Selfsufficientish.com

Hi everyone

I've been lucky enough to be given this hazenut tree. It could be hazelnut or kentish cobnut not sure. But in any case, it's about 1.5m high, and probably 2-3 years old. It came off someone elses allotment plot and I've put it on mine. Another plot holder has some kentish cobs, so pollination shouldn't be an issue.


I need to keep it fairly short, probably about the height most people grow them on the farms in Kent. You can see in the attached photo it has about 5 strong shoots coming out the base. Ideally I'd obviously only have one shoot, and let it branch out higher up.

Being that it's dormant now, I can of course do some work on it. Do you think it would be best to keep the best stem, remove the rest, and then sort of push the remaining stem to vertical (even if the root gets tilted in the ground)?

Then I can shape it to a goblet.


Or would it be too devastating to the tree to remove all those big stems? Not sure what effect rotating the root ball would have either. I hope it would just right itself.


Many thanks for any feedback

James Tinker

I wouldn't do anything too drastic to it so soon after transplanting it. I'd give the roots time to recover.

But that's just me and I do have a track record of killing trees.

This is giving me an idea... What conditions re location do hazelnuts need? Do they need lots of light/sun?

I planted 4 hazels about 3 years ago, and they are about 1.5 m high now.... and overgrown with weeds, hops and nettles etc... I'll clear the weeds out in the depths of winter and shape the tree into a hedge-like structure... I tried growing the laterals along canes (tied in), but I've let them lapse this year... they seem a lot more vigorous doing their own thing. I will try and impose some order, and I expect they will survive as they have had 3 years good rooting-in. I'd be a bit wary, as mentioned, if yours hasn't rooted well. But I might consult the RHS picture-book of pruning before taking action :-)

My memory is getting terrible. I just looked back at some photos of the trees I picked on a farm near tunbridge, and they had about 7 trunks coming out the base, exactly like mine. They never had a single central trunk. So I guess this is the right way to grow it anyway. Then shape it as it gets a bit higher.

In terms of storage though I am struggling a bit. The advice on the kentish cobnut association website is clear. They need to be constantly ventilated and turned. I read a bit of misinformation on the web, and put mine in an airtight container to find they moulded very quickly. I removed the rubber seal from my bread crock. It is a loose fitting lid, but hey are still moulding a bit.

I guess you really need a lot of airflow. Any one got ideas of kinds of containers that are particularly good at breathing? What was the old method for storing small quantities? Maybe some kind of unglazed pottery that breathes, or one with holes in the side?

If I leave them in a rack, the mice with get them in my shed

why not hang them up either in a hessian sack or a paper bag or put them on a shelf in the airing cupbaord. I hang things from the rafters in my shed I don't want mice to get, I also have a boiler house where I store my onions and garlic, keeps them in tip top condition and they last longer as it is a frost free place and dry