Growing Hazelnuts from Seed

[RsTgardenian]

Hi,

So I've been looking into growing a couple of hazelnut trees in my yard and I had a few questions about how they are like in terms of total size and the growing process? On the Sheffield's website it says that they're an "often multi-stemmed shrub with long, outward growing branches that form a dense, spreading or spherical shape". Does anybody have an estimate for how much space they need to get started?

And for germination, the site also says the seeds need to be cold stratified for 180 days, but I saw a couple of videos on youtube showing hazelnuts being grown after stratification for 2-4 weeks. Do they actually need over 5 months to be ready to germinate? This is for the american type of hazelnut btw.

Also for the stratification would having some kind of moss wrap the seed while being refrigerated possibly be effective? I read on a few places online that some people used moss to get seeds of other kinds of plants to sprout. Or is a moist paper towel or bucket of water better?

Thanks!

 

[Meadowlark]

According to the site below, three months are needed for stratification if you follow their suggested prep.
I haven't tried it myself yet because I've always been doubtful they would survive in my climate of the Big Thicket. I haven't seen any native ones but they probably exist around here somewhere. Hope this article helps.

https://www.hunker.com/13428412/how-to-grow-hazelnuts-from-a-seed

 

[RsTgardenian]

According to the site below, three months are needed for stratification if you follow their suggested prep.
I haven't tried it myself yet because I've always been doubtful they would survive in my climate of the Big Thicket. I haven't seen any native ones but they probably exist around here somewhere. Hope this article helps.

https://www.hunker.com/13428412/how-to-grow-hazelnuts-from-a-seed

Thanks Meadowlark. I've been looking at different articles on how to grow them from seeds as well and other than having the seeds be stratified for several months, I've noticed quite varied advice on how exactly to scarify/stratify them; like in the hunker article you shared it says to put the seeds in a sand-peat mix to stratify it. But in a video I saw on youtube the person just put shelled hazelnuts in a wet cloth for two weeks and then they started to germinate.

What do you think about the process? I know you said you don't grow any but I'm curious to see what others think about it. Right now I still have all of the nuts in their shells soaking in cold water to scarify them; I'm not sure if that is actually doing anything though.

Thank You