THE EFFECTS OF SITE AND SEASONAL CONDITIONS ON NUT YIELD AND KERNEL QUALITY OF HAZELNUT GENOTYPES GROWN IN AUSTRALIA

Productivity and kernel quality of a range of hazelnut genotypes were measured at five sites in Australia over several seasons to assess interactions between genotypes and environmental conditions.
At Myrtleford in North-east Victoria, ‘Barcelona’ consistently gave the highest nut yields whilst at Moss Vale in the Southern Highlands of NSW, ‘Tonda di Giffoni’ and the Australian selection ‘Tokolyi/Brownfield Cosford’ (‘TBC’) were the highest yielding genotypes.
In contrast, at Kettering in southern Tasmania, ‘TBC’ yielded well, whilst the cultivars ‘Barcelona’ and ‘Ennis’ performed poorly.
Tree growth was best on soils with lighter textured, well drained subsoils, such as the alluvial, sandy loam at Myrtleford, compared with the heavier textured clays in the B horizon (subsoil) at Orange, Moss Vale and Kettering.
Dry seasonal conditions, particularly during kernel development, resulted in a higher proportion of poorly filled or shrivelled kernels. ‘Ennis’ was the cultivar most affected with 15-23% of poor fill or shrivelled kernels, compared with 10-16% for ‘Barcelona’ and 8-12% for ‘TBC’ over four seasons and three research sites.
In 2008 there was a correlation between kernel weight and the proportion of poorly filled or shrivelled kernels at Kettering.

VII International Congress on Hazelnut

B. Baldwin

nut yields, kernel quality, hazelnut genotypes, climate, soil type

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2009.845.7