NNGA The Northern Nut Grower Association, NNGA, met in Nebraska City, Nebraska this summer. These pictures are taken at the Arbor Day Farms in their hazelnut breeding sites. These hardy hazel hybrids are being evaluated for hardiness, production, nut quality and disease resistance.
Canadians had a strong presence at this meeting from British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec. The meetings include social events to meet and network with researchers and other growers, valuable presentations, and field tours to demonstrate nut orchard growing and field and processing equipment.
Northern Hazel , part 2
Ernie Grimo
After my success with the Corylus heterophylla hybrids, I turned my attention to other ultra-hardy sources of hybrid germplasm. I knew of two. Dr. Les Kerr, the researcher at Morden Station in Manitoba and Carl Weschcke, a nut enthusiast from River Falls, Minnesota. These pioneers set the stage for new strains of northern hardy hazels for the colder regions of Canada and the United States.
I met Dr. Kerr during a memorable vacation westward in 1966. I also made a point of visiting the Gellatly Nut Nursery in Kelowna, BC where I met William Gellatly and his wife who were then operating the Nursery left to them by his deceased brother, Jack Gellatly. Later, on my return from the west, I visited Carl Weschcke's daughter who gave us a tour of the late Carl Weschcke's homestead and farm.
On my tour of the Morden Station (zone 3), I was surprised to see black walnuts, butternuts and Manchurian walnuts on the Station. I didn't realize that there were black walnuts adapted to the cold prairie conditions. I was more surprised to see the rows of hazelnut shrubs. Dr. Kerr explained that he was familiar with the hazelnut breeding that had been going on at the Geneva Experiment Station. He contacted Geneva and received pollen to make his own crosses with native American hazels in Saskatchewan. Over the years, he distributed seed and seedlings from his crosses. Kerr directed me to a nursery associate in Saskatchewan that carried his hazels and I purchased a number of them.
When the trees began to bear, I was not impressed with them. Apparently the hybrids that survived the rigorous Canadian Prairie climate resembled the normal wild stock with small bush size trees and tiny pea size nuts. The trees that took after the Geneva pollen parent failed on the Prairies. However this was not the end of the story.
These hardy Prairie hybrids were open pollinated in my orchard. I grew out their seedlings and was again surprised to find that all produced larger nuts than the parent trees, and grew into larger trees with very good yields. After a few years of testing and evaluation, a number of them were named and are now being vegetatively propagated as Julia, Joanne, Frank and Marion. None of these have had blight, but all are susceptible to bud mite, even though the parent trees were free of these pests. The seedlings and seed from these trees are identified as Saskatchewan source hazels. We will be asking for feedback on the hardiness of our selections in colder climates so we can better advise our customers since these are still untested. Dr. Lois Braun at the University of Minnesota is currently testing all of my northern selections for hardiness and will genetically test them for parentage.
After 45 years my last 2 Saskatchewan parent trees died, so I searched the internet to find replacements. I found that the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon had an active hazelnut breeding programme under the direction of Dr. Bob Bors with breeding done by his technician, Rick Sawatzky. I was able to get replacements from them. In their on-going work, they made crosses with pollen from Dr. Shawn Mehlenbacher from Oregon. Dr. Bors reported that the off-spring from their work in zone 3 results in ¼ to be very hardy, ½ to be hardy with some dieback and ¼ to not be hardy at all. He also expects ¼ to have large nuts, ½ to be average size and ¼ to be very small. So the possibility of finding large nuts on hardy bushes is one sixteenth.
I expect better results from my open pollinated seedlings growing in zone 4-7, with similar results to those reported for zone 3. Time will tell how these promising hybrids perform. The journey continues.
Growing Pecan Trees in the North
R. Douglas Campbell, John H. Gordon, Jr.
Reprinted from Mother Earth News
Growing pecan trees in Minnesota or Canada? Yes you can, with a far-north, native species.
Does the thought of roasted pecans and pecan pies make your mouth water? Well, here's some good news for residents of the northern United States and southern Canada: growing pecan trees may soon be possible right in your own back yard!
Although the pecan is usually thought of as a resident of the Deep South, a few native stands of these noteworthy nut producers are known to exist along the Missouri River in north central Missouri and the Mississippi River near Dubuque, Iowa. Early settlers even reported finding pecans on the Ohio River as far north as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. But, unfortunately, most of these northern strains have long since fallen to "civilization." You can imagine the excitement, then, when naturalists discovered a few scattered native trees as far north as southern Wisconsin!
