8-packs with 4 each of two varieties. $140 ($17.50 per plant) Bulk discount: $15.50 per plant when you buy 32 or more plants (4 or more 8-packs). IMPORTANT! To get the bulk discount, you must apply the promo code NUTS4NUTS at checkout The plants are 18” tall, grown in Ellepots that stimulate good root growth. These are newly-released, highly blight-resistant hazelnut varieties from Rutgers University. They show enormous promise for commercial hazelnut production in the eastern US. Hazelnuts work well in riparian buffers, as well as in more upland sites. FAQ How much sunlight is needed for productivity? Hazelnut plants are adapted to grow in light to moderate shade, but nut production will be highest in full sun. Riparian areas with an existing dense canopy are probably not well-suited to hazelnuts. Are these truly blight resistant? Rutgers University teamed up with Oregon State University and other groups to carry out a 24 year breeding program with the specific goal of overcoming Eastern Filbert Blight, which has been the main barrier to a viable hazelnut industry east of the Rockies. The program collected varieties from all over the world and used them in breeding, planting out 10’s of 1,000’s of seedlings and subjecting them to EFB. The survivors were selected for nut quality, and the process was repeated for two decades and many generations. The breeding program resulted in the release of 4 new cultivars. Why would I plant these rather than the native hazelnut? You could choose both. The American hazelnut is a wonderful plant and we recommend you plant some nearby, as they can increase pollination and therefore the productivity of these new, improved varieties. The challenge with American hazelnuts is that 1) they are much smaller than the European and hybrid nuts, and 2) they are more difficult to remove from the husk. Also, clonally-propagated American hazelnuts are hard to come by, so you’ll likely have to plant seedlings. Seedling hazelnuts vary widely, which means the productivity and other characteristics are unknown. It’s very hard to be efficient with varying ripening times, even on a small scale. There are also other hazelnuts out there that you might consider instead. These Rutgers varieties are preferable to the alternative European or hybrid hazelnuts because, again, they are clonal, named varieties rather than seedlings, and because they have undergone a very rigorous selection and improvement process, so are much more likely to perform well. Most of these Rutgers releases are the European species, with one of the varieties ('The Beast') being a European x American hybrid. Will these varieties pollinate one another? Yes. However, hazelnut is wind pollinated and the male and female flowers emerge at different times. The recommended strategy for commercial growers is to include lots of pollinizer plants such as Corylus americana seedlings (mentioned above) or hybrid hazelnut seedlings. One reason we chose ‘The Beast’ is that, along with producing excellent nuts, it is a good pollinizer (sheds a lot of pollen for a long period).