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When and how to prune hazel tree?

mirihaymirihay Posts: 3
in Plants
We recently moved into a house with an overgrown hazel tree (which looks like it's been cut back a lot in the past so lots of thick branches rather than a main trunk). It's very close to the house so we had to have it reduced in height by about 40% (to about 7ft) and thinned out in early March this year. The tree surgeon said we could prune it again ourselves in the autumn.

However it's already growing back very vigorously and densely with lots of new shoots all over (which I've read should normally be removed ASAP?), so it already looks like a bush again. Should we remove the unwanted shoots now (at least on the lower half where we don't want it to thicken out again) or should we wait until the autumn this year to make sure it's had chance to recover from the big chop (and hope the new branches aren't too thick for our secateurs to handle by then!)??

I'm also a bit unclear about whether in future we can just remove all the new growth at the end of every year to stop it growing any bigger, or will that kill off the tree eventually? How can you restrict the size if you have to leave a bit of new growth each year - a big cut back every few years? This is our first tree so have zero personal experience...

Any advice gratefully received!!! :#

Posts

  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,618
    Hazel can be cut back quite hard in winter (coppice) and it will regrow. If you cut a big 15 ft tree down to a foot, it will be back to 15 ft in three years.  If you want to tidy a hedging plant by just cutting off new shoots, you can do that in summer.
  • Silver surferSilver surfer Posts: 4,719
    Corylus avellana...common name Hazel do grow fast.
    The nuts are loved by wild life, but it does not have pretty flowers or colourful berries or go a fab colour in the autumn.
    Maybe you need to think whether you want to keep it or remove it completely./roots and all.
    It really depends where it is and if it is in the way.

    https://www.google.com/search?q=hazel+coppice&client=firefox-b-d&sxsrf=ALiCzsaJVvju9DTYmCVYcBbR4q2tSrEGvw:1656606804875&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj_gYyhzdX4AhV5REEAHWcOD4oQ_AUoAXoECAEQAw&biw=1280&bih=595&dpr=1.5#imgrc=nwDtu9WcDQmrLM
    Perthshire. SCOTLAND .
  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445
    It's a huge plant not really suitable for the average garden and if you keep it cut back you don't get the catkins and nuts


    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • nick615nick615 Posts: 1,487
    I suppose the main question is 'Do you want a hazel tree in your garden?'.  As others have said, pruned in winter it will always re-grow, much to the delight of woodmen who cut it systematically for bean sticks, pea boughs and besoms on a renewable basis.  If you don't want it, you'll be better off getting rid of it altogether.
  • thevictorianthevictorian Posts: 1,279
    We have a few hazels in our back garden that were planted by the mice but loved by us none the less. Only one of these is very big as we cut the others to small, more like hedge, mounds, and these get cut back to a leaf when the stems get to big. We have done this for 10-20 years and they don't seem to mind at all no mtater the time of year.
    Our larger one has had all the leafy growth completely stripped to just above head height, leaving shiny branches with the leaves overhead. If the branches get to dense or create to much shade, we just cut some back. We still get nuts because we don't remove every branch but you can be quite ruthless and they don't seem to mind. 
    The more you cut them, the faster they seem to grow back, so you will always need to prune if they can only reach a certain size in the space. I wouldn't worry to much but try not to cut off more than about 30% of the branches when it is actively growing. I don't know if it really matters but that's standard advice for most trees. When it's dormant in winter you can cut it to the ground without to much worry, even if that's yearly.  
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited July 2022
    I have hazel that I pleach as a hedge.  I also get many self or squirrel sown seedlings that I move in the late autumn to a preferred spot.  If you get seedlings it may be best to give up on the existing one and replace it.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
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