Time to Read Your Trees

As the dawn of a new pecan season rises, there is a bit of a reason for optimism. Of course, every farmer, especially pecan farmers, is an eternal optimist, but it appears the weather pattern may be changing a bit. Areas have received rain and the landscape looks better, but lakes, rivers, and wells are...

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Getting Started in Regenerative Management

I often get asked if we can manage pecans regeneratively and still be productive and profitable. My answer? Yes, we can, but regenerative management will be different for each producer. Each producer will have unique circumstances that will require individualized management practices. Many producers have been seeking ways to reduce input costs while maintaining or...

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Cows graze in a native pecan grove.

Native Pecan Grove Evaluation

As I sit down to write this article, I am in the midst of preparation for an OSU Extension’s Native Pecan Field Day on the evaluation and management of native pecan groves. So, I think now is a good opportunity to discuss some of the tasks you should be doing as we near another native...

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a tractor driving through the pecan orchard

Principles over Practices

Last year, I had the opportunity to attend the Ranching for Profit School conducted by Ranch Management Consultants. While the school targeted livestock producers, I quickly recognized that pecan producers could benefit from a similar school. The school was more of a business course focused on helping individuals (owners or managers) learn how to develop...

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This mature pecan tree exhibits signs of stress as the extreme heat and drought continue this summer.

More Heat, More Tree Stress

The heat has been brutal in Texas for the last month or so, but then again, it is summer and supposed to be hot! Typically, pecan trees can take the heat if they have enough water. But now we see signs of stress even on 300-year-old native pecan trees. Most native pecans grow on great,...

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A variety of grasses and plant life grow between scattered pecan trees in this orchard.

Regenerative Management in Pecans

How can ‘Regenerative Agriculture’ work for pecan growers? Over the last couple of years, this is a common question I have received. I would say that for several of the growers I have visited about regenerative management, most are willing to try it to solve problems that traditional management has not worked on. With higher...

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Two rows of pecan trees separated by tall grasses that serve as cover crops. This practice represents an incentive in the pecan industry that could attract consumers.

Managing Your Orchards with IPM to Improve Your Profits

As the economic environment continues to change with higher input costs and decreased farm profitability, we as growers must start looking for ways to lessen our dependency on high-cost inputs. Following regenerative agriculture principles has proven to be an effective way to improve soil health and lessen growers’ reliance on high-cost inputs. By following these...

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Sunlight bursts through a pecan orchard at dawn.

Let the Sunshine in This Growing Season

As we ponder the 2023 growing season, some serious concerns come to mind. Still, having said that, it is really nothing out of the ordinary when it comes to agriculture and the risks farmers take every year. Many times you have to wonder why they would do it. Reckon it is just something that gets...

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It’s More Than a Lack of Water

We’ve made it through August, and the state of Texas is still immersed in a terrible drought. Typically, the quickest way out of such a situation is to talk about it, but we have been talking about it for months, and little has happened! Perhaps by the time you read this, the situation will have...

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Two images showing how mycorrhizal fungi looks on pecan roots, including a microscopic picture of the spores.

Mycorrhizal Fungi—a potential tool to improve pecan nutrient uptake

A surge in chemical fertilizer prices, especially for nitrogen, has put a lot of pressure on pecan growers. The prices of traditional nitrogen fertilizers have increased significantly since 2019. According to USDA Agricultural Marketing Service data, the cost of ammonia is three times higher in 2022 compared to September 2019, and other fertilizer nutrients are...

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A pecan tree with bunches of green leaves scattered about its canopy. Growers should remove this underperforming tree.

Water woes and tree removal go hand in hand

Like it or not, a new pecan “growing” year is well in hand, despite the continued numerous challenges faced by growers, including rising production costs and labor. Of utmost concern in my mind, though, is the ongoing drought. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, this drought engulfs about 89.5% of Texas and 44.38% of the...

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Alternative pest control considerations

With the new season right around the corner and the supply chain challenges for all goods, growers may need to start thinking about alternative pest control options. We have become dependent on chemicals to help control pests in our orchards. This dependence has led to us giving little thought to other methods for controlling these...

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Pecan limbs and other brush have been piled up in a clear space between pecan trees. This brush pile will be burned later.

