Once planting is complete, you will need to take care of your soil and hazelnut trees.
From the first year of planting, you will need to carry out procedures of a superficial nature, essentially tilling.
Most of these operations are performed mechanically and a few manually.
Below is our breakdown of the operations to be performed for correct management of your hazelnut grove:
- soil management;
- pruning;
- fertilisation;
- irrigation.
Soil management
Grassing over, either spontaneous or controlled, is a very effective soil management method which brings various benefits:
- It improves the soil structure
- It prevents water run-off, and therefore soil erosion, and improves rainwater penetration
- It maintains soil fertility
Use of herbicides is not recommended in the first three years from planting and, if you wish to use them, it is advisable to apply them along the rows only. Some treatments can also provide effective sucker control. When using herbicides, it is advisable to adhere to the recommended dosages, pre-harvest intervals and usage times.
Pruning
Pruning operations concern hazelnut grove canopy management and serve primarily to:
- maintain the right tree size in order to increase the effectiveness of treatments,
- remove branches and twigs that are ageing or deteriorated,
- maintain good canopy aeration and allow light to pass through, facilitating bud differentiation and combating fungal diseases.
Pruning can be performed manually or mechanically using specific equipment.
Various pruning operations are performed depending on the life stage of the hazelnut grove.
- Formative pruning: performed during the initial stage, when the desired tree shape is established (multi-stem, open-centre or shrub);
- Production pruning: performed during the trees’ full production years;
- Renewal pruning: performed during the trees’ senescent stage.
Fertilisation
Like pruning, fertilisation is performed in various ways, in accordance with the trees’ life stages, and takes place both through supplements in the soil and through foliar application.
Fertilisation is first performed immediately after planting, with a 20-25% increase in nitrogen doses, taking care before planting to analyse the soil and check its chemical properties.
Explore all stages of hazelnut grove installation It is very important to check the content of organic matter in the soil.
During the years that follow, a fertiliser known as ‘production’ or ‘maintenance’ fertiliser is applied.
The need for nitrogen is greater in young trees, but the right intake is also required during the production stage, while potassium is needed throughout their entire life cycle.
Three quarters of the fertiliser should be administered in the autumn and the remaining quarter in the spring.
Irrigation
"Hazelnut trees, while avoiding marshy lands, seek soil with sufficient moisture so, where this is lacking, we must resort to irrigation" (translation from
Il Nocciuolo (the hazelnut tree) by F. Carpentieri )
Good irrigation of a hazelnut grove, right from the first year of planting, is essential to both the quantity and quality of its output.
A mature grove requires access to 800-1000 mm of water well distributed throughout the year.
Traditional methods such as surface irrigation and sprinkling are now outdated in terms of both efficiency and sustainability.
For some years, localised or ‘drip’ irrigation has been the method of choice, proving to have numerous benefits including tangible water savings and full automation.
In new systems, sub-surface irrigation is favoured, in which drip tubes are buried at various depths and, as always, at various distances from the rows.
A localised irrigation system also permits administration of fertilisers using the fertigation technique, involving installation of special mixers.
Fertigation systems are recommended for large, flat areas of land.
Vetralla
