Description
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Seedling of Sacajawea, a variety created under the OSU hazelnut breeding program. This selection does not possess the Gasaway gene, but does possess good EFB quantitative resistance. Nut quality is superior having an excellent taste rivaling prized Italian cultivars and has a high kernel to nut ratio of 52%.
In reading about this cultivar, I came across an interesting observation by its breeders where there is speculation that one grandparent is semi self fertile according to the American Society of Horticulture Science:
“‘Sacajawea’ is the result of a cross of OSU 43.091 × ‘Sant Pere’ made in 1990 by Shawn A. Mehlenbacher and David C. Smith. ‘Sant Pere’, a minor cultivar from Tarragona (Spain) with very early nut maturity, was described by Tasias-Valls (1975). We believe that OSU 43.091 resulted from self-pollination of ‘Montebello’, which is partially self-compatible (Mehlenbacher and Smith, 1991)”
Here is a link to a full write up: https://catalog.extension.oregonstate.edu/sites/catalog/files/project/pdf/em8914.pdf
- NOT SELF FERTILE
- Maternal Comparability Alleles: 1 and 22. is only expressed in the pollen.
- Pollinators: Gamma and Yamhill (or any hazelnut that does not have the 1 & 22 alleles).
- Available when temps for shipping are better
- Plant type: Deciduous nut tree
- Size: 5m tall x 6m wide.
- Hardiness Zones: 5-9
- Habitat: Sun to semi sun; rich loamy acidic soils.
- Family: Betulaceae
Hazelnut compatibility alleles: Grimo Nursery has the best non academic explanation. https://www.grimonut.com/index.php?p=Cultivars_
Alleles Explained– An allele is one of a pair of genes that appear at a particular location on the chromosome that controls breeding compatibility. Hazelnut alleles are numbered to identify them. All hazelnuts carry two alleles but they are blocked from pollinizing themselves. To simplify, for hazelnuts to cross pollinize, the numbers from one parent must be different from the allele numbers in the other parent. For example, ‘Gamma’ has alleles 2 & 10, ‘Yamhill’ has alleles 8 & 26, and therefore they are compatible both ways. This means that ‘Gamma’ can pollinize ‘Yamhill’ and ‘Yamhill’ can pollinize ‘Gamma’.
Underlined allele numbers indicate that male pollen is expressed by that number. Nuts will not be set when either of the alleles in the female flower matches this expressed alleles in the pollen. For example, ‘Jefferson’ has alleles 1 & 3. ‘Slate’ has alleles 1 & 23. ‘Slate’ pollen is expressed in allele 1 and not in allele 23, but since there is a 1 in the female flower of ‘Jefferson’, they are incompatible. Vice versa, ‘Jefferson’ pollen is expressed in allele 1 but it can’t pollinize ‘Slate’ because of the female allele 1.