Thoughts for the 2022 crop and growing season

Hard to believe that another growing season is upon us, with spring right around the corner. For some, the coming growing season represents a chance at redemption after a miserable 2021 from the standpoint of a crop or management. One of the greatest challenges that growers face in the upcoming year is the skyrocketing costs...

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Two photos of damaged flowers on 'Pawnee' and 'Kanza' after a spring freeze.

Oklahoma’s 2021 spring freeze impact on pecan flowers

For many pecan growers in Oklahoma, the late spring freeze in 2021 was a nightmare. The hourly temperature ranged from 29-32 degrees Fahrenheit over six hours at the experimental orchard in Perkins, Oklahoma; the damage to pecan flowers was devastating (Fig. 1). Do cultivars react differently when exposed to spring freeze? Pecans exhibit heterodichogamy, meaning...

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It’s about time (and pecans)

Time is money. Time flies. Time waits for no one. Time changes everything. Time is running out. Popular sayings about time are abundant because we talk about time a lot. We talk about time a lot because we frequently have one eye on time as we go about life. One year ago, my own time...

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A man buries new cotton underwear in his orchard to observe his soil health.

Get to know your soil and your soil health

We all know the importance of monitoring and scouting pecan trees. We spend countless hours each year going through the orchards scouting for disease, insects, nutrient deficiencies, and other issues. In fact, many producers can tell me about each tree without looking at a map or plot plan of the orchard. You can easily recite...

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Sample fungicide spray plan lists chemicals used, disease treated, application time, and other notes. Making a plan like this can help you manage inputs.

Manage Inputs When Managing Your Orchard

With the current market issues with pecans and the ever-increasing costs of inputs, growers are always looking for ways to increase profit from their pecan operations and manage inputs. We can use several strategies to reduce costs in our operations, hence increasing profit. Some of these strategies may be straightforward, while others may require you...

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A mature pecan tree with dense, green foliage stretches its branches toward the sky, which forms a deep blue background to this photo. To grow a better pecan crop, pecan producers should focus on leaves during dormant season.

Grow Leaves, Grow More Pecans

Perhaps you remember that well-known line from the poem “Twas The Night Before Christmas”—While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads. This January, thoughts of lush, dark green leaves sprouting on your pecan trees should be dancing through your head. It’s somewhat hard to think about leaves in January, but growing leaves is exactly what...

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A nut cluster with slight shuck opening is coated in a layer of ice. Icicles hang off small branches and the cluster on this mature pecan tree, during an ice storm.

Recovering from Ice Storm Damage

As if 2020 has not been challenging enough, some growers in the central region are facing yet another challenge. Some growers now confront cleaning up orchards following a significant ice storm and trying to salvage what crop they have left. A strong winter storm pushed through North Texas and Oklahoma on Oct. 26 and brought...

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This tree has a very heavy crop load with many clusters with 4 to five shucks. The grower will need to thin these nuts to maintain their crop.

Getting a Handle on Your 2020 Crop

How can it be that it is harvest time once again? It seems that time is flying in these uncommon times! Still your pecan trees have carried on, despite the current challenges. Hopefully, you have been able to keep up with your tree management program and develop a plan to manage your crop load as...

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The Woe of Winter in the Heat of the Summer

Once again, growers in the Central region were ready to start another pecan season. The producers were prepared to put the previous season in the past and forget about the low prices they received for this last crop that did not live up to their earlier hopes and expectations. The 2020 season started earlier than...

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Here Comes the Sun

As a new pecan growing season begins in earnest, I hope you have your management plan for the new year firmly in your mind. Now is the time to think about the moments where you dropped the ball or the things you did not do so hot on. Perhaps you were late with a spray...

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The Origin of Improved Pecans

After writing my last article on “The Importance of Native Pecans for the Future of the Industry,” I have had several readers visit with me about the article, telling me how much they enjoyed it and many saying that it gave them a great appreciation for natives. I have had a few ask me to...

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Maps that show commercial pecan distribution in the U.S. and Mexico

Family Trees: Roots & Resilience

The U.S. pecan industry is young compared to most tree crops. The pecan is an unusual example of a North American native tree that has become a worldwide crop. The early pecan industry grew out of the native forest with several factors contributing to its historic development: a nutritious, high-quality product that was in demand;...

