MARCH 2018 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


Hazelnut inventory sets industry baseline EFB recovery now has a map to health


by DAVID SCHMIDT ABBOTSFORD – When Lana


Popham was appointed BC Minister of Agriculture, her mandate letter included a requirement to help the hazelnut industry – devastated by Eastern Filbert Blight – get back on its feet. Many existing and potential growers hoped that meant expanding the tree fruit replant program to include hazelnuts but that has not been the case. Instead, the help consists of three projects: building an inventory of hazelnut production in the province, creating a hazelnut production guide, and developing guidelines for the removal and disposal of EFB- infected orchards. Allison Mittelstaedt of E.S.


CropConsult used a combination of grower contacts, drive-bys, Google Earth satellite images and old production data to create a baseline inventory. In total, she looked at 159 current and past orchards ranging from the Comox Valley to the Kootenays. The orchards had been removed on 500 of the 972 acres while another 48.5 acres had simply been “abandoned.” Only 285 acres are currently in active production while another 136.5 acres are in various stages of replant, she told hazelnut growers at the Pacific Agriculture Show, January 26.


Since EFB hit the Fraser


Valley the hardest, it is no surprise that almost all of the removed acreage is located in the Fraser Valley and that about half of the remaining active acreage is located outside the Fraser Valley. The Fraser Valley is also where almost all of the replant is


taking place. BC Hazelnut Growers


Association director Walter Esau is among the replanters. One of six (now five) participants in the BCHGA trial of new EFB-resistant varieties, he has now replanted his entire orchard with new varieties. “Hazelnut growers have faced serious challenges in the last decade but we have risen to the challenges and I think it’s a very bright future,” he told the packed room.


Resistant, not immune Thom O’Dell of Nature Tech


Nursery, who has been co- ordinating the trial and propagating the new trees, agreed. He says the global market for nuts is growing and hazelnuts are uniquely suited to our climate. He stressed the six varieties in the trial are resistant but not immune to EFB. “We have found EFB on


Jefferson and Sacajawea, but it can be treated.” While trees can produce


commercial yields after just three years “under the right conditions,” he notes there has been a 10-fold variation in yields among farms participating in the trials. Not only are newer, more


resistant varieties being developed but growers have even learned how to grow EFB varieties, says Oregon State University extension orchard specialist Nik Wiman. As a result, Oregon production is expanding by leaps and bounds. “We have been planting 5,000 to 10,000 acres per season for the past five years and now have about 180,000 acres of hazelnuts,” he told BC growers. University of the Fraser


Valley horticulture professor


and Expert Agriculture Team lead Tom Baumann has been tasked with preparing the hazelnut guide. Still a draft at the time of the meeting, Baumann promised it would be posted on the BCHGA website when


completed in late February. He said the


guide is based on information from local growers as well as growers in Oregon and Ontario. It will include updated planning for profit information as well as details on botany, available varieties, site selection, planting, orchard maintenance and harvesting.


Baumann stressed the


need for new growers to pay close attention to site selection and planting, saying they can “screw everything up for later” if they do not carefully select and prepare a site and plant the orchard properly. O’Dell seconded that,


telling growers they should use the 12 to 24 months between ordering and receiving their new trees to prepare their fields. Wiman said new trees should not be planted “too deep or too wet.” He advocates the use of mulch, saying sawdust is best, and not to fertilize at planting since bare-root trees already have “everything you need.” David Grenier of McTavish


Resource Consultants called the EFB removal and disposal guidelines document good


for new growers since it prune


describes the EFB life cycle so they can more easily recognize the disease.


Since trees are most susceptible during budbreak, growers should not handle infected trees at that time. For the same reason, it is also the best time to apply fungicides, alternating them to avoid building up resistance. Growers should scout for cankers twice a year and


them out as soon


as possible. While burning is the most cost- effective disposal option, it has significant environmental and regulatory restrictions. Excavation and removal is most effective but also most expensive. That leaves chipping and composting as the preferred method of disposal although compost piles need to be covered to avoid spore spread.


Hazelnut Trees


Happy hazelnut farmer with crop.


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