Ep. 185 Growing Hazelnuts in Illinois | #GoodGrowing
Welcome to
Speaker 2:the Good Growing podcast. I am Chris Enroth, porta culture educator with the University of Illinois Extension, coming at you from Mac Comb, Illinois, and we have got a great show for you today.
Speaker 1:Ah, is
Speaker 2:that the aroma? The toasty roastiness of hazelnuts that I smell? Oh, it sure is. We are chatting hazelnuts today, and you know I'm not doing this by myself. I'm joined as always every single week by horticulture educator, Ken Johnson in Jacksonville.
Speaker 2:Hey, Ken.
Speaker 1:Hello, Chris. It's also a very important ingredient for your chocolate spread.
Speaker 2:I exactly. I I so happen to have a young one in my house who has, we'll call it beyond obsession with a hazelnut chocolate spread that he just cannot get enough of. Actually, every morning, 2 waffles go on the toaster. They pop up, and he makes what he calls, dare I say this brand name, a Nutella sandwich. And it it is every day and sometimes snacks throughout the day.
Speaker 1:Does he end up wearing half of it on his face like my kids?
Speaker 2:He sure does. Because I I almost say, don't change out of your pajamas before eating your Nutella sandwich.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Nice Nutella goatee and and stuff going on.
Speaker 2:Yes. Yep. So quite popular in your house as well, I take it?
Speaker 1:Probably not quite as popular as yours, but, yes, go through spurts where all of a sudden it's, like, nonstop, and then they get tired of it and come back to it again eventually.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Mhmm. Well so we will get to hazelnuts, but we have a little housekeeping to take care of, Ken. We have, there's actually 2 things I wanted to mention before we get into the show. First is some some sad news.
Speaker 2:I was doing a little bit of a research earlier in today for a a client question, and, a old clip of this old house popped up. And I used to watch that show when I was a kid, and the landscape contractor guy, Roger Cook, passed away last week. And that, like, shocked me because that's someone who kind of, like you know, I'd be sitting watching that show, and then I'd be like, oh, this electrical, this plumbing, all that stuff's boring. Then Roger'd come on, and I get, like, super excited. Like, oh, this is so cool.
Speaker 2:So I think I like like plants from a young age.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I hadn't seen that. We used to watch it. Grandparents would watch them a lot. So every time we were there, this old house.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, we'll just feel bad for Roger's family, but, we gotta keep Tom Silva going. He can't he can't quit on us. We got old Tommy boy there. And another thing is, we have to well, I I need to make a correction from what I said, what, 2 shows ago. We're talking about old time garden, the tricks and things people would use.
Speaker 2:And I think I had mentioned something about fertilizers and how lots of them contain calcium. Well, let me retract that statement because not all fertilizers contain calcium. In fact, probably a lot of the things that most homeowners are gonna be guy buying don't have calcium in them, but it's always a good idea. Read that label. Make sure.
Speaker 2:Think I had mentioned something about how calcium can build up to, you know, excessive levels in the soil, which they can, but usually only if you're growing under a high tunnel or in a greenhouse. So make that correction. Thank you to our our viewers who, you know, keep us on the up and up on stuff.
Speaker 1:Yes. Yes. Fact check us.
Speaker 2:That's right. Please do. Yeah. So I will if you call me an expert, I will call you a liar. So but now it is time to get into the topic at hand.
Speaker 2:So, Ken, I wanna know, when was the first time you ever, like, dealt with a hazelnut?
Speaker 1:Well, aren't they in the bags of mixed nuts you get at Christmas time?
Speaker 2:I guess so. Yeah. Yeah. How about the living plant the living hazelnut plant?
Speaker 1:Oh, that I knowingly did. Couple years ago, a colleague had gotten some hazelnut plants and had some extras and gave me some and planted them in my backyard. And when was that? 4 or 5 years ago.
Speaker 2:So you're you're a hazelnut grower. Yeah. You're farming them. I've you know, with all those.
