Growing nuts in the Willamette Valley
Commercial growers have major success with hazelnuts - can home growers too? And other misc. info re: nuts in our region.
From a resilience perspective, nut crops are at the top of the list for those wishing to grow their own food. Few crops offer such dense nutrition - especially protein and unsaturated fats. And few crops can be stored as simply as most nut crops can. Once dried down effectively, they can be stored in rodent proof containers for long periods of time, not requiring immediate processing the way that most fruit and veg do and are relatively shelf-stable.
And yet, few crops are shrouded in as much mystery as nut crops. Not very many kinds are suited to our particular climate. And the one that is, the hazelnut, is plagued not as much by insect or disease but by pesky squirrels. There are, of course, a few insects and diseases to be on the lookout for, but squirrels are the reason so many gardeners shy away from even attempting this crop.
Gardeners swear that squirrels and some birds (jays in particular) will come through the garden and strip the bushes over night, and that there is no way to effectively grow hazelnuts without squirrels robbing them all.
Except that my understanding is that Oregon is the state that has the highest hazelnut harvest in our country - and we import nuts all over the world. Humans have also been harvesting hazelnuts for thousands of years. I don’t believe squirrels are that recent on the tree of evolution, are they? Seems to me that somewhere along the way in the last few hundred years, we must have lost the knowledge required to successfully harvest hazelnuts.
Why do the commercial farmers have major success, while nearly everyone else swears there is no way that home growers could grow enough for their own family to enjoy even a small crop?
We’ll talk about that here, and after, I’ll briefly touch on the little I know about other nut crops.
Harvesting hazelnuts:
In traditional gardening literature offered by various extension offices such as this one from OSU, the advice is that hazelnuts are harvested when the nuts turn brown and start falling from the tree.
But if you poke around to various other resources, you’ll see that the folks who are having successful harvests are paying much closer attention than to just wait for them to turn brown and fall off. In this video from Burnt Ridge Nursery, you will see that Michael Dolan plays very close attention to when the nut separates easily from the husk. This means paying close attention starting in early August. When the nuts separate easily from the husk, all nuts are immediately stripped from the tree, and stored in a way that further facilitates ripening and drying.
Likewise in this video, Laura Sweany from Raintree Nursery also pays close attention. Not only is she watching the nut closely for when the nut separates easily, but she’s also watching the birds. If you notice birds in your shrubs, stop what you are doing and go out and strip the trees.
Like I do with most other crops, I polled roughly 20 Facebook groups to find out what the experience has been in growing these. A handful of gardeners report they have no issues with squirrels and birds. But most do report that their trees get stripped. When I followed up to ask them if they are paying super close attention the way that both Raintree and Burnt Ridge suggest you do, the vast majority say no - that they wait for the husks to turn brown or start falling to the ground.
Commercial nut harvesting:
So how do commercial growers avoid squirrel and bird predation? My suspicion is that there are so many hazels grown in commercial orchards that the squirrels and jays just cannot keep up. This is probably the #1 reason for success on a farming scale.
In OSU’s IPM guide, they recommend trapping and shooting. I know one small-scale commercial grower in Eugene who strongly alluded to eating squirrel for breakfast throughout the week when it is hazelnut harvesting season. His problem is solely due to the invasive Eastern Fox Squirrels, which are displacing our native squirrels, so don’t feel too badly for them.
In the upper Midwest, they have various types of machines that straddle over the entire shrub and violently shake the nuts from the tree. Check out a video on that process here. Note that there are all sorts of entertaining names. I particularly enjoy the one called The Slapper.
In some videos of Oregon grown hazelnuts, they also use the machine that do their slappy dance to shake the nuts from the shrubs. However, most hazelnut farms in our area have trees that are way too big for the slappy machine. My understanding is that they’ll agitate the tree if they haven’t all fallen to the ground, then they have a huge vacuum that sucks them all up off of the forest floor as you can see in this video.
Then they go through various machines that clean, then wash, then dry, then process. It is a very energy intensive method of growing.
Side note: have you guys ever noticed that the floors of hazelnut orchards are completely devoid of life so that they can vacuum cleanly? The only way I know to accomplish this is by massive doses pre-emergent herbicide. I am not strictly an organic gardener and will use a small amount of herbicide where called for - especially in ivy or blackberry eradication - but I do wonder what kind of impact that much herbicide has.
Other ideas to keep squirrels and birds out of trees:
Nets can be super problematic in that they are hard to install and they don’t often keep the birds or squirrels out. Check out the photo in this old Home Orchard Society thread of one that could work well.
You could consider installing a barn owl box. Although, if you’ve got neighbors that shoot their guns regularly like I do, the barn owls are likely to abandon their young.
One interesting solution a permaculture group came up with is to figure out where the squirrel is nesting the nuts and steal them back. If you can figure out their nesting habit, you could try offering them a cozy nest and at the end of the season go and raid the nest. If anyone tries this, please do get in touch to let me know how well it worked out!
Other issues in growing hazelnuts:
Eastern Filbert Blight was once a threat to growing hazels in our area. Thankfully OSU has bred a multitude of different varieties that are resistant to the disease, but word is that there is now a new strain that is resistant to the breeding efforts. This strain appears to be centered around Woodburn for the moment.
