There is a vast production of hazelnut in Quebec Canada.
Here we are looking thoroughly into the process and the statistics on hazelnut kernel cultivation in Canada.
Hazelnut kernel shells
The demand for hazelnuts is steadily rising due to the increasing use of these nuts in products like chocolate, medicine, and health care.
Only 5% of the crop in the world is produced in North America, whereas Oregon produces 99% of it.
The vast majority of cultivars that are currently available are not successful in Quebec since they are acclimated to places with mild winters.
Our goal was to create genotypes that could sustain the fledgling hazelnut industry in southern Quebec.
Quebec (ON), New York (NY, USA), and Michigan (MI, USA) have discovered options in recent years that may be better suited to ON than cultivars from Europe and Oregon.
In two trials, yield, nut quality, and winter hardiness were evaluated to see if our prediction that these novel selections would outperform cultivars from Europe and Oregon in southern Quebec would be accurate.
As expected, the most winter-hardy and productive varieties were those from Quebec and New York, such as "Gene," "Alex," and "Slate," followed by varieties from Oregon, such as "Butler," and "Gamma."
However, these varieties scored poorly in other evaluations, such as nut quality and catkin survival.
The European and Oregon cultivars may have performed poorly because they (i) took longer to adapt and start the production phase than selections from Quebec, New York, and Michigan, and (ii) were more sensitive to cold during the early establishment phase.
The ability of the European and Oregon cultivars to transition into the production phase is expected to be hampered by the need to allocate resources to survival.
Finally, the cold tolerance of imported hazelnut cultivars from climatically varied nations must be assessed.
Introduction Hazelnut production fell behind cashew, walnut, almond, and pistachio in 2017 with 1 million tonnes.
North America, especially Canada, has seen a rise in hazelnut demand.
In North America, commercial hazelnuts are grown in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. In 2007, a hazelnut processing factory was erected in southern Quebec (ON, Canada).
It imports over 14,000 tonnes of shelled hazelnuts annually, encouraging Quebec farmers to grow hazelnuts.
Cold winters and endemic eastern filbert blight, which kills most European hazelnuts (Molnar and Capik 2012), limit hazelnut production in eastern North America.
The disease was kept out of the west coast hazelnut-growing region until 1959, when it was brought north of Vancouver, Washington.
First observed in 1968, cankers were recorded in 1970 and 1973.
According to illness prevalence, the pathogen was introduced around 1959.
Rutgers University (NJ, USA) (Molnar et al. 2005, 2009) are developing eastern filbert blight-resistant cultivars; however, their commercial production suitability in southern Quebec has not been assessed.
