North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Christopher Mauchline" <mauch1@aol.com>]

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> I don't know this for sure, but a friend of mine with a Corkscrew 
hazelnut noticed
> that if the sucker/branch is growing rapidly, the branch is 
straight, but if the
> branches are growing slowly they corkscrew.
You could be right, but (when I could still get at the trunk) there
seemed to be a graft union, and the bark of the suckers are a 
different color (brownish rather than the gray of the HLWS).  And 
this suckering growth is like 5-6' in one year.


> I thought that it was the rootstock that was suckering and sending 
up straight
> suckers.
> 
> So I've been looking for a non-suckering rootstock e.g. Turkish 
Tree Hazel, but
> Gordon Nofs says the TTH is not good.  Tree wimps out after a few 
years.
Well I had the same idea (have 3 of TTH), so there goes that idea...

> Someone else told me that you take a straight sucker of any old 
hazelnut and tie a
> wire tightly around the base then mulch the base of the sucker. 
After a period of
> time, the sucker throws out roots above the wire and you pull at it 
and it breaks
> off at the wire and you have a straight, non-suckering hazelnut 
with roots.
> 
> It remains to be seen.
OK.


> I thought if I found a non-suckering rootstock and grafted/budded 
high (4"), it
> would be easier to keep the shrub all corkscrewing.
> 
> The other suggestion is to plant the corkscrew tree (once I've made 
it) in lousy
> soil ... gravel, no fertilizer, no amendments, etc., so it will 
grow slowly
Well the soil has been kept mulched, but otherwise was quite poor 
where the walking stick is planted.


Chris Mauchline
SE PA, zone 6