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Technology
Technology
In Eastern Washington we are accustomed to innovating in order to get the best quality products from our farms. Eastern Washington farmers have pioneered many of the most modern farming techniques and technologies. Here are a few ways we at Blue Sky Hazelnuts are innovating in Hazelnut production and growing.
In general harvesting for hazelnuts is done by waiting for them to fall and raking them up with machines. One of the advantages of farming hazelnuts in Eastern Washington is that it is possible to grow hazelnuts certified organic, as the Eastern Washington climate is naturally resistant to the Eastern Filbert Blight that plagues Oregon Hazelnut farmers. However the typical method of waiting for the hazelnuts to fall and raking them up causes some additional problems with organic certification. So to combat this we have successfully used mechanical harvesting methods to harvest them from the tree as they are preparing to fall thus circumventing that problem and opening up more value added possibilities in the form of organic certification. Also Organically growing hazelnuts in Eastern Washington does not have the large jump that some crops do, due to our climate we do not have the problems with the wire worm that plagues farms in other areas, in addition to the climate being resistant to the Eastern Filbert Blight.
The typical tree spacing for Hazelnut trees is 15-18 feet apart - so at the closest spacing you could get approximately 194 trees per acre under traditional planting practices. We have successfully grown healthy trees in a high density setting of 4 feet apart and 12 feet between rows. This forces the plant to stay smaller which allows easier harvesting, and an earlier return on investment.
Historically best practices for hazelnuts is to not prune them at all. This allows the tree to grow to a size of roughly 10-12 feet wide and 15-18 feet tall, and primarily the outer section of tree produces nuts. This results in a tree that is very tall, and wide and thus is not realistic to use machine harvesting methods. Through mechanical pruning we are able to keep the trees to a specific size that will allow mechanical harvesting. This in combination with a higher density planting allows us increase yield/acre. In addition to more consistent yields mechanical pruning also allows a more consistent quality then could be expected otherwise.