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Catkins hanging on a 'Sioux' pecan tree

Fertilizer Keeps this Season’s Optimism Alive

Still smarting from quality woes and lack of market activity this past growing season, producers are struggling to find optimism as the new growing season kicks off in earnest. I must admit that I too am struggling for optimism, but in reality, all farmers—whatever the crop—are eternal optimists. Why? Because we have some assurances that...

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What happened to my 2018 pecan crop?

Pecan production is never an easy or guaranteed venture. Even before the 2018 pecan season started out, most areas had high expectations for a good crop. Crop production was lower the previous season, and for most of us we, had good soil moisture over the winter. However just as the 2018 season started with some...

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A pile of pecans and sticks after a hurricane sits beside a truck and are now inedible.

More than a tree

We all know that the wood from pecan trees is great for barbecuing and smoking meat. Along with adding flavor to your meats, pecan wood makes unique furniture, flooring, and paneling. It is also used in producing pallets for transportation of goods. After pecan wood is cured, it is extremely durable. Pecan wood has also...

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A native pecan grove in southern Oklahoma.

Pre-Harvest Planning

Since harvest is just around the corner, I thought it would be good to talk about management practices a grower may take the time to evaluate this time of year, which could pay big dividends into the future. I know that many producers are focused on the upcoming harvest and getting their equipment ready. However,...

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Orchard cleanup following ice damage

Many native pecan-producing areas were recently hit with extremely low temperatures and a blanket of ice. Producers can only hope any damage is not to the extent that has resulted from ice storms of the past. One major factor that could increase the potential for damage is the amount of stress that the trees have...

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Pecan buds at various stages of development suffer from freeze damage. All primary buds on this shoot were damaged. (Photo by Charles Rohla)

Watch for Freeze Damage This Chilly Spring

As I was preparing to write this article, I was pondering what to write about this month but then mother nature gave me an unexpected and unwanted topic. Over the weekend of April 7 and 8 temperatures across the northern pecan production areas dropped below freezing. With budbreak having started on several trees in southern...

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Tree by Tree, Step by Step

What a difference a year makes as we get ready for another exciting growing season! Our winter to date has been totally different from last year with periods of extended cold, some ice and snow and cold fronts on a regular basis. After a year of virtually no chill, it appears that we will have...

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So, what happened to my pecans?

Hard to believe another year has come and gone, and with it, another pecan harvest of some pretty iffy pecans in some areas of the state. Although other folks had very good pecans, the norm for many areas of Texas has been only fair to good pecans. Please, please, don’t get me wrong. I am...

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When the Storm Ends, Cleanup Begins

The dawn of the 2017 pecan harvest is upon us. As usual, it has its own set of unique challenges, which must be dealt with depending on where you are before one could even think about harvesting. First and foremost, many pecan bottoms were flooded due to Hurricane Harvey, and the cleanup of the debris...

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Scorched

Uncovering why leaves die can be a complicated business. Many symptoms are similar, but they can have very different causes. Is the dead tissue a primary or secondary symptom? Are we talking about a disease, insect, nutrient, or even something entirely different? As Dr. Cary Illinois finds out, diagnosing leaf scorch symptoms can sometimes be...

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The Story of a Good Native Nut

I don’t think I’ve ever visited a native pecan producer that doesn’t have a favorite tree in their grove. More than likely, he has propagated additional trees of the family’s favorite native pecan with the dream he’s discovered the next big pecan cultivar. I’ve seen a lot of these nuts and they seem to have...

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Cattle graze underneath native pecan trees at an orchard.

Add Value in the Pecan Orchard with Ground Cover

When I am visiting with pecan growers, one topic that seems to come up is proper management of forage for either livestock grazing or for hay production. Working mostly in Oklahoma and North Texas, the majority of the landowners I work with are not just solely pecan producers. These individuals are agriculture producers with diverse...

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The Tree Signals the Timing for Orchard Tasks

 “When do I fertilize?” “When do I spray for casebearer?” “When do I control pecan weevil?” These are just a few of the ‘when’ questions I field every year from both new and experienced pecan growers. And with an early spring this year, everyone seems confused about timing orchard operations. I could reply with a...