Speaker 1:Yes. Me and the squirrels.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Well, I I I will say as a child, I remember we had, a creek near the back of our house, and I would walk through the woods, and I would pull what I didn't know what they were at the time. But these were these, like, long little kinda cylinder kinda you know, there's probably about the size and shape of a birthday candle or something. These little catkins hanging from these shrubs growing in the edge of the woods, and I just pull on them and I'd mess around with them. And it wasn't until an adult and I went back down there and realized, oh, those are hazelnuts.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I guess I'd I'd been dealing with hazelnuts for a long time in my life. But, yeah, that that I think a lot of us don't realize that they grow around here too.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So you're the expert today. You've got the most experience.
Speaker 2:I that's right. Yes. Let me pull from my childhood memories here in in school y'all. So I I guess well, let me ask you, Ken. Do you where do hazelnuts come from?
Speaker 2:Does the stork bring them here and that's where they show up? Yes.
Speaker 1:So I guess it kinda depends on the hazelnut you're talking about because there's multiple species that are American hazelnut. There's another native one. The Was that the beaked beaked hazelnut? Which I don't you don't really see in cultivation because it's doesn't have very good production in nuts necessarily. But most of them, I think, are European.
Speaker 1:Hazelnuts. I think I read somewhere that Asia is the center of diversity, but, you know, commercially commercial wise, the ones you're eating are European usually.
Speaker 2:That that is correct. Yeah. If if you're eating hazelnut, whether it's a spread or some kind of flavored concoction, more than likely, it is derived from a European hazelnut. But we do have our very own Native American hazelnut and the beaked hazelnut, that can be grown here in Illinois. And that could be found perhaps growing wild here and there as I found when I was a kid.
Speaker 1:Since, you know, yeah, Europe so I I would think, you know, European and American, at least in the United States, probably Canada too. Those are probably the 2 you're most likely going to encounter. But there are some some pretty big differences between them. So our our American is more of a shrub Again, very large. I know the ones in my backyard, they're probably pushing 10 plus feet tall now and probably 6 to 8 feet wide.
Speaker 1:So not a not a small foundation planting shrub here for you. Like, European hazelnuts are gonna be more tree like.
Speaker 2:Yes. They they grow them like orchards. Mhmm. So I I would say the European hazelnut, because they're they're more tree like, they grow them like orchard, and probably the main reason why we use them primarily in commercial production is unlike the American hazelnut, European hazelnut produces a larger kind of, fruit or or nuts, and this hole or the shell of that is thinner, so it's easier to crack, easier to process. Whereas the American hazelnut is a much smaller nut and a much thicker hole, much more difficult to crack open and process.
Speaker 2:And so, I mean, that's the main production differences why we would choose the European hazelnut over American hazelnut. However, they did do a study of the oils within the hazelnut. And so one of the oils, that we are use quite often, especially if you like to cook with olive oil, oleic acid, they find that European hazelnut has even more oleic acid than olive oil and that American hazelnut has even more of that oleic acid than the European. So, American hazelnut, you have more of that higher percentage that oleic acid content, which we use for cooking and the one of those good fats and things like that. So, yeah, this potential, you just have to harvest a lot more American hazelnuts to get that, probably amount of oil than, say, from a European.
Speaker 1:Yeah. We say those shells are thick. I cracked I got some from my my plants last year for the first time, And you'd use a vice to crack could use a nutcracker to crack those. They're they're pretty thick. And then last fall was kinda dry, so I had no nuts.
Speaker 1:They're all shriveled up inside. So I didn't get to eat anything. But I have read that European or or not European. American are supposed to be a little sweeter tasting, but I can attest to that firsthand because I have not gotten any nuts off of mine.
Speaker 2:Well, I I have. And so I've I've harvested harvested them before, and I had enough where I could not only taste them, try them, but then I also propagated several of them. I I sprouted them from seed. And I can confirm that I had to use a hammer to break the the shell of that. And so I I broke that out.
Speaker 2:I I and I got that kernel that from the inside of that that shell, and it tasted like hazelnut. Like, it's like the smoky, kinda warm hazelnut flavor that you would get from other, like, pastries, baked goods, coffee that might have, like, a hazelnut flavor added to it tasted just like that. I I thought it was delightful. I said, you don't even need to roast this or do anything extra to this. It tastes good right out of the shell.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:One of the other days.
