Hazelnut harvest

Dopp Creek · Oct 25, 2022

Neighbor called and said its time to pick my hazelnuts. We have been bone dry but heavy rains are coming so it was time to get what we can. I ran the sweeper and that is the dustiest job on the planet.I think 15% of the nuts are still in the trees and the storms should knock them down, but the price is low this year so it may not be worth paying to have the machines come through again. When I was in grade school, Dad would send us out with rakes and burlap sacks after school, so it may pay to gather the rest by hand. Hard to leave a crop on the ground; just goes against every instinct. I took three bins in to the processor. We will see what our yield was when they clean them.

BillinCentralMO · Oct 25, 2022

Very interesting. We have Pecan trees. Thanks for posting this.

Rich'sToys · Oct 25, 2022

You mentioned having the machines come through. Do they shake them off the trees, or just pick them off the ground after they've fallen? I'm not familiar with how hazelnuts are harvested.

DoubleO7 · Oct 25, 2022

Looks like they get raked to the center of rows?
And then lifted by the machine and the nuts sifted out?

Dopp Creek · Oct 25, 2022

We wait for the nuts to fall, no shaking. The sweeper has a fan under the seat that blows the nuts into the next row to the left while sweeping to the right.
You travel up the left side of the row first, turn around at the end, then head back with no fan on, sweeping the nuts on the side to the center. Very similar to
making a double windrow of hay. This is a young (fourth year) orchard so the windrow is light; you can make it out in the picture between the front tires of the
tractor. The harvester uses brushes to lift the nuts, twigs, dirt clods, leaves off the floor and then a steel mesh belt carries them to a bin in back. Fans blow
across the belt to get rid of the light debris, much like a combine. Orchard floor prep is critical (cleaner is better) but presents a challenge timing your work
before the nuts start to drop.

Rich'sToys · Oct 25, 2022

Very interesting. Thanks for the explanation!

DoubleO7 · Oct 25, 2022

With tree size shown, how much nuts do you get? Half bushel?

And how big do they get for an ideal farming size?
I imagine you have to trim them every year or the just keep growing and producing smaller nuts?

calf · Oct 26, 2022

What part of the country are you in? Is this a money maker or just a hobby farm type?

Thanks for posting the unique crop.

rockyridgefarm · Oct 26, 2022

You say the price is so low, but I remember several years ago that Hazelnuts were being pushed as a very high value crop. what happened?

Hazelnut harvest

Dopp Creek

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BillinCentralMO

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Rich'sToys

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DoubleO7

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Dopp Creek

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Rich'sToys

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DoubleO7

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calf

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rockyridgefarm

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