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Unique Winter and Early Spring Weather

The dawn of a new growing season is upon us once again; it really seems like we just finished the last season and here we go again. What a unique winter and early spring it has been—hardly cold in some areas, but still those areas had two arctic blasts and the cold from those spells...

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GM? NO. (But does it matter?)

Sometimes our eyes can betray us. The connection between what we see and what we know is very strong. Each feeds the other – seeing something adds to our catalog of knowledge, whereas having knowledge of something prior to seeing it can sometimes be limiting. An illustration of this occurs in the next case by...

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A Farewell Salute to Sammy Helmers

It is once again time to bid a final farewell to one of Extension Horticulture’s finest: Dr. Sammy G. Helmers. It seems the Good Lord was in need of a new “storyteller” and our own Dr. Helmers was called in for the job on Nov. 15, 2016. Since we are talking about our one and...

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Invest in Your Native Pecan Trees

All too often I hear native growers complain that they have little or no crop because wet weather in the spring prevented pecan pollination. The truth of the matter is that a few rain storms during pollination rarely prevent nut set in native groves. When someone complains about lack of pollination, I immediately suspect the...

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Case 3: Crowd Control

Most scientists don’t get too personally attached to the plants they work on because sooner or later they will likely be cut down or otherwise destroyed. However, most other humans look at a full grown tree and think, “You want me to do what? Cut it down? Are you crazy?” What’s best is not always...

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Be Aware of Edge Effects

The other day I was up at our local pesticide distributor to pick up some chemicals when I got into a conversation with a neighboring row-crop farmer. The topic of deer damage came up, and he mentioned that every year deer create the same unique browse pattern along the edges of his fields. That simple...

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Rain Can Bring Blessings and Challenges

Rain!!… what a beautiful thing… just seems to be too much at times. But, my, does it make things grow, especially pecans. It seems like we have been talking about drought and the devastation it was having on native trees along rivers and creeks that had gone dry forever, and today we are talking about...

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Bark Grafting in the Native Grove

Most native pecan growers have areas in their groves that have dozens of young trees along fence rows or popping up in open areas among mature trees. Fence-line pecan trees are often moved using a tree spade into open areas of the grove to help fully utilize available land area. The bottom line is that...

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Symptoms of Deception

Sometimes the symptoms we see with our eyes do not always provide an obvious link to an answer. And sometimes, what we think we know does not provide the answer because we are limited by our own knowledge. The biological world is a complex environment and often factors interact to bring about a certain result....

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The Causes of Lower Trunk Swelling

I have visited many native pecan groves over the years and have always found at least one tree in each grove that has developed a swollen, disfigured lower trunk. Trees with this condition are typically weak nut producers and often suffer from significant limb loss. As I work with growers to improve their native groves,...

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Feral Hogs in the Grove

Feral hogs are among the most destructive invasive species that agriculture producers face and can be a major issue for pecan growers. The most obvious damage that hogs cause in pecan areas is damage to the ground that interferes with harvest and general management. While this destruction can be costly and time-consuming, one often-overlooked consideration...

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Thinking About Scab at Harvest Time

By mid-September, the limbs of our native trees were bending down under the weight of an excellent nut crop. But it wasn’t until the leaves fell in early November that I could really see the size and quality of the 2015 crop. Back in 2012, extended drought shrank the size of our native nuts causing...

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Dawn of Another Native Harvest Season

The dawn of a new harvest season is upon us; in fact, the varmints have already captured those early maturing native pecans. More times than not, they get them long before we even know they are ready. What a crazy year it has been again — starting off wet, almost too wet in some areas,...

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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...

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Building Pecan Weevil Circle Traps

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...

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Bluefford Hancock – Pecans were his true love

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...

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Has rain washed away the pecan crop?

As I sit down to write this article, the spring season is coming to an end. Catkins have come and gone, and most trees are finished shedding pollen for the year. Normally, I would have spent the last couple of months watching my wife and kids suffer through another miserable allergy season in Louisiana. But...

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Tools to help determine a thinning plan

Mature tree removal is one of the most critical and difficult management decisions that a pecan grower has to make particularly in native groves. It is often very difficult for a producer to cut down a large tree. Sometimes this difficulty arises from an emotional connection to a tree and other times it can be...