Speaker 2:You'll get some, can I promise?
Speaker 1:Mine. Maybe. Mhmm. Why not?
Speaker 2:Well, maybe by the end of the show, you'll you'll know what to do, and you can get those hazelnuts. You just have to fight off a lot of critters to do so because because they're wild, lots of things eat them. But maybe we need to back up a little bit and just also confirm that we are talking about hazelnuts. Another very common name for these plants is Filbert. I have had this question come up where, you know, I've talked, ad nauseam about hazelnuts, and then someone says, yeah.
Speaker 2:But what about filberts? Could you talk about those? And they are the same thing. So European Filbert is the same as European hazelnut. Lot of times, they might call American hazelnut American Filbert.
Speaker 2:And so that Filbert, hazelnut, that's kind of, you know, it's used interchangeably, depending on where you're at on on the globe.
Speaker 1:Yes. I think the another difference or maybe the key difference when it comes to American and European hazelnut is eastern filbert blight, speaking of filberts. So that is a a native disease we have here in North America that our American hazelnut is resistant to, but European is not. And that if you're growing European A's and us that have that haven't been, you know, screened to be resistant, you're not going to be more likely, you're not gonna be very successful, and you're going to end up disappointed. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And that's a, a fungal disease that'll get into the plants. And usually, I've never seen it in person. With the pictures I've seen, you kinda get these, like cankers, pustules along the stems, like black and rose, along the stems and stuff. And that will eventually you know, kill the plant eventually.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I once had a contorted filbert, which is more of an ornamental kind kind of, contorted European hazelnut. I had one of those brought into the office. I pop a picture of that right now, and you can see those black pustules in this nice little line along the stem there. And, so, yeah, even though that is a more ornamental type, you know, tree, it is European hazelnut, and it gets eastern filbert blight.
Speaker 2:And they tried to introduce European hazelnut here to the Midwest many, many years ago, long time ago, and it was met with that disease. As you mentioned, Ken, our American hazelnut are resistant to that disease. So eastern filbert blight is native to North America. American hazelnut, also native to North America. So those 2 have coevolved with each other.
Speaker 2:Then we bring in European hazelnut that has not been part of that that system, and boom, it gets infected. But so then they moved that production to the west of the rockies where they believe there was no eastern filbert blight. And for, I think, many years, they did not see that, but they finally saw eastern filbert blight show up in, like, 1970 and really start to play a number on hazelnuts out in the Pacific Northwest. They still do have hazelnut orchards out there. And so you can still go out there and see them.
Speaker 2:They're just dealing now with eastern phillar blight and trying to breed in some of that resistance.
Speaker 1:Yeah. They are at somewhere, like, it was 5% of hazelnut production is in the US, and most of that is in Oregon, the Wilmette Valley, I think. Mhmm. So vast majority of production worldwide is in Turkey, but the US does contribute a little bit to that. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And a a lot of those those Turkish hazelnuts are imported into, like, Europe where I think it's been said they eat hazelnuts in Europe like we eat peanuts here in the US. It's just a very common kinda like table, snack. And so it it's a very much more common over in Europe. And I think the popularity is growing over here in the US, though, especially with, you know, hazelnut chocolatey spreads that our kids seem to love. These hazelnut infused, you know, flavored drinks and and baked goods.
Speaker 2:And so I I think we're gonna start seeing this become more and more popular and hazelnut oil.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Well, more of a value added product here than a even the straight nut.
Speaker 2:Exactly. Yes. Yes. So I guess, Ken, there's a few places where since hazelnut is grown here, American hazelnut, if we focus on that for a second. Now, you have deployed your hazelnut in your backyard.
Speaker 2:Is this kind of like a like a hedge? Are you screening anything with this? You don't want the neighbors to see, you know, see you through the hazelnut shrub hedge?
Speaker 1:So we plan ours just like, oh, there's some space. We'll put it there. But, yes, we'll make it That's
Speaker 2:the old gardener's trick. I have space there. Let's just put it there.
