ABSTRACT

This chapter provides information on the uses, folk medicine, chemistry, germplasm, distribution, ecology, cultivation, harvesting, yields, energy, and biotic factors of American Hazelnut or Filbert. Nuts may be beaten to a powder and used like flour to make filbert bread. The cultivars of American hazelnut have smaller nuts than those of European filberts. Filberts should be planted on soils which are deep, fertile, and well-drained. Most filberts offered for sale by nurserymen have been propagated by layering and are on their own roots. Filbert can be propagated from seed which have been stratified 60 days at 5°C, plus 67 days at 18°C, and 30 days at 5°C. According to J. L. Hartwell, the bark is used in folk remedies for a poultice for tumors. Since American filberts or hazelnuts tend to sucker, the suckers should be removed promptly and the plant trained to a single stem.