Acta Horticulturae, cilt.556, ss.263-267, 2001 (SCI-Expanded)
Hazelnut (Corylus avellana L.) grows naturally as a multi-stemmed shrub. In Oregon, most cultivated trees are trained to a single trunk to facilitate mechanized cultivation and harvest. This training requires multiple applications of either gramoxone or a 2,4-D amine herbicide to the young basal shoots (suckers) every year and has recurrent costs associated with it. An experimental procedure has been developed to eliminate suckers by thorough disbudding of the hazelnut tree during its propagation by layerage. Hazelnut trees totally free of suckers can be produced by removing preformed buds and all primary meristematic tissue at nodes on the trunk below the point at which scaffold branches will be developed. Results of two experiments to test the procedure support the hypothesis.