Eastern filbert blight is an ongoing and costly problem for hazelnut growers, but researchers at the Oregon State Extension are researching newer and more efficient ways to combat it. At the Nut Growers Society’s Winter Meeting, Jay Pscheidt spoke with Matthew Malcolm at Malcolm Media Ag Publishing and shared their findings on drenching. Watch this quick video and read more in Pacific Nut Producer Magazine.
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Oregon State University has a world renowned hazelnut breeding program, guided and funded by the Pacific Northwest hazelnut industry. Following the retirement of longtime extension hazelnut breeder Shawn Mehlenbacher, Oregon State University has recently hired a new head of their hazelnut breeding program. Watch this brief video interview as Pacific Nut Producer Editor Matthew Malcolm introduces the new OSU Extension Hazelnut Breeder, Gaurab Bhattarai. Read more in Pacific Nut Producer Magazine. Don’t currently receive the magazine? Subscribe for free at: https://malcolmmedia.com/subscribe/
Please thank this video’s sponsor George Packing Company for their industry support.
Cover cropping down the middle of orchard rows is not a new practice for growers in the West, especially for Oregon hazelnut growers that have been finding creative ways to profit from harvesting temporary crops, while waiting for their trees to come into production. At a recent Nut Growers Society meeting, Pacific Nut Producer Editor Matthew Malcolm met with Marissa Lane-Massee, hazelnut grower and Master’s Student at the University of Oregon, who shared some interesting insights on the longterm benefits of cover-cropping Oregon hazelnut orchards with certain native plant combinations. Watch this brief interview and read more in Pacific Nut Producer Magazine.
Please thank this video’s sponsor George Packing Company for their industry support.
New research at Oregon State University (OSU) suggests that filbertworm, the #1 insect pest of the hazelnut industry, is causing a lot more early season damage than growers have detected or attributed in the past. At a recent Nut Growers Society meeting, Pacific Nut Producer Editor Matthew Malcolm met with OSU hazelnut extension experts Nik Wiman and Betsey Miller to discuss amending filbertworm monitoring and management recommendations to improve control of the pest and resulting crop yields. Watch this brief interview and read more in Pacific Nut Producer Magazine.
Please thank this video’s sponsor George Packing Company for their industry support.
In addition to good news of higher prices and a new hazelnut variety release from Oregon State University, hazelnut growers in attendance at the Nut Growers Society Winter Meeting were also discussing and expressing much concern over a new strain of Eastern Filbert Blight (EFB). Now spreading around the Willamette Valley of Oregon, this new strain appears to be no respecter of the long trusted EFB resistant varieties growers have been investing in. Pacific Nut Producer Editor Matthew Malcolm discussed this issue with the new Nut Growers Society President, Matt Miller, who happened to be among the first to discover this new EFB strain. Watch Miller’s interview and read more about it in Pacific Nut Producer Magazine.
Please thank this video’s sponsor George Packing Company for their industry support.
Like many tree nut commodities, hazelnuts are harvested from the orchard floor after dropping from the trees; however, Oregon growers tend to get more early fall rain events than their California nut grower neighbors. Harvest can get pretty muddy, adding extra processing costs to clean up the crop. The rains came again last year, impacting the later harvested varieties; however, harvest remained pretty clean for hazelnut grower Kent Burkholder, who believes cover cropping made all the difference. Watch his brief interview with Pacific Nut Producer Editor Matthew Malcolm, and read his full story HERE.
Please thank this video’s sponsor George Packing Company for their industry support.
As if growers didn’t have enough to worry about already, a certain root borer grub (when in large numbers) is beginning to wreak havoc below the surface of Oregon hazelnut orchards. At a recent Nut Growers Society meeting, Pacific Nut Producer Editor Matthew Malcolm met with Nik Wiman, Orchard Crops Extension Specialist at Oregon State University, to discuss the impact of the prionus californicus root borer and what growers can do about it. Watch this brief interview and read more in Pacific Nut Producer Magazine.
Please thank this video’s sponsor George Packing Company for their industry support.
Pacific Northwest hazelnut growers at the recent Nut Growers Society Winter Meeting were happy with the news of improving market conditions and prices for their 2023 crop. Watch this brief video with Terry Ross from the Hazelnut Growers Bargaining Association for the specifics, and read more about it in Pacific Nut Producer Magazine.
Please thank this video’s sponsor George Packing Company for their industry support.
