Overwintering Seedlings in Pots
QUESTION: We’re buying 100x hazel seedlings from the University of Saskatchewan Fruit Research Department this spring! Yippee! We’d like to put them in nursery pots for a year until we have a proper permaculture design done for the food forest & field. What do you recommend we do through the winter? Do the pots need to be buried? And do you have any recommendations for ideal potting soil for them, other than our field soil?
ANSWER: (R. Walker) The best overwintering for the hazelnut plants is to bury the pots. Make sure they are well watered at the time they are buried. For soil type in the pots, use one-third soil, one-third perilite, and one-third peatmoss. Fertilize weakly with fish fertilizer or use a slow release fertilizer such as OSMOCOTE or an organic equivalent in the potting mix once.