How to Prune Hazelnuts & Filberts to Get Nuts

Hazelnut or filbert nut trees produce their fruits for harvest in the fall. They require cross-pollination, full sun and infrequent pruning to produce healthy nut harvests. Pruning to increase nut harvest is done with an eye to thinning the canopy thereby allowing more sunlight into the canopy which increases the volume of nut set on the branches.

Things You'll Need

• Long handled loppers
• Hand saw

Instructions

1. Prune young hazelnut trees by cutting off the top upright branching above 30 to 36-inches to force lateral scaffold branch growth and prevent the tree from becoming top heavy.

2. Establish three to five main scaffolding branches in the second year after heading off the tree. Choose branches distributed evenly in the tree form and staggered along the trunk so that none of them are touching are directly opposite one another. Prune away all other branches save the three to five main limbs.

3. Prune mature hazelnut trees once every five years to thin the fruiting wood by 50 percent at each five-year interval. Place all cuts down to the parent branch and just outside the slightly swollen branch collar to speed healing of the wound site.

References

• Hazelnut Growers Association of New Zealand: Pruning & Training Hazelnuts
• University of British Columbia BOtanical Garden: Hazelnut Tree
• Duke University: American Hazelnut Corylus Americana