Basil and Jean Baldwin are Australian hazelnut growers, with a 500 tree orchard at Forest Reefs, Blayney, NSW. Basil is an agronomist and published his PhD thesis in 2015.
Called “The Growth and Productivity of Hazelnut Cultivars (Corylus avellana L.) in Australia“, his thesis assessed the growth of 26 cultivars grown at 5 different sites, two each in NSW and Victoria and one in Tasmania. (Unfortunately for New Zealand growers, the cultivar “Whiteheart” was only planted at the site in Tasmania.)
The thesis is chock-full of valuable information. The literature review brings together what is known about hazelnuts, and discusses the effect of climate and soil, factors which influence growth and production, and the attributes and relative merits of of various cultivars (there’s a helpful characteristics and merit guide for cultivars in Appendix A).
There are chapters on tree growth, floral phenology, and the effect of temperature on floral phenology and budbreak. Then chapters on nuts (yield, yield development and efficiency) as well as the pattern of nut fall and discussion about kernel quality and chemical composition.
This thesis contains essential hazelnut information, broken up into digestible sections, with good introductions to each section that help the non-specialist understand sometimes tech-heavy information. Perfect reading for those lazy post-harvest days (!).
The thesis can be downloaded free from the University of Sydney website;
http://hdl.handle.net/2123/12892
And if you enjoyed reading Basil’s thesis, try “Hazelnuts in Australia: Productivity and economic analysis for industry expansion“. A report about a more recent experiment, planting 15 cultivars at 3 sites, to investigate production across different climatic regions. (Again, “Whiteheart” is not included).
As well as the analysis of cultivar, climate and soil, this report has a section on the economics of farming hazelnuts at the three sites. This gives a breakdown on costs, from establishing the orchard through to yearly costs of herbicide, fertilisers and machinery, etc..
This report can be downloaded from;
agrifutures.com.au/product/hazelnuts-in-australia-productivity-and-economic-analysis-for-industry-expansion/