The Pecan Detective Agency

When I was much younger I wanted to be a private detective. I read many of the old detective novels and watched lots of movies, hoping to be just like Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Charlie Chan or Inspector Wellman (bonus points if you know the last one). I was intrigued by how the detective was…

The latest Cold Storage report from USDA shows cold storage pecan supplies dropped from 202 million pounds, in-shell basis, to 176 million at the end of July. At the end of July in 2014, that number was 222 million pounds, in-shell basis. Broken down into shelled and in-shell categories, the July 31, 2015 numbers were…

The purpose of this article is to consolidate and distribute information about one of the most important aspects of our future as pecan growers — new and improved varieties. There have been a few articles about new varieties over the past few years, some positive and some negative, but growers need the most useful information…

Given the time of year, I would like to refer to an excellent article by Monte Nesbitt in the August 2010 issue of Pecan South, entitled “Victory or Defeat in August” where he talks about the difficulty in producing pecans during August. This difficulty not only applies to the horticultural challenges in filling out kernels…

Texas is currently experiencing a major drought and heat wave following the wettest April and May on record. Our very wet spring set the stage for a major pecan scab year. I am not and have not been paid to be a plant pathologist; however, I study and worry about scab. I have experienced pecan…

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has seen the American Pecan Industry “up close and personal.” In the 3 growing regions over 8 days and through 55 witnesses giving 60 hours of testimony, the industry presented its case to USDA for a Federal Marketing Order for Pecans. Pecan stakeholders all — growers and shellers, large and…

Thousands of Americans head out on the highways and byways of the country each year in search of fall color. Many southerners journey north where the cooler temperatures bring out the vivid red, bronze and gold foliage color hues that can be elusive or short-lived in the South. Technology, the internet and social media now…

Pecan weevil is the number one pest of native pecan growers. Knowing when to spray for this pest is critical for achieving economic control of a weevil population. To help make weevil spray-date decisions, we have been using trunk-mounted ‘Circle’ traps. When placed on known “weevil trees,” these traps are very effective for monitoring pecan…

USDA released its final report on production and prices regarding the 2014 pecan crop on July 17 (see chart to the left). This report is slightly lower than the previous report released in January, by just over 1 million pounds. Approximately 6 million pounds of production was shifted from the native/seedling category to the improved…

As pecan growers, our lives, jobs and future are all impacted by laws, either civil or common. Comments here are not published as fact or law, but rather for consideration. Alternate Bearing Law of 1528: Cabeza de Vaca established that pecan trees bear every other year. A big crop is followed by a low crop…

Fungicides do most of the heavy lifting regarding scab control and we often tend to focus all of our attention on fungicide selection when battling scab. But, there are many more factors that go into protecting a crop from disease. Coverage, for example, is vitally important. If you don’t cover the nuts with fungicide, you…

Agricultural producers are faced with an increasing demand for “reporting” all kinds of information, a demand that is going to grow and grow, according to Ben Allen of Agri-Data®. And that is not something “you can do simply on paper,” he emphasized. “Consumer demands for food system transparency are creating a level of complexity in…

For many years now it seems that there has been very little work or published articles (at least that I am aware of) on hickory shuckworm, Cydia carana. For me, shuckworm is still sort of a mystery and our Extension management recommendations have been based on the fact that there was a problem the previous…

The final dates and venues have been released by the USDA for the public hearings on the Federal Marketing Order for Pecans. The initial hearing for the West Region begins in Las Cruces, New Mexico on July 20 at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum, 4100 Dripping Springs Rd. The hearings will span…

Growers from Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi gathered in June for the annual Tri-State Pecan Growers Conference. The conference covered two states with an orchard tour in Louisiana and business meetings, a reception and a broad educational seminar hosted in Natchez, Mississippi. The Tri-State conference kicked off with an orchard tour at The Company Farm in…

Pecan inventory in cold storage, as of May 31, 2015, has dropped to about 222 million pounds, in-shell basis, according to the latest USDA report released on June 23. That number had been almost 245 million on April 30. At current strong consumption levels, some industry observers predict a low cold-storage carry-in to the next…

I was privileged to have been hired by Mr. Bluefford G. Hancock, Extension Horticulture Project Group Leader Emeritus for Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, better known as the Texas Agriculture Extension Service in his heyday. As Mr. Hancock often remarked, “When he started out he was the only one (Extension Horticulturist for Texas)”; and he…

Texas agriculture has battled soil moisture since the first orchards were planted in the early 1900s. As E.E. Risien said, the 3 most important things pecans need are water, water, water. In 2011, Texas growers received only 2 rains while this April and May the state received record rainfall. The entire state of Texas was…

Three panelists involved in marketing pecans provided some advice and assessment of current market conditions to those attending the Oklahoma Pecan Growers conference June 12-13 in Ardmore. With Oklahoma being somewhat unique among pecan-producing states in that the majority of the crop is native pecans, much of the conversation focused on natives, and growers were…

This month’s column is a bit different than what I normally write in that it is not about managing some pest or new products but rather about having a plan to protect one’s self from a bee attack while working in your orchard or around your home. My intent for this article is to get…

It shouldn’t be surprising that pecan trees grow better when mulched, as mulching mimics the natural state of trees growing in a forest where the forest floor is covered with a layer of decaying organic matter. Roots developing underneath this layer are growing in a favorable environment, where temperature and moisture are more uniform, soil…

I think that one of the most useful pieces of information, at least for resistance management, that has been placed on pesticide labels is the mode of action classification or “Group Number”. For insecticides this group number classification was developed by the Insecticide Resistance Action Committee or IRAC, http://irac-online.org which is made up of an…

The start of the 2015 growing has been wetter than normal for many pecan growers in portions of Oklahoma, Central and Eastern Texas, the Central Gulf Coast and middle Georgia (Fig 1.). The National Weather Service has declared that El Nino is present, with a 70 percent chance of continuing through this summer and 60…

The objective of this study was to determine the average percentage of ground-emerging adult pecan weevils caught in Circle traps placed on trunks. This knowledge is essential for estimating numbers of weevils infesting pecan trees prior to management decisions (Mount, 2014). Previous research by Raney and Eikenbary (1968), Mulder et al. (2003), and Cottrell and…