It has been a wet cold summer the deer continue to ravage our plants. I have chased them, tried spay (something that uses pig blood) all which have only had temporary affect. In addition, many of the plants (not just hazelnuts) are suffering from some kind of blight - the leaves turn yellow then brown and curl and die. Some of the hazels have suffered badly (the Hets and the American Hazel seem particularly sensitive to this).
At any rate I do have a few nuts on a couple of the older plants that are more protected from the west wind. Here are some the photos:
The nuts in the top image display healthy typical nut development but most of the others seem affected by the blight, as you can see in the image below (normal nuts are covered by a green husk - here the nuts poke out of stunted husks):
You can see the impact of the blight on the nut husk below.
Below is a lower branch of the Northern variety - loaded with nuts. This tree had enough flowers in the spring that the entire tree should have looked like this but not so - probably the harsh spring caused less fertilization and was less affected closer to the ground.
In the photo below are the two bushes that have produced most of the nuts. Those are protected by the large aspen in behind, so the two hazelnut bushes are in the foreground )the lighter coloured leaves are the Skinner on the left and the Northern is on the right with the darker leaves.
At any rate I do have a few nuts on a couple of the older plants that are more protected from the west wind. Here are some the photos:
The nuts in the top image display healthy typical nut development but most of the others seem affected by the blight, as you can see in the image below (normal nuts are covered by a green husk - here the nuts poke out of stunted husks):
You can see the impact of the blight on the nut husk below.
Below is a lower branch of the Northern variety - loaded with nuts. This tree had enough flowers in the spring that the entire tree should have looked like this but not so - probably the harsh spring caused less fertilization and was less affected closer to the ground.
In the photo below are the two bushes that have produced most of the nuts. Those are protected by the large aspen in behind, so the two hazelnut bushes are in the foreground )the lighter coloured leaves are the Skinner on the left and the Northern is on the right with the darker leaves.