Might be a little late to expect layering starts for transplant this fall. I prepared mine over the winter, staking down a couple dozen branches on two different trees. Even if the layering attempts don't have much root on them this fall you could cover the branch up again, leave it for next year, and have a bigger transplant for fall of 2013.
I have taken unrooted suckers from hazels in the fall, stuck them in dirt and had about 20% success with them rooting and growing the next summer. Suckers had a bit of orange color to them at the bottoms probably due to being etiolated or something.
I'd like to hear more about ground layering filberts, though, as Fig is the only one I do that with.
I just take a low branch on the filbert tree, dig a shallow trench where I can make the branch meet the ground, put the branch in the trench, cover with sod or soil, place a rock on top or drive in stakes to hold down the branch, then prop up the outside end with another stake.
I had some luck this year with rooting of cuttings. I pruned the filbert tree mid-winter, cut the prunings into 14" lengths and stuck them in the dirt in the garden without any rooting hormone. Got about 10% take. Nothing ventured, nothing gained I figure.
Do any of you actually harvest hazelnuts? How do you keep the squirrels from eating them all?
I've never really seriously considered growing nuts, but apparently I have a number of wild hazelnuts growing on the property so it must be suitable for them. I've never noticed any nuts.
Are hazelnuts amenable to grafting? Do they require spray or special care to get a harvest?
[quote="Dubyadee":1fah8lql]I just take a low branch on the filbert tree, dig a shallow trench where I can make the branch meet the ground, put the branch in the trench, cover with sod or soil, place a rock on top or drive in stakes to hold down the branch, then prop up the outside end with another stake.
I had some luck this year with rooting of cuttings. I pruned the filbert tree mid-winter, cut the prunings into 14" lengths and stuck them in the dirt in the garden without any rooting hormone. Got about 10% take. Nothing ventured, nothing gained I figure.[/quote:1fah8lql]
Sounds very much like what I do with figs to propagate them quickly. Usually I get the branches pinned to the ground with rocks or bricks before the leaves come out.
What date do you layer these filberts?
Thanks for the idea!
[quote="jafarj":2evej588]Do any of you actually harvest hazelnuts? How do you keep the squirrels from eating them all?
I've never really seriously considered growing nuts, but apparently I have a number of wild hazelnuts growing on the property so it must be suitable for them. I've never noticed any nuts.
Are hazelnuts amenable to grafting? Do they require spray or special care to get a harvest?[/quote:2evej588]
I ran into two really nice kinds while gathering nut-clusters for the All-About-Fruit-Show one year. I could crack them with my hands easily, and they had big tasty nuts inside that filled a person up fast, when hungry!
Spent a few years getting them over to my property etc, but now have some that are 6 feet tall, and throwing their own little pups from the bottoms, so they kind of self propagate in that manner. Never tried grafting them, but have heard that it needs to be done in hot weather. I wouldn't really worry about grafting over your wild ones, but they might produce some useful wild pollen for nut making, as some cultivars are pretty fussy about what kind of pollen they get. I think Dr. Melenbacher said their are 29 different kinds of pollen combinations. Wild is probably useful.
Had a few ripe nuts last fall from potted plants. Sure to get better over time.
[quote="Dubyadee":31nny2o8]I do some layering of filberts/hazelnuts. Might be a little late to expect layering starts for transplant this fall. I prepared mine over the winter, staking down a couple dozen branches on two different trees. Even if the layering attempts don't have much root on them this fall you could cover the branch up again, leave it for next year, and have a bigger transplant for fall of 2013.[/quote:31nny2o8]
That answers my question! Thanks for the info!
[quote="Dubyadee":2354k69j]I pruned the filbert tree mid-winter, cut the prunings into 14" lengths and stuck them in the dirt in the garden without any rooting hormone. Got about 10% take. Nothing ventured, nothing gained I figure.[/quote:2354k69j]
I found that fig branches root wildly better when planted horizontally in the ground under and inch of soil. Nothing above ground to dessicate!
My theory is that it is 100% humid and very warm in such shallow soil, as the sun strikes it in April and May. Perfect rooting conditions. I have even had 2 trees develop from one cutting, one from each end. Just dig in winter and cut into two seperate units.