Indian Orchards
Pecan trees (which can live for 500 years) originated in northern Texas and southern
Oklahoma, and were spread along the canoe-trails of the American Indians. (The word "pecan"
comes from the Indian word paccan : "food which has to be cracked out of a hard shell".)
These nuts, once a staple of the Indian diet, were easy to collect and highly nutritious, stored
well, and were good for barter.
It's believed that the native Americans planted pecans in the vicinity of regularly used campsites to provide "grubstakes" for their descendants. And, since the Indians preferred to plant the biggest and thinnest-shelled species, this "cultivation" not only increased the growing range of the beautiful shade tree but greatly improved the quality of its nuts as well!
But no one realized just how widely the tree had actually been spread until recently, when some fine examples of the "northern" pecan were found hidden away in the rugged forests of southern Wisconsin and in the northernmost regions of Iowa and Illinois. These old trees, which grow as far as 300 miles north of the currently available northern pecans, make it feasible to adapt the nut tree to much colder climates than modem growers had previously thought possible!
A Rare Seed Offer
Members of the Northern Nut Growers Association (NNGA), a non-profit group dedicated
to
the promotion of nut growing in the north, have already made exploratory expeditions into
this extreme northern range of the pecan. And, as a result of their efforts, a "distribution
program" of this rare species is being sponsored as a public service by the NNGA.
You see, it was discovered that the few remaining trees are located in fertile bottomland immediately adjacent to rivers, areas that are coveted for the production of corn. And sadly enough, there is strong pressure to destroy these remarkable old stands. So not only does participation in this program offer northern residents the opportunity to grow some super-tasty nuts, it may also be the last chance to save and regenerate this hardiest of northern pecans.
To obtain a packet of eight of the rare seeds, send a $3.00 check (made payable to "NNGA Pecan Seed Program") to the Northern Nut Growers Association. (Or, for $8.00, you can join the NNGA. Members only pay $2.00 for a seed packet, and get a quarterly newsletter as well and an annual report chock-full of information on growing northern nut species.) However, your order must be received by March 20, 1979 in order to be processed in time for the '79 growing season. That's just days away ... so you're going to have to act NOW!
In return for providing the seeds, the NNGA will request participants in their program to fill out occasional questionnaires about the performance of the trees over the next 5 to 20 years. Complete growing instructions will be sent with each seed packet, but it should be remembered that seed-grown trees produce seedlings with a wide range of characteristics. In previous tests, though, the germination performance has averaged 60%, and many of the parent trees have survived winter temperatures as low as -35° F and have ripened well-filled nuts in seasons as short as 130 frost-free days.
And, although the nuts of these trees are somewhat smaller than the "paper-shelled" pecans produced by their southern cousins, northern pecan kernels are some of the sweetest known to exist!
President's Message
Ernie Grimo
2016 represented the warmest year so far, with the hottest July on record and one of the driest for us in Niagara. The amount of rainfall for the three months of May, June and July amounted to less than one month's normal rainfall. It took constant watering of our nursery stock to protect our spring planted trees. Our underground drip irrigation in the orchards was also put in play for the first time since it was installed two years ago. The 6 growers that planted 10 acres of hazelnuts, selected by the Ontario Hazelnut Association, were in dire straits where irrigation systems were not in place. In some cases losses were high due to the long drought. If the 10 acre project was planted in either of the last 2 years, it would have been a different story. 2014 and 2015 had gentle summers with abundant rains, causing us to expect this trend to continue. Growers can't be complacent and expect the weather to be kind to them. Global warming and El Niño effects can cause extreme conditions. Even though the last ten year period was the warmest ten year period since the beginning of record keeping in 1880, extremes including severe flooding, tornados, droughts and other calamities can be expected more often.
We encourage you to attend our fall meeting at Highview Orchards, the farm of Les and Pat High. Les is an experienced fruit grower that has "retired" to grow hazelnuts. His is an example of a well-kept orchard, worth seeing. He has a depth of grower knowledge that he will be happy to pass on to us, about the best ways to grow nut trees, especially hazelnuts.
NNGA Conference 2016
Gordon Wilkinson
Every year the Northern Nut Growers Association (NNGA) holds a 4-day conference in midsummer. These annual conferences are a wonderful opportunity for anyone interested in growing nut trees to meet others from other parts of the world with similar interests and to learn more about nut culture from other growers, hobbyists, nut tree researchers and specialists and from visits to local commercial orchards. There are also opportunities to visit local tourist attractions.
