Hybrid hazels save the day
Many of you have probably
heard of the breeding experiments currently underway to cross American Chestnuts with
Chinese Chestnuts
and hopefully develop a hybrid that can be reintroduced to the woods
without succumbing to the chestnut blight. Scientists are taking
a page out of the chestnut project book by crossing American, Beaked,
and European Hazelnuts, hoping to develop a hazel variety resistant to
the Eastern Filbert Blight but capable of producing high quality nuts.
Efforts have been
underway for twenty years, and the hybrid hazelnuts are finally
beginning to bear fruit. According to Badgersett Research
Farm and the Arbor
Day Foundation, the
results are delicious! Good quality nuts, thin shells, and
disease resistance --- just what I was looking for.
| This post is part of our Hybrid Hazelnut lunchtime series.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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