Beaked Hazelnut

Size, growth and what to expect

Beaked hazelnut makes a suckering shrub of 4 to 10 feet, in a clump 4 to 8 feet wide. Young plants grow and spread slowly, about a foot a year in our growth estimator. Large nut crops come every two or three years.

Catkins open before the leaves, from February in the Carolinas to April and May in Minnesota. The nuts ripen in late August and September. Each nut is about half an inch long, thick-shelled and tasty, though wild shrubs bear sparsely next to commercial filberts. Blue jays, red squirrels and chipmunks cache the nuts, and ruffed grouse eat the buds and catkins in winter.

It grows wild from Newfoundland to British Columbia and south to North Dakota and Iowa, and in the Appalachians to Georgia and Alabama. A western form, the California hazelnut, grows near the Pacific coast. Its home is open woods, thickets, woodland edges and fencerows.

How to grow Beaked Hazelnut

Beaked hazelnut grows in full sun or part shade on a well-drained, acid, loamy or sandy soil. Average to dry ground suits it, but not waterlogged ground or heavy clay. A deeply shaded stem bears few nuts. Set plants 6 feet apart for a hedge, and keep each one 4 feet from a wall or a path, since the clump spreads by suckers. At 10 feet or less, it can grow within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch ring clear of the stems. Sow nuts in fall an inch deep under hardware cloth, since squirrels and chipmunks dig them up. For spring, hold them damp in the refrigerator for two to six months first.

Water weekly through the first summer, then only in a long drought. Deer and hares browse the stems in winter, so guard young plants with wire for the first two or three years. Prune only to take out dead stems, and pull suckers that stray past the bed.

Beaked hazelnut is wind-pollinated and will not set nuts from its own pollen, so plant two or more seedlings. Pick the nuts as soon as the husks begin to brown, since blue jays, squirrels and chipmunks take them early. Early spring frost can damage the flower buds. No serious pest or disease troubles it, though hazelnut weevils can take much of a crop.