How to Prune a Northwest Filbert Hazelnut

In Europe, they're known as filberts, but in the United States, they're called hazelnuts. The European-native filbert (Corylus avellana) is the species grown in the commercial orchards in Oregon and Washington, but other nut-producing species, including North American natives, are also growable. Pruning filberts in late winter or very early spring increases branching, flowering and nut production later that year. It also keeps the plants to a smaller, more manageable size rather than becoming thickets or small trees. While filberts are hardy across the Pacific Northwest, flowering and nut production is best in areas where winters don't get much colder than 15 degrees Fahrenheit.

Bypass or hand pruners
Loppers or lopping shears
Gloves

Instructions

- 1
  Remove all dead, diseased or broken branches in the canopy of the filbert shrub or single-trunked small tree. Use bypass pruners to cut branches less than 3/4 inch in diameter and loppers if they're between 3/4 and 1 1/2 inches wide. Wear leather or heavy fabric gloves, if desired, to prevent chaffing or accidental skin wounds while working.
- 2
  Slice the cutting blades 1/8 to 1/4 inch above the point of attachment of the branch with its lower branch connection. This area has a minute swollen tissue base called the branch collar. Avoid leaving stubs extending beyond this collar after cutting away branches on filberts, as the plants are susceptible to fungal infections on pruning wounds that do not dry out and callus. Flush cuts at the branch collar promote the fastest callusing.
- 3
  Select three or four main branches off of treelike filberts to retain, or five to six main scaffold branches on shrubby filbert plants. Prune away all other branches and twigs that are not part of these main selected branches. This includes trimming off suckering shoots from the trunk base or any surface roots and any branches that grow inward across the center of the plant.
- 4
  Cut back the main branch tips and healthy secondary branches on the main branches by 20 to 30 percent. This reduction in branch length is for the most recent or one-year-old wood. This widespread branch tip trimming back results in more buds sprouting later in spring. Flowering and nut production is highest on young, one-year-old twigs that are about 6 to 9 inches long.

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