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Any way to stop Hazels producing hazelnuts?

claire.casseltonclaire.casselton Posts: 1
in Fruit & veg
I have a number of Hazel trees which I love but the squirrels are driving me and the neighbours mad by digging up our gardens to hide nuts. The trees are too tall to harvest the nuts and I also don't have time. Is there a way to stop the trees from producing nuts?
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  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    I use a Wolf Garten fruit picker attachment on a 4m extendable pole to pick my hazels. Toast them up and add to apple crumble topping and you'll never want to stop your trees making free food ever again. Squirrels only tend to hide the ripe nuts so pick them just as they're turning and they'll have nothing to bury.

    but to answer your question, no you can't stop them making nuts without regularly coppicing the trees down to the ground which I imagine would defeat the point. The flowers are tiny and the pollen is wind blown. If you don't have time to pick nuts then you wouldn't have time to remove the catkins and even if you did the pollen can blow in frrom elsewhere.
    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • purplerallimpurplerallim Posts: 5,287
    Catkin removal in winter when the leaves are gone is about the only way to reduce the nuts, but won't stop them completely.  Sorry can't be more help.
  • NollieNollie Posts: 7,529
    We have had something nabbing ours when still unripe, it was the plan to pick them green this year but whoever they were, they still beat us to it! We do get a few red squirrels, but I think the Jays might have been the culprit as they were lurking...

    Unfortunately replacing them with a non-nut producing tree is probably your only guaranteed option.
    Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
  • scullionscullion Posts: 11
    i think the easier option is to deal with the squirrels!  maybe see if there's a control scheme in your area?
    greys go for unripe nuts but i don't think that would be the problem in cataluña.
  • BrexiteerBrexiteer Posts: 955
    Squirrels are classed as vermin and pest control can be called in to shoot them. We started off with 2 then by the autumn we had about 10. They bit a hole under a neighbours guttering into the loft chewing the wiring
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited October 2019
    Fresh hazel nuts are delicious ... but that seems very expensive for a one year old ‘seedling’ native hazel ... they're £6.95 from the Woodland Trust. 


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    Commercial varieties crop much more heavily and hold onto their nuts when ripe. I've got a Kentish cob nut tree that produces bunches of 5 or 6 nuts and the nuts will be bigger than wild ones. They all taste similar to me. It was under £20 when I bought it as a potted 4' tree though. They take from cuttings fairly easily so if you know a good tree then you can get material from that.
    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • purplerallimpurplerallim Posts: 5,287
    My twisted hazel was only half that price for twice as big a tree. The hubby eats the nuts and says they are nicer.
  • NewBoy2NewBoy2 Posts: 1,813
    Im sure some people stuck in a one bed flat in the city would love to have your lovely trees and squirrels.
    Everyone is just trying to be Happy.....So lets help Them.
  • purplerallimpurplerallim Posts: 5,287
    My tree had a few nuts on it the first year @Hexagon , not many but I thought any was a bonus. This year about a dozen I picked and a few that the wildlife pinched, not squirrels,  maybe hedgehog or mice. ( one nut had a perfect circle cut in it , which is confusing as I thought only dormice did that) 
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