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Pecan germination in the shuck
Vivipary: A ten dollar word that describes the premature germination of a pecan in the shuck during the Fall of the year. Normally, pecan seeds are fully dormant in October and require a 90-day...
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That one pecan that doesn't open
Over the past several weeks I've be photographing pecan shuck-split and collecting nut samples. If you look at enough nut clusters like I do, you will usually come across a cluster that has one nut...
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Our latest pecan cultivars have split shuck
Stuart, 23 Oct. 2017 Well adapted pecan cultivars are ones that split their husks well before the average date of first fall freeze. In our area of SE Kansas, the average date of first fall freeze...
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The visual benefits of pecan disease control
By mid October, you can really see the difference fungicide applications make towards preserving pecan leaf health. This past year we made three fungicide applications to all of our orchards at the...
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The 2017 harvest begins
After a couple of hard frosts over the weekend, we began harvesting pecans today (photo above). Although the shucks of all our cultivars have split, only the earliest ripening pecans were dry...
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Who's eating my pecans?
While harvesting this year's pecan crop, I spotted a few nuts that had their shells broken open by one of the many critters that feed on pecans (photo at right). By just looking at the damaged nuts,...
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A mild freeze and pecan leaf fall
Kanza pecans, 2 Nov. 2017 I don't think I've ever seem pecan trees hold on to their leaves like this year. During most years, we get a hard freeze in early November that causes pecan leaves to drop...
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Harvesting Pawnee pecans
We've been working our way through harvest picking up nuts in a various research plots. Last week we harvested Pawnee (photo at right) and I was pleased to see that summer shaking really paid off...
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The cost of scab infection
We've been working hard at harvesting the 2017 pecan crop and I was struck by the obvious impacts pecan scab infection has had on some of our pecan cultivars. At the research station, we have a...
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Same seed source--big differences in rootstock growth
When we were harvesting a cultivar trial, I came across a plot of four Major trees that were fairly uniform in size and all bearing a good crops (photo at right). These trees were field grafted back...
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Pecan shelling quaility: Genetic links
Kanza 2017 One of the reasons Kanza has become a popular pecan cultivar among consumers is that it shells out so well. After cracking Kanza nuts in a mechanical cracker then blowing out the shells...
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Site selection and pecan production
On my farm, I established our pecan orchard in a field that is located within the Neosho River flood plain. The soils in this field are mostly Hepler silt loam with small areas of Osage silty...
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Stuart in the north
Stuart nuts at shuck-split Stuart is one of the oldest and most widely know pecan cultivars. The tree had its origins in a seedling orchard planted in 1874 outside of Pascagoula, Mississippi using...
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Native pecan yield 2017
Every year I learn something new about native pecans. This past summer (2017), the branches of our native trees were hanging low with, what I thought, was a heavy nut crop. However, this past year...
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Yields from a young pecan orchard
Harvesting a young orchard Frequent questions new pecan growers have usually revolve around questions of when and how much young pecan trees start to bear nut crops. Back in 2002 we planted...
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Deep winter chill
Winter has returned with a few inches of snow and bone chilling cold temperatures (photo above). So far this month, we have dropped to -3 degrees F (-19 C) and I've been wondering if we will see...
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Greenriver vs. Oswego: Kernel quality problems
Greenriver kernels, 2017 Last summer we thinned the nut crop on several pecan cultivars including; Pawnee, Lakota, Faith, Gardner, and Kanza. Later, when we harvested the nuts from these cultivars,...
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Selecting scionwood
On long cold winter days, my thoughts turn towards collecting scionwood in preparation for next Spring's grafting season. The best scions are often found growing at the tops of young pecan trees...
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Evaluating pecan cultivars takes time
A few years ago, I grafted several seedling trees with scions collected from our pecan breeding project. This past fall, those young grafted trees had their first crop of nuts which gave me the...
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Thinning trees and cutting scionwood
Today, we started cutting down trees in our block of Kanza trees to complete our orchard thinning plan (photo at right). Because Kanza is such a popular cultivar for northern pecan growers, we took...
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