Suburban Sustainability - Permaculture.
Understory Blueberry & Hazelnut Agroforestry Trials
Status: Site preparation underway. Funding application pending. Not yet funded.
Many Piedmont farms have woodland edges and newly cleared ground that earn very little. Could they grow something worth harvesting?
We are clearing part of our 4-acre Mebane site for an experimental understory crop of blueberries and filberts (hazelnuts). The planned trial compares plants grown in open alleys with plants grown under a thinned forest canopy. Some plots will get biochar made on site from land-clearing wood, and others will be grown without it. We will track survival, growth, disease, early yields, soil health, and what it all costs to establish. Hazelnuts in the trial will be eastern filbert blight–resistant cultivars from Rutgers University's breeding program.
The trial is also a closed-loop biomass demonstration. Wood that would normally go on a burn pile goes back into the soil instead.
We have applied to the North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services' NC Agricultural Innovation and Research (NCAIR) program to fund the trial.
The application is pending. If it is funded, planting is planned for Spring 2027]. Results will be shared openly through field days, workshops, factsheets, a free public report, and The Hillbilly Scientist podcast.
