Hazel Saplings - How to make them bushy?

Hello all,

I'd like to grow some Hazel Nut trees in large pots. Mr squirrel has been very kind and hidden his stash in an old plant pot and then forgot about them!

I now have 5 or 6 lovely little saplings about 8 to 12 inches tall at the moment with a decent amount of leaves on.

They are quite leggy at the moment and don't seem to be producing side shoots, concentrating all their efforts on going skyward. I'd like to encourage them to "Bush" a little more without killing them.

I'm loathed just to chop the top in case they go into shock and give up. I'm also loathed to do a test one because by next year they'll be two foot tall and I'll have missed the boat.

So, if I cut the top growing stem, will they die?

Thanks in advance,

Dan

 

Hi Dan,

Firstly all trees tend to grow skywards - it's their instinct to reach for the light. After millions of years of growing this way it's going to be hard to change them! :wink:

Hazel trees have tended to be coppiced in the past in order to harvest long straight stems used to make all sorts of stuff. Coppicing involves cutting all the stems of a hazel down to a stool of a few inches high. This then promotes new growth and the tree sends a number of more shoots up to replace the ones lost. Every decade or so the hazel is coppiced again and even more stems are put up by the plant. This is what you will have to do if youwant the typical bushy hazel.

Alternatively you can just remove the tip of each stem. This action removes the apical dominance of the growing tip and lets any lateral branches grow that have otherwise been kept in check by the apical meristem.

However, I feel that saplings as small as yours will not benefit from either course of action, and should you wish to have a lovely, healthy shrubby hazel you will have to leave them grow as they are for a good few years yet.

Cheers,
Matthew

 

Hi Matthew,

Many thanks for that great info. I'll do as you suggest and leave them to grow as is for a while. I will transplant them out into individual pots first though so they can get some space for their roots.

They seem to be super fast growing I must say which surprised me. The only thing I've seen grow faster are the horse chestnuts popping up all over the place, again courtesy of mr squirrel!

Dan

 

Dan, Plant them into individual pots, then let them do their own thing for a while.:gnthb: