Hazelnuts: A New Sustainable Crop for the Northeastern United States

Hazelnuts: A New Sustainable Crop for the Northeastern United States

Summary

Over the past fourteen years, hazelnut research and genetic improvement at Rutgers University has lead to the development of cold-hardy disease-resistant hybrid hazelnut selections that show promise for commercial production in the northeast. These selections represent some of the first hazelnut plants well adapted to this region that also produce large high-quality, round nuts with thin-shells and a high kernel percentage (over 50% kernel to shell by weight). They are being propagated to undergo systematic multi-location evaluation for their usefulness in low-input sustainable farming situations. Funding from the SARE Partnership grant is being used to clonally propagate and establish the plants at four locations. Evaluations will continue for seven years after planting. These plantings will also function as demonstration trials to inform farmers and the public of the progress made in hazelnut breeding, and to display hazelnuts as a new sustainable, high-value crop for the northeastern U.S.

Trial locations include the Rutgers Horticultural Farm 3, North Brunswick, NJ; 2. Peter’s Paw Paws, Aquaboque, NY (Long Island); 3. Garden of Eve Certified Organic Farm, Riverhead, NY (Long Island); and 4. Olson’s Tree Farming, Findley Lake, NY (Western NY). From these trials we hope to identify the highest-yielding selections most suited for reliable low-input production in the northeast as a precursor to larger-scale testing for commercial production.

Objectives/Performance Targets

1. 1. Clonally propagate the 14 superior experimental hazelnut selections developed at Rutgers and two control plants through grafting and field layering. Twenty-four trees of each clone are needed to plant the four replicated trials (14 experimental clones and 2 controls [‘Jeffferson’ and ‘Theta’] x 6 plants each x 4 locations for a total of 384 plants). Extra plants of each will also be propagated as backup to ensure replicated trials are complete.

   2. Grow approximately 100 hazelnuts from improved seed to act as a border rows and supplemental pollen sources for the replicated trials.

   3. Discuss planting details and field maintenance requirements with cooperating farmers.

   4. Work with cooperating farmers to prepare land for Fall 2009 or Spring 2010 planting.

   5. Present seminar at the Annual Northern Nut Growers Conference to discuss replicated trials and hazelnuts as a potential new crop for the Northeast.

   6. Invite the NY Nut Growers Association, PA Nut Growers Association, and members of the Northern Nut Growers Association in the Fall of 2010 to visit regionally local planting sites to observe the establishment of the new Rutgers clones and to also provide information and collect feedback about growing hazelnuts as a new crop.

Accomplishments/Milestones

Hazelnut propagation began in March 2009 by grafting in the greenhouse at Rutgers. Over 600 plants were grafted with hopes to have more than enough for the trials that were to be planted in Fall 2009 or Spring 2010. Unfortunately, our grafting success was less than 50% in 2009, due to a problem with the rootstocks and possible greenhouse temperatures during callusing. As such, we did not successfully propagate enough plants of each clone to set up the trials in the 2009 season at the three private locations. However, the replicated trial was established at the Rutgers Hort. Farm 3, as planned. Fortunately, we also mound layered a number of the experimental clones in the field as a backup to the greenhouse propagation. This was successful for about 10 of the clones. However, the rooted layers when harvested in October 2009 were not of the size needed to go directly to the field at the private farm locations. They have been potted up in the greenhouse, overwintered, and are now breaking dormancy to grow larger this summer in preparation for planting in the fall of 2010. The three cooperating farmers were made aware of this change in schedule early on and they made plans to initiate the field trials in the fall of 2010. A second round of grafting and layering will commence in Spring 2010. Due to the challenge of propagating hazelnuts, growing them up to size to be ready for orchard planting, and the lack of availability of well-tested disease-resistant rootstocks, we learned firsthand that propagation of new hazelnuts is a bottleneck in the procedure to get an experimental line out for testing. Due to this, we will initiate in Spring 2010 a undergraduate research project at Rutgers to help us pinpoint issues with hazelnut propagation, including the optimization of rooting from field layering and also to develop ways to improve the success rate of stem cuttings, which has been very poor in the past, but would improve the efficiency of hazelnut propagation immensely. On a positive side, the additional year allowed us to further evaluate the clones in the field at Rutgers to provide additional crop data to support their propagation and incorporation in the replicated field trials. It has also provided more time for the cooperating farmers to choose and prepare their land for the hazelnut trials.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

At the end of the project, replicated trials of superior Rutgers experimental hazelnut clones will be established on three private farms and one land grant institution. These trials will be used to identify the best performing clones that will then be propagated for larger scale testing, as well as for demonstration and teaching. While the two-year timeline of this funding covers primarily the propagation and establishment of the hazelnut research trials (nut evaluation will begin in year three), the cooperators are personally committed to a longer evaluation period of the plant material (seven years), as well as providing access for demonstration and the timely dissemination of project results during the multi-year timeline. The overriding goal of this project is to identify the highest-yielding, most-reliable performing experimental selections and then propagate them for larger-scale testing and possible release for early-stage commercial production. The trials will also help to identify unforeseen pitfalls or challenges of hazelnut production in the northeast, before moving to the greater investment and risk of larger-scale production.

Collaborators: