According to a video, recently released by a leading source of research, industry development and outreach education on hazelnuts, the Upper Midwest Hazelnut Development Initiative (UMHDI), which is a partnership between the University of Minnesota and University of Wisconsin that began in 2007, more growers in the Midwest are exploring hazelnut cultivation.
Colin Cureton, director of adoption and scaling for University of Minnesota's Forever Green Initiative, is working with Minnesota growers who are adopting hazelnuts on their operations. "A lot of grower led experimentation and citizen science has gone on for decades on hazelnuts in the region, specifically developing hybrid hazelnut crosses between the cultivars native to this region," Cureton said. "And European cultivars, which can produce a higher-performing, commercially-viable hazelnut crop."
He said while more growers are gaining interest in growing hazelnuts in the Midwest, one of the major bottlenecks is having a sufficient supply of plants that are both high performing and commercially viable, which in the past has only been European cultivars.
Source: agweek.com