Oregon State University has a world renowned hazelnut breeding program, and the newest variety, Thompson, has recently been released. Thompson has some impressing features pacific northwest growers will be interested in. Watch this brief video interview with Shawn Mehlenbacher, head of the OSU hazelnut breeding program to gain the details, and learn more about this new variety at the Nut Growers Society Winter Meeting on Jan. 11 at the Salem Convention Center.
Please thank this video’s sponsor George Packing Company for their industry support.
Dennis Glaser of Tangent was the recipient of the Nut Grower’s Society’s Grower of the Year Award for 2018 during its 104th Annual Meeting mid-January. The award is presented to a grower that has been a leader in the industry. Jason Perrott, NGS Vice President presented the award. He began with some history. Dennis’s roots are in farming. Before becoming a grass seed farmer his father, Frank, was the largest bee man in the state. He also raised silver foxes for fur. After the war both businesses were sold and the family venture in grass seed began. The family always had a big garden and his mom would get a hundred chicks each spring. The lucky ones survived the axe and lived another year as egg layers. Dennis learned valuable lessons about hard work and where our food comes from.
Growing up on the farm everything was done by hand. Unloading railcars of fertilizer, bagging and stacking sacks of grass seed, and loading the railcars back again with grass seed was all done without even a forklift until 1963. Needless to say there was plenty of motivation to find better ways of doing things.
Dennis went to OSU where he graduated in 1969 with a degree in Ag Engineering and Crop & Soil Science. He took over running the farm in 1972 after his father had a very serious accident. As the 70’s progressed, He started growing clovers and wheat to try to develop some rotation and break up the monoculture of grass seed. The grass seed industry was under pressure to move away from field burning and farm incomes were fluctuating up and mostly down. The farm would make good money two out of five years, broke even about two out of five years, and tried to not lose too much money on the fifth year. The quest was on to find a mix of crops to even out the income pattern.
Paul Willard, owner of Meeker Fertilizer, was a field man, mentor and good friend to Dennis. He offered encouragement in trying alternative crops on their heavy soils. In 1979 Dennis acquired a new farm and was able to grow pretty good wheat on it. With Paul’s influence and the help of mentor Wayne Chambers, he made the decision to try hazelnuts in the flat south valley ground. The ground was tiled, pH was addressed, a well was drilled, and ‘Barcelona’ trees were planted.
According to Dennis, “everyone thought I was crazier than a pet coon. And they were probably right.” This was the only orchard on wet ground in the area. Dennis was told that trees would never be successful on his ground so he was determined to make a go of it. But times were tough. Interest rates were around 20%. Prices were 65 cents when he planted but had dropped to 30-32 cents by the time of the first harvest. For the first ten years, Dennis wasn’t sure if this was such a good move. But perseverance paid off and the orchard has been a great success and an inspiration for many of the more recent hazelnut farms that have popped up around his orchard.
Dennis always thought he would plant more trees but EFB came along shortly after they established the original orchard. However, with OSU’s outstanding work with newer varieties, Dennis and family have expanded on the original 140 acres planting with an additional 260 acres of Jefferson’s.
Dennis has always farmed with an eye towards a better way. Dennis and his son Ryan have been at the forefront of the hazelnut industry in drainage, pruning and mulching, irrigation, and nutrient management. During the NGS Summer Tour last year Dennis reported on how he began chipping his prunings long before it was an accepted practice. Inviting 1,000 growers to ones farm for a tour is a pretty big commitment to the industry.
And of course Dennis’s service to the industry has been outstanding. He is very generous with his time and resources, is always helping out the neighbors, and is willing to share his experiences good and bad. He has given generously in time and resources to ag research projects at Central Linn High School, the FFA program, and Ag in the Classroom as well as numerous field tours, trials, and yield studies.
Glaser and his family were featured in the January 2018 issue of Pacific Nut Producer Magazine for “Growing Hazelnuts Where No Hazelnuts Had Grown Before.”
“My family has worked with Dennis and his family since 1975,” shared Jason Perrott. “We were a startup drainage business that Dennis played a key role in getting started. Job #1 was on Dennis’s ground. We have continued to work with Dennis over the years and he has become a mentor to us for our own hazelnut farm. I have great respect for Dennis. He is progressive thinking, always looking to the future, adventurous in his farming practices and a first class human being. Please welcome Grower of the Year Dennis Glaser.”