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Spring flood on the Neosho
The entire Mid-west region was hammered by heavy rains over this past weekend. At the Pecan Experiment Field, we recorded almost 4.5 inches of rain for Saturday April 29 and Sunday April 30. With...
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Pecan flowering season underway
I haven't been able to check our pecan trees at the Experiment Field since last week because the Neosho River is flooding our orchard. But yesterday, while the sun was shining, I visited several...
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Training last year's bark graft
When grafting a vigorously growing tree with a bark graft I often produce a tree with 5 to 7 feet of new growth on the scion during the first summer. I achieve that kind of growth by meticulously...
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Cages protect young pecan trees from deer browse
A picture may be worth a thousand words but the two photos above teach a valuable lesson. The photo on the left shows an unprotected seedling pecan trees that has been heavily browsed by deer. The...
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Finishing up the grafting season
Last weekend, I finally finished grafting pecan trees in my orchard. After the flood receded, it seemed like I spent a week in rubber boots wading in the mud to finish up making bark, arrowhead, and...
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Checking on pecan pollination
Yesterday, I wandered through our pecan cultivar trials to check on the progress of pecan pollination. At this point, we are half way through pollination. All of the protogynous cultivars are...
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Pistillate flower strength and pecan nut set
I was checking on the development of the 2017 pecan crop last week and made some interesting observations about pecan flowering and nut set. Whenever I look at pistillate flower clusters that are...
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Prevent stump sprouts from shading new pecan grafts
Over the past few days, I've taken advantage of cool morning temperatures to revisit the grafts I made a month ago (photo at right). During my orchard walk-thru, I decided to photograph several...
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Training a tree using the 2-foot rule
A lot of the trees I grafted last year are growing vigorously this year. Unfortunately, most of the new growth seems to be sprouting from the very top of the tree. Left unchecked, I'll lose the...
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This is why scouting for pests is so important
For the past week, I've been expecting to see damage from pecan nut casebearer start to take off. In fact, I have my sprayer filled with water and ready to go. The problem is, we can't find enough...
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Spraying for scab
Spraying pecans (view from the tractor seat) With over 3 inches of rain falling over the weekend, it is high time we quit waiting on pecan nut casebearer and start concentrating on controlling pecan...
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A new pecan graft can flower
In grafting pecan trees, we take a piece of one-year-old wood collected from a mature pecan tree and place it on a seedling rootstock tree. If the scion was collected from a vigorous and healthy...
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What happened to my pecan tree's central leader?
When I drove by my pecan grove the other day, I noticed a tree with a branch that had broken out in the wind (photo at right). At first glance , it looked like the central leader had snapped and I...
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Early signs of pecan scab infection
We've had a fairly wet spring this year and along with the damp weather, pecan scab has made its early season appearance. The photo at right shows a cluster of Giles nuts. Giles is a scab...
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Time for pecan graft maintenance
Today I was working on trimming and training this year's new grafts. The photo at right shows a young bark graft that has developed a nice strong shoot from the scion. However, this tree still...
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Spraying for pecan scab...again!
Its been 2 weeks since we made our last scab spray. Since that time its been hot and humid. Pecans are entering the period of rapid nut enlargement--a period when nuts are most susceptible to scab...
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Unwrapping a 3-flap graft
The July 4th Holiday weekend was a great time to work on all 3-flap grafts I made this past spring. A month ago I had visited all newly grafted trees to remove stump sprouts. This time I am going...
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Japanese beetles feast on young pecan trees
People living along the east coast of the United States have become all too familiar with voracious Japanese beetles chewing the leaves of trees, shrubs, and garden plants. This introduced pest...
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Pecan nuts rapidly expanding
July is the month that you can finally look up into a pecan tree and notice nuts hanging from branch terminals. At this point during the growing season, pecans have entered their rapid growth...
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Monitoring scab
Native pecan infected by scab The 2017 growing season started off with ample rainfall and ideal conditions for the spread of pecan scab (photo at right). In response, we have made two fungicide...
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