Much
of the Oregon hazelnut industry is composed of
'Barcelona' trees with 'Daviana' pollinizers. The
'Daviana' trees are very susceptible to EFB and should be
removed from orchards. 'Barcelona' is more resistant than
'Daviana' but can become severely diseased over a longer
exposure time. Replacement of susceptible pollinizers
with more resistant types lowers the overall risk from
EFB.
Hazelnut growers who have been
living with EFB in their orchards were asked about the
need for susceptible pollinizer
replacement.
Many growers regretted not
removing them sooner in their overall EFB management
scheme.
It was once thought that
rotational dehorning of susceptible pollinizers might
help slow disease spread in a 'Barcelona'
orchard.
Dehorning may be useful for
pruning heavily infected trees, but it is not a
recommended practice for pollinizer management. A
dehorned 'Daviana' is not any less susceptible and will
not contribute significant amounts of pollen for 3 to 4
years.
Tree replacement in a mature
orchard is not an easy task. Lack of adequate sunlight
and moisture stress are the two largest factors to
overcome. Not only does the pollinizer need to be removed
but also adjacent 'Barcelona' limbs need to be pruned
since they will fill in the vacant space. Increased
sunlight is good for a new tree but may result in sun
scald on exposed, unprotected 'Barcelona' trunks and
scaffold limbs. Wood rot organisms may also colonize
limbs with large cuts. Lack of pollen production also
needs to be considered when planning a replacement
strategy. One way to increase the total amount of pollen
produced by compatible pollinizers is to place additional
trees around the outside edges of the orchard. They can
grow vigorously in full sun, and produce larger amounts
of pollen faster than trees within the
orchard.
'Hall's Giant', 'Lewis', 'J-5' and
"Gamma" are
pollinizers which are compatible with 'Barcelona'.
'Hall's Giant' has been useful since it is less
susceptible to EFB and grows fairly well in established
orchards. The VR series have immunity to EFB but are not
as desirable since some do not set nuts. The
pollenizers Delta, Epsilon, Gamma and Zeta were released in 2002 and
have complete
resistance to EFB.