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Flowering and pollination

By Murray Redpath

HGA newsletter September 2011

The warm autumn experienced this year has highlighted the importance of current research into flowering and pollination behaviour of different cultivars at different locations around the country.

In South Canterbury (Geraldine), Lansing was in flower in mid-July but of the others only Butler had any flowers. Merveille, Alex and Whiteheart were shedding pollen from early July at least. By late August, there was still some flower on Butler, Ennis and MT18/114 but Lansing flowering was over. Merveille pollen was finished but Alexandra and Butler were still shedding.

AGM Weekend 2011

A series of field days were held around Nelson, in conjunction with the 2011 Annual General Meeting on 4 June.

By Jenny Darragh

HGA newsletter – August 2011

As part of the AGM and Field day at Queen’s Birthday Weekend, a damp Saturday morning found about 30 members at Irene & Phil Hickford’s orchard to a warm welcome and morning tea. The Hickfords have around 800 hazelnut trees 4-6 years old. These are mixed varieties of Whiteheart, Tonda Romano, Barcelona, Merveille de Bollwiller. As we admired the immaculate orchard, Phil explained that he keeps the suckers under control weekly with a $99 mini hedge trimmer and this suppressed the growth of the suckers.

Low cost harvester

Bey Allison

HGA newsletter – August 2011

Anyone who has used one of the popular blow/vac machines will appreciate that they blow far better than they suck.

With this in mind perhaps it would be worth trying to blow our nuts onto a tray rather than try to suck them up through a tube.

The Stihl 600 is a backpack blower. It has a four-stroke motor and produces a tremendous controllable blast which is ideal for shifting nuts on rough ground or in long grass, and it has no problem working nuts in damp conditions. This seems the ideal basis for a low-cost harvester.

Chairman’s report, 2011

Delivered to the 2011 AGM, 3 June 2011

By Murray Redpath

Earthquakes and extreme weather events, both in New Zealand and globally, will have dominated our thoughts over the last year. Christchurch and Canterbury will never be the same and our best wishes for a timely recovery go out to all those affected by the quake and the continuing fallout. The hazel industry escaped any physical damage but the economic repercussions are likely to mean limited access to Government assistance in the immediate future.

The NZ hazelnut industry. Where to from here?

By Murray Redpath

HGA newsletter October 2010.
Originally presented at HGANZ AGM, 2010

NZ hazel industry 2010:

NZ has over 430 hectares planted, most since 2000. Almost 100% of this area is planted in Whiteheart plus pollinisers so we have an industry dependent on successfully growing and marketing Whiteheart.

There has been a change in the orchard size since 2000 – from mainly orchards of 200-1000 trees to mainly orchards of over 1000 trees (see graphs below).
Fig. 1: Number of hazel trees per grower, SNGA hazelnut seminar 1996 (McNeil, 1996)
Percentage of attendees
60 50 40 30 20 10 0

<200 200-399 400-999 1000->2000 1999
Orchard tree number

Nut storage

HGA recently received enquiries on best practice for storing hazelnuts. Bryan Thomas offered the following advice.

By Bryan Thomas

HGA newsletter October 2010

There can be no doubt that hazelnuts will keep best in-shell provided that the moisture level is reasonably low (4-5%) and the temperature is moderate. Once out of the shell there is potential for contamination from handling, from containers and from airborne material, any of which can initiate deterioration. Such deterioration will proceed more rapidly at higher temperatures and in the presence of moisture.

If un-contaminated, the proteins and oils in the kernel will break down only slowly provided the temperature is low. Therefore the key is to ensure nuts are correctly dried, crack them in a clean environment, using clean utensils and use clean moisture-proof containers, and store at low temperatures (eg fridge). It is also worthwhile washing nuts prior to cracking if there is contamination on the outside of the shells that may get onto the kernel.