When our hazel bushes bloomed in the spring, I thought it would be a great harvest, the first true after four years of waiting. I ordered through a hand-cranked nutcracker to be prepared for the huge nötmängderna I saw before me. After an unusually cold and dry April and an even more unusually cold May with several nights around -8 degrees dropped, however, I quickly belief that there would be no harvest at all. The summer heat did not materialize completely did not help. This year's hottest day was the 27 May with 26,8 grader. Then there have been the warmest 24 grader.
Now suffer this crop year, which has been the worst we have experienced since we began growing here in Stjärnsund over 10 years ago, to an end and there is still some hope for the future harvest. For despite the worst possible conditions, we have been able to reap some nuts. Not much, but all five of our 'Wunder aus Bollweiler' have received at least one cluster of nuts was. This variety is the one that worked the best of all of us. We planted them 2013 and most are today already 4-5 m high. Shoots can easily be 1 to 2 m long and has never received any frost damage. Probably was the variety 'Cosford' for pollination this year.
Nötterna på 'wonder from Boll Hamlet' (who also goes by the names 'Weißmann Zeller', ´Weißmanns Zellernuss´, 'Merveille the Bollwiller' and 'Bollweiler') is quite huge. Probably the variety is a seedling of the popular variety 'Jättenöt from Halle' (= 'Hallesk giant', ’Hall’s Giant’, Greater Zellernuss') and it is not difficult to understand why it is called miraculous, given its growth potential and the size of frayed.
So even though there was no great harvest this year, there is hope for the future. For there may be a few nuts a really bad growing years, it should well be the more nuts a good growing years.
Is a new follower of your blog. We recently bought a farm in the municipality of Knivsta and are in a building a lush garden (today it is mostly a bad lawn and an unkempt paddock…we have no horses but want to grow instead). We want a nötlund with various nut trees / shrubs. Can you recommend what types of hazelnuts, we should focus on? Other good nut varieties. We have a newly purchased walnut already. We live about cultivation zone 4 (can probably get to 3 in secure locations, and we will have greenhouses…one of more than 200 sqm which is not heated and insulated on 25 sq holding about 8 of degrees.) Part of the land is on a dry hill with a lot of stones (väldrenerad land that holds moisture poorly) and paddock now has hard-packed earth, which I guess also contains clay in part (neighbors say there may be some water sick sometimes when snowmelt). We will improve the soil and take all the steps we can to create the right conditions for our plants. This summer we spent to build the dam for the fishermen we had with us in the move…the next step is to start planting the plants that need little time to give good returns, e.g. plants in nötlunden.
What a fun project! You will find a lot of information about nötodling in a series that I wrote three years ago, first post here, then you just have to click through: https://xn--skogstrdgrden-hfbr.xn--stjrnsund-x2a.nu/notodling-i-sverige-del-1/. Hope you find the information you need! I can also tell if the facebook group “Forest Garden Growers” that is very active: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1145251212167016/?ref=nf_target&fref=nf where you can ask any question.
Thanks for your reply. I'll check the links you refer to