Hybrid hazelnuts are extremely resilient and hardy!
The author of this video is Akiva Silver, who runs Twisted Tree Nursery . He also wrote the book Trees of Power, which you can find in our Sources page. The video gives me hope because it shows that even when totally neglected, hazelnuts have the ability to stay alive and well. They can even produce a decent hobby-level or supplemental crop.
As we described in our post on the challenges of establishing the orchard, we don’t really have time to be perfecting the art of hazelnut planting and care. That being said, with a bit of occasional maintenance, I believe that our little hazels can still grow and thrive!
Additionally, our neglectful management strategy makes use of a method called “STUN” which stands for “selective total utter neglect.” Mark Shepherd describes the STUN method in great detail in his book Restoration Agriculture, and you can find that book also in the sources page.
Mark Shepherd’s STUN method suggests that neglectful care will reveal which genetic lines are capable of continuing to produce valuable goods with very little maintenance. It follows then that farmers and hobbyists like ourselves should intentionally neglect plants to encourage these genetic lines to take hold (within reason). There’s always room for intensive gardening of a plant that the farmer or hobbyist loves, but by primarily planting out plants we expect to take care of themselves, we free up a great deal of time and resources that we can use to take care of more plants!
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