Michelle Wilber

I got actual hazelnuts in Anchorage, Alaska this year!  18 of 22 shells had nuts inside...woohoo!!! So exciting

Sadly, even though I harvested about 17 nuts from my hazleberts in Anchorage last fall, they all turned out to be completely empty shells.  Baby steps!  At least they made shells this year.

Also, I only have one korean nut pine, so not sure what the polination requirements are (I'm sure I researched that when I got it and thought I had hope of nuts, but maybe I was wrong, and even with self-fertile things I've had way better luck once I put an appropriate pollinator in the yard - non-surprisingly.  No room for another big pine though!

I also have a korean pine.  We don't have white pines here, but I did take some soil from under domestic pines of some sort and spread around, as well as adding some general purpose mycorrhizal innoculant a year or so after planting to the root zone.  I do collect boletes to eat and they are in the neighborhood but not in my yard, I will slurry and add that too.  The pine started a few inches tall and 9 years later is finally 4' or so, growing about 6" a year maybe at this point.  It is deep in a food forest overshadowed by spruce and wild rose and domestic mtn ash and bush cherry.  It seems happy with this for now.  I suspect in 30 years all its neighbors will be overshadowed and thus moved or unhappy  Maybe by then I'll get some nuts.  I have heard it likes something about the humidity control of being at elevation though, and I am near the ocean, so maybe not.

That's awesome, Corey!  Hope to hear about successes from your nuts soon!  I think I mentioned earlier, but my Hazelberts are from St. Lawrence Nursery, 4 of them, but only one has nut set (a handful of clusters of 3 nuts each, currently about as big as my finger tip.).  They are about 9 years in the ground and about 15 feet tall.  They are on the west side of a building in sunny Spenard (a little bit of a nicer microclime than general Anchorage), mostly in a row although one (not the one with nuts) is a few feet (10ish?) from the others.  I'm super excited!

Excitingly, it looks like I may have finally gotten some nut set on my hazelberts in Anchorage, AK!  Now let's see if they ripen...

As far as some specific plant suggestions, I really like black currant for its smell, pest resistance, shade tolerance, growth habit, look and taste, but I think they are highly restricted there because of White Pine Blister Rust?  I think I read that there are some, like Crandall, approved with a permit though?  I think you are on to something with the King Stropharia shrooms, they do great in my forested north yard in Alaska - they like a shady, moist-ish spot.  You could probably get some other good edible mushrooms going there too - something to investigate for the future, but the Stropharia are easy.  Strawberries do pretty well under the trees for me, and could be a great groundcover on sheetmulched islands.  This is regardless of whether you leave the existing trees, or do some selective felling to replace with nut or fruit trees of your choice.  I'm not an expert, but I think you could start some of these trees now and they might appreciate the understory placement now, but as they mature, most would want a little more light for themselves, especially to produce.  I have successfully started with the whole sheet mulch bed (trees and other layers planted all at once) and planting trees first and filling in the lower stories over time.  I haven't tried it the other way around.

You should take this advice with a huge grain of salt, because I am in Alaska and conditions are very, very different here....but I think you could do worse than a thick layer of wood chips, maybe planting some nurse trees in (things that would grow pretty well in tough conditions and start to get things going towards forest, nothing that would be too hard to take out later when your more favored trees are going good).  I started with an urban lawn - mostly mowed quack grass (lots of rhizome mat) with a few inches of soil and then silty sand, and clay in some areas at depth.  I planted fruit trees (mostly apples) directly in the existing sandy soil with manure and mulch thrown on the top and about 6 inches of wood chips starting 6 inches out from the trunks (away from trunks to discourage rodent damage).  We have short, cool summers, but even so the wood chips have broken down in the 8 years since and new leaves and chips have been frequently added.  The soil is much better, the trees are much bigger, but the quack grass still comes up.  If I could have done it, I would have laid down a foot or more of woodchips to more completely smother the grass and then in a year or so sheet mulched on top and planted trees through, being careful to not incorporate wood chips in the soil at depth, and compensating with nitrogen rich matter on the surface.  I imagine things would break down much more quickly there, especially if there is adequate moisture.  And yah, a plan...lay down wood chips if it is easy wherever you might have forest/path/garden/etc and then spend the year planning!  Mapping, designing systems...the whole process.

Victor - do you know what kind of stone pines produce at UAF?

I'm in Anchorage (the balmy part - Spenard) and have 4 hazelberts from ST Lawrence Nursery planted along the west facing side of a building.  They went in in 2009 and are now over 10 to 15 feet tall and spreading.  They have had male catkins for many years, and female flowers the last few years, but even this amazingly long warm summer no nut set at all.  Maybe someday, or maybe light or other things are big problems.  If nothing else, they are happy and healthy and produce long straight stems and big leaves - baskets, wood for rocket stoves and mulch I'd like to try Badgerset seedlings, but I'm almost out of room in my urban yard.

I also have a Korean pine planted in 2009.  It is a couple of feet high now, started out a few inches high.  I hear they produce better at elevation (something about humidity and such), so the coastal weather of Anchorage may not be conducive even if it ever gets big enough!

The university (UAA) has 30 foot tall burr oaks (also about 30 years old I think), and I went and checked this fall and saw no acorns at all.

I'd love any reports of any nuts produced on any trees in Alaska!