How much of a threat this new strain blight is to backyard growers I am not really sure. This is because as far as I can tell, there are no natural hosts of the disease outside of the hazelnuts themselves. They say that our native hazelnut - corylus cornuta - is not “susceptible” but they don’t address whether it is a “host” and can spread the disease. Presumably not, because it would need to infect in order to shed spores. I assume.
Eastern Filbert Blight spreads by wind from infected trees. How far away the trees need be to spread there is no literature that I am aware of to indicate. Please let me know if you see literature otherwise. As far as I know, I live far enough away from other trees so this new strain may not be an issue for me.
Regardless, it will be worth the hazelnut grower’s time to educate themselves on the disease so that they know what to be on the lookout for.
Filbertworm is the most common insect in hazelnut growing and is closely related to the coddling moth that infects pome fruits. Evidently there is some varietal considerations with this insect pest. The thinner the shell, the more likely it is to be resistant. Yamhill is thinnest. Slightly thicker are: McDonald, Wepster, PollyO, Sacajawea. Thickest of all is Jefferson.
Other things you can do to discourage filbertworms: encourage bats and woodpeckers. Pick up fallen fruits and dispose of them immediately. Allowing poultry to free range will help pick them up off the orchard floor. There are a handful of chemical controls that you can try if the issue becomes large, and pheromone traps. I know nothing of these applications and you’ll want to discuss with extension or other qualified expert.
Pollination requirements are a bit confusing. Make sure you’ve gotten two, possibly 3 varieties with bloom time that overlaps and compatible pollen.
Other nut possibilities in our region:
Almond is being tried with poor results by home gardeners in our region. Unfortunately almond - along with it’s most common peach rootstock Lovell - is susceptible to a long list of diseases that are inherent in our area.
Walnuts are a possibility if you’ve got space. According to OSU, they are subject to numerous diseases and insects. Since the trees grow so large, they are difficult to manage. Here is a post on an experience I had with harvesting and cleaning black walnuts.
Chestnuts are possible. I have a friend nearby that grows chestnuts, and she’s had to camp out under the trees in order to protect the harvest from squirrels. Burnt Ridge has another excellent video on harvesting chestnut.
Chilean Hazelnut is offered by some nurseries. It appears to grow ok in this region. But there is no information as to what the real potential of this plant is as substantial food crop. Questions: how much does this tree produce? How reliable is it? What pest and disease issues are encountered with this tree?
Monkey puzzle trees require two trees of each gender for pollination, and according to OGW, you will not know the gender of the trees for about a decade and take considerably longer than that to produce nuts. They also take up tremendous amount of space.
Acorns are occasionally harvested and grown as a nut crop. My understanding is that acorns have “mast” years, which are the years that they produce heavily enough for an actual crop, but are light in other years. The nuts require substantial processing in order to be edible, and you have to fight the squirrels off which is a much harder thing to do on huge trees.
Other trees multiple other trees are sold by nurseries as nut-crop trees, but virtually no information is available as to their suitability or reliability in the Willamette Valley. If you’ve tried any trees as nut crops here, I’d love to hear your experience!
In my garden
When I first moved to my property years ago, one of my first plantings was an All-in-one almond. It croaked right after its first season. I haven’t bothered trying again after reading more about growing almonds in our region.
My property is not suitable to any of the larger trees like chestnut or walnut, unless I cut a large amount of trees down.
Hazelnuts: last year I planted PollyO for its supposed ability to make nuts without a skin, and McDonald as a pollinizer. Knowing what I know now, if I had to do it over again, I might start with Jefferson for its resistance to both blight and filbertworm. I may plant this cultivar and it’s ripening partner at some point.
I know I am likely to fight with the squirrels. I don’t mind sharing some, and I would really like to see if I can figure out the tricks to growing this crop at home. Stay tuned for the results!
Donations: the information that is provided here is free for gardeners of all financial means. If you’d like to financially support this site, you can make a one-time donation or monthly subscriptions on this link. All proceeds will fund more garden projects to share here with you, dear readers, thank you!
Thanks for this info. We have dogs that keep the squirrels away and living in city limits I’m not allowed to shoot squirrels. Being a West Virginia expat I do miss squirrel for dinner and they’d also save me money on dog food! I think I’ll wait for my dream property in the woods before I attempt to grow any nuts. My friend that has a farm has a few futuristic looking assault rifles that are chambered for 22 hornet which is a high velocity varmint round that he uses on the squirrels. I had also asked for shells that I could use for mulching but all of their harvest goes to China. Thanks for all this research. I’ll definitely reference it in the future.
We live on wooded property and I’m not sure but I think all our hazelnuts are an unknown wild variety (it’s possible they were planted by original owners, but they look like the ones growing wild deeper in the woods). Two years ago we had a giant crop coming on and I was so excited to harvest them with the kids but we were waiting for them to get to that stage where the nuts are coming loose from the leaves. Before they got there either the squirrels or the jays (we have hordes of both) stripped the tree overnight. Hoping to be on the lookout better this year and harvest them first!