I have attended several of these annual NNGA conferences. They have become a regular and much anticipated summer destination for me. This year's NNGA conference was held in Nebraska City, Nebraska, at the Arbor Day Lied Lodge from July 31st to August 3rd. The Lodge is owned by the Arbor Day Foundation, the largest membership organization dedicated to planting, nurturing, and celebrating trees. It is a gorgeous site with an extensive tree collection, various orchards, including a large hazelnut orchard, and the mansion of J. Sterling Morton, the founder of Arbor Day.
The meeting began on Sunday afternoon with a walk through the Arbor Day Farm, a tour of the J. Sterling Morton mansion, and a delicious picnic meal in a beautifully refurbished barn. The day ended with the usual "Show and Tell" event, which consists of informal talks about some aspect of nut culture, processing, or marketing.
The technical presentations took place on Monday and Tuesday in one of the main conference rooms at the Lied Lodge. The presentations covered a wide range of nut-related subjects. Three commercial growers talked about their experiences with establishing a chestnut orchard, marketing their product and overcoming serious obstacles. Another commercial grower described his move from more traditional crop production to pecan production. A chestnut grower with a doctorate in tree breeding described his results so far in breeding better chestnut varieties. A fellow Ontarian, Linda Grimo, gave a very informative review of her breeding efforts to improve current heartnut varieties. There were also presentations on thousand cankers disease of walnut and sudden oak death, hazelnut breeding in Nebraska, the potential and challenges of growing pawpaws, the unique genetics of butternut trees in New Brunswick and its implications, the genetic basis of chestnut blight.
There are a number of birds and small animals that can be a problem in a nut planting. Squirrels are the biggest problem of the nut grower in the city. They are most serious in Persian walnut, heartnut and hazelnut plantings. They will start to cut the nuts down mid summer, long before the nuts are ripe. Live trapping and removal can be a solution, but this can be expensive in time and effort. A Jack Russell terrier stationed in the planting can keep them under control, or a powerful pellet gun can be used in the country. Also encourage hunters to hunt squirrels during regular hunting seasons. The best solution is to place your orchard in an area that is isolated from wooded areas and parks that can house a population of squirrels.
Hazelnut Farming for Profit Part 1
Ernie Grimo
The hazelnut is an important worldwide crop, and yet it is in short supply. Ferrero Roche is the world's largest user of hazelnuts. With factories all around the world, their products reach out to 130 countries on 5 continents. Nutella chocolate hazelnut spread produced by Ferrero uses 50% of world production alone and demand for this product is expanding.
Canada imported over 10,000 metric tons of shelled hazelnuts in 2013 and about 9,000 metric tons were used by Ferrero. To supply that amount to Ferrero, we would need at least 10,000 Ha (25,000 A), that is, if we only produce about 1 metric ton per hectare (1 T/A). Since the arrival of the Ferrero plant at Brantford, Ontario in 2006, the plant has been expanded several times to meet the demand. The United States is one of their expanding consumer markets. Ferrero is the leading supporter of the drive to plant hazelnuts in Ontario. Ferrero pledges to buy all of the product we can supply, if it meets with their specific cultivar choices.
The Ontario Hazelnut Association was formed in 2012 to encourage the planting of hazelnuts in appropriate growing areas. The goal is to establish 20,000 acres of hazelnuts in the coming years. In 2016, Ferrero and the OHA supported six growers who planted 10 acres each in different regions and soil conditions across Southern Ontario as demonstration plantings.
Two major factors limit the culture of hazelnuts in Ontario and eastern Canada, susceptibility to Eastern filbert blight (Anisogramma anomala (Peck, E. Müll.) and a lack of cold hardiness. Growing hazelnuts successfully in Ontario requires varieties with blight resistance and winter hardiness. In particular, varieties with hardy catkins that are not killed by frost during bloom and varieties with a range of pollen shedding, for consistent yields.
Experimental plantings have been established in 2006, present at two climatic zones, the Simcoe Experiment Station and the Vineland Innovation Centre, to test the current cultivars for commercial production. Only preliminary data is available for now. But the information gained offered few surprises. The gentler climate at Vineland was best suited for the European hazelnut cultivars, mainly those introduced by Oregon State University, while the Simcoe site needed hardier cultivars for success. The windbreak at both locations gave protection against winter winds on the trees. We highly recommend windbreaks. They can't be planted too soon.
Provided by SONG. Feel free to copy with a credit.