Hazelnut · Tianjin, Tianjin, China
When to plant hazelnuts in Tianjin
Main outdoor window
30 Oct - 24 Mar
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
7 April
In Tianjin, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 Sep - 31 Oct
If you plant at the start of the window.
The average last frost. Half of all years are later than this.
Step by step in Tianjin
Each window is a range, not a single day. Earlier in the range buys you a longer season; later in it buys you a safer one.
Plant the bush
30 Oct - 24 Mar
Any time the plant is dormant and the ground is neither frozen nor waterlogged: after leaf fall in autumn, or at the end of winter before growth restarts.
Harvest
1 Sep - 31 Oct
Hazelnuts through the year
Against the frost risk in Tianjin
Why these dates
Plant dormant. Hazel flowers in the depths of winter, releasing pollen from catkins on bare wood, so the crop is decided months before anything else in the garden has woken up.
The bush is fully hardy, but midwinter flowering means a hard freeze during pollen release can reduce the crop even though nothing visible is damaged.
Hazelnuts are planted once and then left in place, so there is no sowing offset to resolve. What matters in Tianjin is the shape of the year: this crop is dormant through the winter and is planted while it sleeps, any time between leaf fall in autumn and the restart of growth in spring, so long as the ground is neither frozen nor waterlogged. That is why the window below spans the cold months rather than sitting in the middle of the growing season.
Hardiness is not the obstacle here. Tianjin is zone 7a, comfortably inside the range this crop is rated for, so an established plant should come through an average winter without protection.
Do not expect a crop in the first year. A plant set out now should give its first worthwhile pick around year 4, and will then produce every year after that, which is what makes the planting decision worth getting right the first time.
Also in Tianjin
Other nuts to time
Growing hazelnuts in Tianjin
When should I plant hazelnuts in Tianjin?
Aim for 30 Oct - 24 Mar in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 21 Oct - 30 Mar - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will hazelnuts be ready to harvest in Tianjin?
Expect to start picking around 1 Sep - 31 Oct, based on 140 to 170 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will hazelnuts tolerate?
The bush is fully hardy, but midwinter flowering means a hard freeze during pollen release can reduce the crop even though nothing visible is damaged.