Speaker 1:So we've got 2 behind our garage. We've got a detached garage. We've got 2 back there and can no longer see the garage from the backyard if you're looking at it because it's I mean, 3. Yeah. Those 2 plants back there basically cover the the width of the garage and are almost as tall as it.
Speaker 1:And we've got a couple others on the to the side in the backyard in between 2, maple trees because American hazelnut can take, full shade. You probably get better net production if you're more full sun partial shade. Ours are more partial shade probably bordering on full shade. So I probably don't get the probably don't get the nut production we could potentially, but we still have, nuts being produced. And like I mentioned, ours, they've been in the ground 4, 5, whatever.
Speaker 1:COVID's completely messed up with my sense of how long
Speaker 2:it's been.
Speaker 1:It could be 7 years. I don't know. But there you go. Again, they're getting tall. 10, wouldn't surprise me, 12 feet, 6 to 8 feet wide.
Speaker 1:They've got, you know, big, fairly large sleeves, kind of fuzzy. The stems are a little fuzzy too. So I think we make a good ornamental. Yeah. But we'll give it for screening and things like that if if you wanted that or they could be a specimen as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And I've seen them also used in things like a windbreak. That's where I was actually able to collect my hazelnuts that I use to then propagate just from seed. So what I have that it sprouted from there, that's just wild American hazelnut. And that's really the nice thing about this particular shrub is that it's so well adapted to our climate, to our soils, differing sun patterns as you described, Ken, that it can survive in a lot of different instances and do pretty well.
Speaker 2:Yeah. We just might not get the type of production that you expect with, either that that sun, that soil, that moisture because it varies across Illinois, but also just the genetics of the plant. It's a wild plant. It's not cultivated, and so we just don't know quite what to expect from that. And we'll talk maybe later on in the show here, just a minute about what cultivars and all that might be available to folks.
Speaker 2:But, yeah, just kind of some other ideas of where people can use them. So landscaping, windbreaks. And I think one of the big things for like agriculture is they're talking about creating more of these buffer strips maybe around natural areas, streams, woodlands. And hazelnut could be one of those buffers that could potentially also be sort of a cash crop. You could potentially harvest hazelnuts out of that buffer area and make a little bit of extra money.
Speaker 2:But there's a lot of other research and things that needs to go into that before we actually start really seriously saying like, oh, yes. We're gonna pay bills with this crowd here. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And wildlife, like we've mentioned, we're readily we had I was all excited this early this summer. We probably had so with the American hazelnut, you've got clusters and they can be multiple nuts with a necklace. I think I had some that 5, 6 nuts on there. Probably had 20 or 30 of those on one of our shrubs. Came out a few weeks later.
Speaker 1:There wasn't a single one left. They were all on the ground. Chew marks, they just kinda chewed off the husk and because nothing was ripe yet and just left them there. So Squirrels. No no hazelnuts for me this year.
Speaker 2:Oh, man. Well, they sure they also did enjoy them though because they just chewed on them and spit them out. So
Speaker 1:Should've used all my saved my cicada netting and put that over my my hazelnut bush.
Speaker 2:We have another use for cicada netting, folks. Write this into the papers. Yes. So there are pests of hazelnut that you would have to contend with, squirrels being one of them. Probably other rodents that like to to eat, you know, any any type of nuts, acorns.
Speaker 2:We also have blue jays to contend with. I think blue jays are also, frequent users of hazelnuts. They like to pull them off and and fly away and hide them and take them places. But then there's also a particular insect called the hazelnut weevil, this Cucurli obtusis. Now the hazelnut weevil, what it does is the female, she'll lay her egg on the developing fruit there, the developing nut of on the shrub, the egg hatches, the larva burrows into that acorn not acorn into that kernel, there and it will just feed on that hazelnut, and then it will burrow out and can redo its lifecycle all over again.
Speaker 2:And that is just like acorns. Acorns have a very similar pest. So if you ever pick up an acorn off the ground and you see a little hole in it, it's a very similar situation where you could crack that acorn open and you realize, oh, something totally, like, ate that kernel inside or it's all rotted because something started to eat it. And same thing happens with hazelnut with this weevil. Unfortunately, because American hazelnut is not really considered maybe like a large agronomic crop here in Illinois, there is nothing listed to spray to prevent that from happening.
