Any good advice on hazel trees?

[Ilovecrispytofu]

I’m not the best with trees so hoping for some useful tips from wise mumsnetters. There was a hazel tree in our garden when we bought our house 4 years ago. It looked quite cramped and sorry until we cut most of the shubs and trees away from its immediate vicinity a few months ago and since then it has had a significant growth spurt and has copious amounts of nuts growing from its ever-spreading branches. I am tempted to leave it in peace as if seems to be doing well but does anyone have useful tips about growing, pruning, etc and do you make the effort to harvest the nuts or do you leave them for the squirrels!

Hazel was one of those shrubs that was coppiced, cut down completely periodically. The cuttings were used for all sorts of things: fencing (not the swordfighting one), walking sticks and so on. The smaller twigs were bundled together to make brooms and faggots for fires. 1001 uses. In short should be able to take a hard pruning. I don't know if there's a best time of year to do this. Re. the nuts, I'm not a fan but if you like them give them a go. I think they're also called filberts.

If you want to coppice your hazel - do it in winter, during the dormant period, cut all branches nearly to ground level, a sloping cut so the rain runs off. Only needs to be done every 5 years.

if you’re leaving it to grow as a bush, just prune aesthetically. When you cut back a brach, do it to a side shoot of at least a third of the thickness, ie one that can take over as the main branch.

It’s not a question of leaving the nuts for the squirrels, they will get them before you have a chance. They’re extremely skilled at assessing whether any nut has got a full, sweet kernel.

@IcakethereforeIam Thanks, good to know that I will have a free walking stick when the time comes 😂
@MereDintofPandiculation I think you are right about the squirrels, the birds have already got all our raspberries so far this year, they are all much more observant than we are! 😅

Try and sweep up fallen nuts, we have hazel trees and the bloody things pop up everywhere. Our garden would be a forest of we didn’t sweep it regularly.

@TheFlis12345 good point, I have to watch out for that!

Bloody squirrels also like to bury the nuts in all my pots, I am constantly pulling up tiny saplings!

@TheFlis12345 lol, poor you! I really want to try to harvest a good proportion of them. My great grandma lived in the south of France and I have really fond memories of picking nuts from her almond tree and hammering away at the kernels. Those were the days before kids had mobile phones and it was a great way to pass the holidays 😂