I wonder if your filbert cuttings, held over in moist refrigeration, would respond the same way to humidity, heat and such in April and May? I might have to run a trial of such next spring.
Why did you decide on 14 inch lengths?
Thanks!
I don't recall seeing nuts at the All About Fruit Show, but maybe I just didn't care enough at the time to notice.
Plumfun, if you run out of space for your pups I can help you out 
I chose 14" because of the spacing of the leaf nodes, I wanted so many nodes above the ground and so many below.
Last week I started some "air layering" of my Desert King fig. The branches didn't reach the ground. I put some stakes in the ground, cut a slit in the side of some gallon pots, inserted the fig branches, screwed the pots to the stakes, and filled with soil. Thought I might get quicker, larger potted fig trees this way.
Great idea on the pot-layering method. I hope to hear an update.
Jafarj-
I agree that squirrels steal almost all of them. I have harvested them as early as August and eaten them. I don't know if that affects the nutrition. About late August, they become frenzied and by October when they're supposed to be ready, there are almost none left.That's my only part/not very good solution.
Sorry,
John S
PDX OR
[quote="Dubyadee":2iksusyz] Thought I might get quicker, larger potted fig trees this way.[/quote:2iksusyz]
It helps if you can keep the soil moist-ish. You will certainly get nice trees the way you did it.
I once did the same model, only used a yogurt cup of soil. Was trying to establish new roots that did not contain nematodes. The mother plant was nematode city. Worked real well! I think it only took a month plus or minus to get the dirt all rooted through, but alas, that exact cultivar is meant only for Southern Cal, not the Northwest.
I still think I'll try some horizontally buried filbert stems next spring. When they are in a 1 inch deep trench covered with soil it is harder for them to dry out, plus the sun really warms them up fast.
Thanks for your ideas!
[quote="jafarj":2cnjgr91]I don't recall seeing nuts at the All About Fruit Show, but maybe I just didn't care enough at the time to notice.
Plumfun, if you run out of space for your pups I can help you out [/quote:2cnjgr91]
Not sure if HOS carries nut samples every single year. Those which I collected were at the Corvallis filbert repository, so my partner and I got to see a whole spectrum of what looked good in theory, and what was delicious and edible right then and there. Valuable experience!
Jafar, I should be able to spot you a baby rooted one of each next scion event (March?).
I have seen filbert trees that were not let go to sucker without cleaning the bottoms every year, they look pretty nice (tree form) with a little elbow grease every winter. Left to their own devices they would be a large bush. Trees are tidier looking, plus you can put some sort of squirrel guard at the bottom to keep pests out of trees, not so easy when it is a bush form.
Most of Corvallis' trees are single trunks.
Sherry SPencer wrote an article about metal sheeting tube going up the trunk so the squirrels can't climb it. It was in the last Pome News or before it. Doesn't work for me because my trees are near the fence or other trees. 
John S
PDX OR
I transplanted one of my "air layered" figs tonight. As I posted earlier this summer I surrounded three branches with pots filled with dirt the last week of June. I probably should have taken this example for transplant a month or more ago. The fig start was pretty root bound in the gallon pot I used.
I dug up some of the layered filberts I had posted photos of last June. They rooted very well in about one year's time, I had staked them down last fall. They were layered in very dry soil. I had no rain from early July until the end of September and I never watered these layered branches.
Two years ago I pulled down a branch of my Whitten chestnut tree and staked it to the ground to try layering it into a new tree. I wanted to fill in a spot where another chestnut tree had died. After one year I dug up the branch to check it. No roots had formed after the first year. I buried it again and left it for another year. I checked it again last week and it only had two fine roots growing, one was about 3 inches long, the other about 6 inches long. I decided to cut the branch and transplant it anyway. My internet seach of chestnut layering suggests that they are difficult to layer successfully. I had much better luck with layering filberts.
I cut off the other two air-layered Desert King figs and planted them on Martin Luther King Day. I then reset my air layering pots with new branches, filled with potting soil and hope to harvest three more air layered trees early this summer.
My Casina Filbert was in full bloom on 2/8. My barcelona is a few days later blooming. I have a beaked hazel too that is even later blooming, probably 10 days later than the Casina.