Speaker 2:So, I think it's happened to me once where someone has asked me, what can I spray so my hazelnuts don't keep getting these little weevils inside them? I said, I really can't recommend anything because at least at the time a few years ago, there was nothing listed here in Illinois for that use. So
Speaker 1:Yeah. Until you get more commercial production, that may be Mhmm. Maybe a difficulty.
Speaker 2:That's right. When they find the money, the way to make the money, then they will do the research. So we gotta get the cart in front of the horse like we always do. So I guess maybe we should describe what people would see when they would grow an American hazelnut. So right now we are sitting at the end of August.
Speaker 2:I guess let's go through a year in the life of hazelnut, maybe how that might play into some of that if someone is able to harvest some hazelnuts off of that shrub. So, Ken, what are you seeing right now on your hazelnut? Like, what's where where do we stand right now in its life cycle? Yeah.
Speaker 1:So if you if you had nuts, they'd be ripening now and still probably early before you'd start picking those. But with the nuts, they've got the I don't know what the proper term is, the husk or whatever around it. Those will open up and those nuts will kinda get loose in there and that's when you know and they'll dry down, kinda brown. That's when you know when to pick those. They'll open up and you can pull them out, easily.
Speaker 1:But if we back up a little bit, usually I think I'm trying to remember when I first saw mine. Usually in July sometime, the male flowers, Those catkins will start being produced. So right now, they're they're still pretty small. And as the season progresses, you know, eventually in the fall, they'll shed their leaves. We've got you can have nice color on those oranges and reds and sometimes yellows and stuff on those.
Speaker 1:So another, you know, potential appeal is you get some good fall color on those. Those mayo flowers will will stay on there through the winter. And a lot of times in January sometime during the winter, those catkins can almost double in size, and they actually start shedding pollen during the winter. The we can put a picture up now of what those catkins look like. And for hazelnuts, they have separate male and female flowers on the same plant.
Speaker 1:So then also in the winter, I think January through March, the female flowers will also start opening up. And we can put a picture here now. And this is a picture I took February 25th this year. So these plants are blooming January, February, March time frame, and they're wind pollinated. So the male flowers will start shedding their pollen.
Speaker 1:They'll hopefully transfer to the the female flowers, and then you'll start getting, fruit development down there. The plants will leaf out and then eventually you'll start seeing these little clusters of of nuts being produced. As far as, you know, pollination, now they are not self compatible, so plants cannot pollinate themselves. Think of them kind of like apples. You have to have, different cultivars, and we'll get into this when we talk about cultivars stuff.
Speaker 1:But if you have seedlings, you know, 2 different seedlings should be able to pollinate each other. But if you've got one plant, you're not gonna get any nuts unless you've got other hazelnuts in the area to pollinate, your your female flowers. And then, when they're shedding pollen and when the female's flowers are receptive, typically, you group those into to early, mid, and late season. So that can complicate things further. One of the cool things about the female flowers is they will remain receptive for for several weeks once they open.
Speaker 1:And I think I saw somewhere they can tolerate temperatures down to 20 below. So they're very hardy flowers. So if we get a late frost or a late freeze a really hard freeze, more than likely those flowers will still be okay.
Speaker 2:And and I wanted to add too, Ken, when you describe those husks that kind of open up and they dry out. When I first picked my first hazelnut nuts, I thought these are like fancy acorns Because those husks, they like dry, and they look like these awesome, it's like Kentucky Derby hats. I don't know how else to describe it. It's like they looked at those caps on those acorns and they said, you know, we can do better. And I think the husks are really cool looking.
Speaker 2:They, like, dry, and they have all of these, like, I don't know. I just I think they're just so delicate looking, but they're stunning. They're quite an attractive fruit on that hazelnut there.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And even when they're ripening, they're they're a little lighter green. Sometimes you get a little pinkish shoes in there. Mhmm. Sometimes.
Speaker 1:So yeah. Nice. They're frilly.
Speaker 2:Yeah. They're frilly.
