I see that you are willing to grow some hazelnuts. Getting the actual seedlings or plants are pretty accessible these days since a lot of people is growing this fruit. I will write a couple of ways you can get or produce your hazel trees.
Propagation
Nursery
This is the easiest way to obtain some trees that will grow fast and in a couple of years fruit, but this is also the most expensive option. Try to find some reliable nursery which is experienced with raising hazel trees. You will probably have option to buy, one,two and three year old trees. The price will be vary depending on the age, those older being more expensive of course.
My advice for the people which do not have water near them for irrigation is to take one year old trees which doesn't have thick branches, these trees require less water in the first year and the success rate will probably be bigger than with two and three year old trees.
Grafted trees
This is how looks the orchard with grafted hazel trees. There are no "runners" only the trunk and the canopy. In the most cases grafted hazelnut uses a Corylus colurna L. also know as "Turkish Hazel" or "Turkish Filbert" as a root-stock and the grafted part is what ever species of hazel you want. Most commercial producers uses this form.
Regular trees
This is how actually Hazel looks in the nature, it's in the bush form, able to produce "runners" and spread fast. When it is in this form, we can coppice and renew our orchard with a new branches every 12 years (every 4 years we replace one branch), this allow us to pick fruit from the single tree for 50 or more years.
From Runners
This is probably the most effective and cheapest way to obtain trees, but this is most labor intensive way. "Runners" can be found around older hazel trees, usually >3 years old.
What are "runners"?
As the roots grow and expand, hazel will create "runners", branches that are gonna grow out of the ground near the trunk of the tree, that's how hazel becomes the bush rather than single trunk tree. You can dig around that runner and separate that runner from it's mother by cutting the root from which it came. You could also check the picture below and see that it is also possible to bury the part of the existing one year old branch and that it will root also. Next season you just cut it from the mother plant and replant where you want.
From the Seed (Fruit)
This is the ideal way to produce a lot of hazel trees, but this way of propagating has a one flow, it doesn't clone genetics from the plant it fell from. This means fruit can be different from the mother plant. Which is fine for the home use of hazelnuts, but if you want to sell your hazelnuts, they must have some standard. Turkish Hazel which is used as a root-stock for grafting is propagated this way.
Final
There is a couple of ways to get your hazel trees. You decide what is best for you.
There is more ways to propagate Hazel?
Leave me a comment!
Cheers
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