Cobnuts

[Palustris]

All our cobnuts have 'soft' kernels. The wild hazel nuts from the hedge have proper 'hard' kernels. Is it normal for Cobnuts to be soft like that or are ours wrong? Both bushes produce the same type by the way and always have.

[Palustris]

[earlypea]

I buy new season Kentish cobnuts and I would say the texture varies;  the green ones are soft, the between ones in the green to golden stage a bit more crunchy, but still moist and even the fully ripe, dry ones are more moist than a hazelnut from the supermarket.

I have a lone cobnut tree on my plot, which appears to self-pollinate.  I normally pick the nuts up some time after they drop off and they are still moist.

The cobnut farms dry the ripe nuts after they've been harvested to a certain percentage for storage purposes (but they're still moist when you buy them).

Did the wild bushes shed their nuts some time ago and they got dried out by the sun, maybe?

In essence - yes, they're normally slightly 'soft' (but more moist but crunchy) when I buy them direct from the farm.

[ancellsfarmer]

 Often early shed nuts have a tiny weevil hole, causing the plant to shed them.I find the squirrels like them less ripe than me; they are better able to reach them too!

[Palustris]

The wild ones were picked at the same time as our cultivated ones. Ours seem to go from  green and soft to empty shell without ever going hard. All of them were picked when the nut was no longer attached to the bud. No weevils and here it is mice which eat the nuts.

[earlypea]

I wonder if it's something to do with how the different types manage their water supply.  I expect that the wild ones are hardier and maybe shorter and smaller leaved (less evaporation)?  Did they suffer less from the drought?

I have noticed since you said that that the sweet chestnuts up the road are puny, wet and shrivelled - I normally manage to get a few before the squirrels, but they're not worth fighting for this year - that's got to be the drought and heat.