Speaker 1:It fills on them.
Speaker 2:That's what I yeah. Suri with a French on top. That's what they have. Yeah. They are, they they look really, I don't know, just decorative, ornamental.
Speaker 2:They're fancy acorns.
Speaker 1:And taste better too.
Speaker 2:Yes. They do. Usually don't have a worm inside of them, but that's not always true. So, Ken, I guess now that we've we've talked about hazelnuts and, we've we've described them as, fancy acorns, If people want to get their hands on them, now one thing that I know that is readily available, you could probably go to a lot of like specialty native plant nurseries. You might even get in on some like like tree, nut, or fruit nurseries and find them, but that is just seedlings.
Speaker 2:Like what I did, I collected hazelnuts out from this windbreak, and I sowed them in flats, and I was able to get seedlings. And so just wild seedlings would be readily available to consumers, I think, for you to purchase. Those are going to be easy to find. Now, if you want something that is a bit more, let's say, ornamental, or something that has a bit more control than growth, there are a few cultivars out there, but they are going to be more difficult for you to get your hands on. I think the one that we found was Winkler.
Speaker 2:That was a cultivar that was selected from Iowa actually, which you know, I I again, it's going to be hard to find. So, it was selected for its shorter stature, and then, you know, some of it's it's for production. But there's another one, Crimson, I think, which was selected more for its fall color. And that was a was that a New Jersey selection?
Speaker 1:Wisconsin. Wisconsin. Okay. Yeah. So it's got red leaves, and then the, the husks are red as well.
Speaker 1:It's supposed to be 2 ish meters, 6, 7 feet tall. So it's a little bit shorter. So so I think, you know, the the Winkler and the Crimson maybe, if you can find them, would be good for her.
Speaker 2:And those are cultivated forms of the American hazelnut. Coriolis americana. She'll probably be using scientific names because common names can get confusing. And also mentioning too who is doing a lot of this work. Of course, Oregon State University, they're doing a lot of work.
Speaker 2:They're doing a lot focused on European hazelnut and really just trying to bring in that blight resistance into what they're producing out there. Now, there is a group specifically geared here, I believe they're called the Upper Midwest Hazelnut Consortium or organization, and they are really trying to, I think there's a couple different spears or points here on their trident of like they want to try to get American hazelnut into production by crossing it with European hazelnut. So they wanna get all the benefits of American hazelnut, but they wanna get that yield of that European hazelnut. And so there's there's a lot of that happening. I think they're also just breeding some of these American hazelnuts, to to try to, you know, maybe get some more cultivars in that that species line right there.
Speaker 2:So, I think when you're shopping for hazelnuts, you will see seedlings, which again are just the wild species, and then you're gonna start seeing hybrids. And those hybrids are going to very often be crosses of American hazelnut with European hazelnut.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And Rutgers University has done a lot of work on hazelnuts and there's, and a decent amount in Canada and as well as some universities, up there. So there's there's multiple places that you can find information and kinda recommendations for, different cultivars. The the upper Midwest, what is that, Wisconsin and Minnesota. I think the other thing that we're gonna And Iowa.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of that the cold hardiness because European hazelnuts are not quite probably not cold hardy to a lot of the upper Midwest. Here in Illinois, I think most of them, especially the not the cultivars, I think are hardy to zone 5 or 6. So and a lot of Illinois, they'd be fine, but maybe when we get into northeastern Mhmm. Or northwestern Illinois. And there may be some of those have not necessarily been trialed, at lower zones.
Speaker 1:So I think that's another thing those are they're trying to do too.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I yeah. And I think that's probably what we need to do also in Illinois is, maybe start trialing because you could probably put a European hazelnut down in Jacksonville if it's just the straight species. I mean, 1 Eastern Filbert blight is going to kill it, probably. The other thing, if the blight doesn't get it, the random polar vortexes that this part of the world tends to see might wipe it out as well.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, that's but again, we need to trial these things to even know if someone wants to invest some money in purchasing either this plant for food or for for ornamental appeal, will it survive? Will it produce? Does it look good? It's always important. So if any people, listening, are are breeders and would love to send Ken or myself all these fun new hazelnut cultivars, hybrids coming out.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Just reach out to us. We'd be happy to take your hazelnuts. Ken's got, just square miles that he put these these hazelnuts in.
