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Corkscrew hazel versus Beechtree

roseb1965roseb1965 Posts: 4
in Problem solving

Help please. 

I have had this twisted hazel for years and I think it must've been grafted onto a beech tree.

Each year we have to cut down the beech that sprouts from the base and I would really like to remove it if possible? The beech get wider and more each year. Anyone ever had something similar and know what to do so I don't kill my lovely corkscrew? I've posted a few photos of this

Posts

  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited April 2023
    Hazels sucker.   Their leaves do resemble beech.  Both have shiny brown stems.  Let the sucker leaves mature and send us some pics. 

    You seem to have a "witch's broom" sport as well.  Might be genetic rather than the reported virus/ bug initiation.

    Please send us a pic of the whole tree, so we can enjoy the total effect, not just the problem.

    Here is a pic from Forêt de Verzy publicity (copyright respected) of one of their "fagnes".  Just to show that beech can do the twisting trick as well.  
    Worth a visit.


     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."
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Yes those are hazel suckers. The corkscrew variant is grafted onto ordinary hazel rootstock. 
    Just keep cutting the suckers hard back. I would try to do it mostly in the autumn when the sap isn’t rising as doing it then may prevent the suckers from being quite so vigorous. 


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





  • roseb1965roseb1965 Posts: 4
    Thank you bede and Dovefromabove. It will be hard to leave the suckers until autumn as the tree will be totally swamped with them! I might try! 😕
    I will try and post another photo in the coming days.
    Im not sure what you mean by a ‘ witches broom?’ 
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited April 2023


    I googled witches broom.  Wilipaedia is quite reliable.  Why should I have to do the obvious?

    Does the bottom growth grow straight,  = root-stock , or twisted,  = scion?  Either way,the solution is constant cutting back.

    An idea, just top of my head, might be to exclude light by wrapping the base in black polythene or similar.

    Ps.  My corkscrew hazel often grows staright for some distance before starting to twist again.
     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."
  • roseb1965roseb1965 Posts: 4
    I did try and google witches broom and got nothing I could see as useful to know what you meant! 
     The suckers definitely don’t twist after a while. They just grow with vigour straight up. 
      Wrapping might be a great idea. 👍🏻Thank you Bede. 
  • bertrand-mabelbertrand-mabel Posts: 2,697
    We have a corkshrew hazel that we need to cut out all the ground suckers at regular times as others have said these would then grow straight and not what we want.
  • roseb1965roseb1965 Posts: 4
    Thanks bertrand-Mabel. 

  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited April 2023
    I will now look at my corkscrew hazel.  I didn't know that might have been grafted; it has never produced any suckers.

    The phenomenom is very prevalent on lime trees and there seems no solution except frequent cutting off.  I did see a reference to selective weedkiller, but that was for underground suckers arising in lawns.  For lime trees a reason for suckers I have read is that we have selected trees that are easily reproduced from suckers, perhaps inadvertently.  I have grown lime trees from seed that have never suckered.

    My baytrees sucker, from beneath the soil, I cut them back as far and deep as I can get.

    In le Forêt de Verzy (le Montagne de Champagne, France) the contorted "fagnes" grow from seed.

     


     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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