Results from my 15 hazels at the end of the second growing season.
As a lot of people seem to have found, it was a hard growing season. I think I for sure lost a second hazel. Most of the 10 (now 8) in back looked poorly. I had a lot of leaf edges crisping up and some leaf loss. One or two that looked like they died now have green buds, presumably ready for next year. I assume they grew taller but I don't know how much.
Of the 5 hazels in from, 3 have catkins ready for next spring. (1 of them had a catkin or two this spring). I'm hoping that means I might have a few nuts set on next year. One of the ones in front without catkins has bushed out a lot with new shoots.
I nearly put up shade cloth over the garden this year. Might have given a better harvest if I had. The hazels in front with afternoon shade did much better than those with only morning shade. I'm reminded that hazels are an understory specie so I'm thinking that they'd like more shade, particularly in our semiarid and very sunny climate. I'm hoping to grow orache, sunflowers, and my going-to-seed carrots around the backyard hazels next year. In theory the apple trees should shade the hazels eventually but I need a few years of shade in the mean time.
DK