Speaker 1:Something like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Something like that.
Speaker 1:And I think we hinted at this earlier. When you are selecting you know, if you're doing this for production, if you're just doing this for an ornamental and maybe you get nuts, maybe you don't, seedlings are are gonna be fine or but, look, when you're doing the hybrids or the cultivars, you need to look to make sure they're compatible with each other when it comes to pollination. So there's something, what do they call the the s alleles. So basically, they they assign these different alleles numbers. And if you have cultivars or hybrids that have the same numbers, they are not they cannot pollinate one another.
Speaker 1:So again, same thing with apples. We've got those apple charts, pollination charts where certain ones, you know, they share parentage, so they're probably they're not gonna be be able to pollinate one another. So if you're doing this with production in mind, making sure the the cultivars you're getting are going to be able to pollinate each other. And if not, you're gonna need to add, pollinators or ones that you're using specifically for being able to pollinate pollinate others. You can still get production off of them, but checking that, I think it was there 23, 27.
Speaker 1:I don't remember the exact name, but different numbers.
Speaker 2:At least 27.
Speaker 1:At least can be numbered. And usually it's two numbers. So there are all these different alleles that are they're not compatible if they match up. So Yeah. And there's charts and stuff you can
Speaker 2:Yes. Reference the charts. Yeah. So like it says here, Monmouth, which is a cultivar across here, it's got S1 and S12 allele. You can then compare that to Raritan that has an S3 and an S22.
Speaker 2:And so yeah, you can go out and and hopefully, you know, wherever you're buying these or would supply that information for you. And if not, it's also readily available online in the charts that as Ken mentioned.
Speaker 1:But if you're doing seedlings, there's there should be that genetic diversity in those. That'd be fine. On a couple of plants, you should be fine.
Speaker 2:Yeah. They're just not self fruitful. Yeah. And we really don't have cultivar recommendations on this, at least not yet. I would say they are working on cultivars to be produced, and I'm seeing there's a lot of cultivars that are popping up, but really to test their merit, we got to see them grow for being a woody plant 10 years, maybe, like 10 years' worth of data.
Speaker 2:That will give you a good idea of, is this a very good shrub? Is this a good producing crop? And so it takes time, especially with our woody plant material, our trees and shrubs. That's why it's always, if you're a breeder in that world, I so sorry. It is your you're gonna be very rich after you retire, maybe a few decades after you retire.
Speaker 2:So, just hang in there. You just gotta wait because it is a get rich slow, whole kind of deal. Well, that was a lot of great information about hazelnuts and, you know, comparing, contrasting European hazelnut with the American hazelnut, growing this in our own backyard, and what the potentials are maybe for future hazelnut harvesting in our own backyard. So, we're looking forward to all those, free samples of hazelnuts that people are gonna send us. Well, the Good Growing Podcast is a production of University of Illinois Extension edited this week by me, Chris Enra.
Speaker 2:Hey, Ken. Thank you so much for hanging out, chatting about probably maybe one of the tastiest, shrubs I think we have around. I mean, blueberry might, give it a run for its money. But I really like growing hazelnut, and I'm excited to grow some in my own yard.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Hazelnut's definitely easier to grow. Much easier.
Speaker 2:Yes. And and it could potentially have a good fall color. Blueberry is maybe a bit better known for its fall color though.
Speaker 1:Yes. But much less picky. Yes. Exactly. That's the winner in my book.
Speaker 1:Exactly. And let's just do this again next week.
Speaker 2:Oh, we shall do this again next week. We are looking forward to it as temperatures that are very hot start to cool off, I hope. So we will see what happens next week. Will the heat break? Will it get cold again?
Speaker 2:Is fall ever gonna get here? Don't wish away summer folks because, we still got a lot more to do. Well, listeners, thank you for doing what you do best. And that is listening. Or if you're watching us on YouTube, watching.
Speaker 2:And as always, keep on growing. The good groin. I'm getting lost in everything right now.
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