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Native Pecan Management During an “On” Year

In many native pecan groves, 2014 was a short crop year. A late spring frost in April 2014 damaged emerging buds and limited pistillate flower production. Then, just as the harvest season began, the weather turned crazy. We started with snow in early November then had periodic rain and snow storms during much of the...

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C-hican-ery

While I write this, we are in the midst of an election. Never-ending political ads blur the television screen and radio waves. Ceaseless mud-slinging and overt bashing of opponents is seemingly the only way races are played out in the public these days. It’s enough to make your eyes and ears bleed. Yes, 2014 is...

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Crop is good but varmints lurk

Whew! Looks like we are going to make it! Yes, as harvest begins it appears that the crop is going to be good despite the weather challenges. Many growers related that they were not sure they could make another season if it didn’t rain soon last year (2013) and even though there has been a...

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Marketing for the small pecan grower

Over the past few years, the U.S. pecan industry has seen continual growth and strengthening in the export market. Some credit has to be attributed to USDA programs that support American producers and businesses. Specialty Crop research grants and state Block Grants, crop insurance, and Foreign Agricultural Service marketing programs have all helped to strengthen...

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Review of Bunch Disease in Pecan

During the Oklahoma Pecan Growers’ orchard tour during the last conference, we looked at several pecan trees that exhibited signs of bunch disease. Producers asked several questions about this disease during the field tour and I have received several questions since. There is not a significant amount of information regarding bunch disease in pecan. The...

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Impacts of grazing cattle in a pecan grove

One of the most common forms of ground cover management in native pecan groves is to pasture cattle (Fig. 1). Grazing offers 2 advantages for a pecan producer: a second source of income from the same parcel of land (pecans + beef) and a significant reduction in orchard mowing costs. The grazing of animals under...

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Exercise caution with weed, brush control

Unexpected rains have been nice across much of the state; that, coupled with a very heavy bloom in native pecan bottoms, is cause for optimism even though a late freeze greatly reduced the crop load in some areas. However, pecan nut casebearer has been quite low to non-existent in many areas. So theoretically we should...

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Did you forget about the FSMA?

Everyone has to do it. Papers pile up on your desk for a few weeks and you have to take some time to straighten up your mess before you get buried under it. As I was sorting through a rather large pile of Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) materials, I realized it had been over...

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The Power of Association

As I write this, the Southeastern Pecan Growers Association annual convention is going on in Biloxi, Mississippi. Unfortunately, I can’t make it but I’m sure it will be a successful event. The opportunity for growers to get together and discuss pecan production practices is always enlightening. The education received is invaluable. Another important aspect is...

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Natural limb pruning

When visitors come to this corner of Southeast Kansas and walk in the shade of our native pecan groves, they are most often impressed by the enormous size of the trees. One of the first questions that always pops into a visitors head is: “How do you prune these huge trees?” I explain that the...

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Can’t find a tree to buy? Grow your own!

Has anyone tried to buy a pecan tree lately? You almost need to hire a private investigator to track one down for you. I’ve been receiving numerous inquiries from growers frustrated with their search for the appropriate variety on the right rootstock. Because of the explosion in new pecan acreage the last few years, nurseries...

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A Good Year to Mark Trees

The hot dry summers of 2011 and 2012 had a major impact on native pecan size and quality. In my area of Kansas, the dry weather shrank nuts down to about three quarters their normal weight. Fortunately, we received just enough late-summer rain during both years to promote full kernel development. By harvest, we were...

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A Season of Extremes

While growing up in Texas, I was used to hearing the phrase “If you don’t like the weather in Texas, wait five minutes — it’ll change!” A similar statement is credited to the legendary Will Rogers, “If you don’t like the weather in Oklahoma, wait a minute and it’ll change.” However, this summer many pecan...

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Fire and Pecan Trees

Recently I read about the enormous fires that were burning in Colorado. I’ve visited that area of the state a few times and always found it fascinating. When I was younger I was in Yellowstone National Park when the historic fires burned there. Fire definitely has a way of changing the ecological landscape. It has...

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The wind has ripped out one half of a narrow-angled branch connection from a large native tree.

Identifying causes for trunk injuries

It’s mid-summer and there’s not much to do in the native grove except for clipping the ground cover. The other day I noticed a large limb had been ripped out of a native tree by the wind (Fig. 1). I thought to myself—“now that mess will be a hot job to clean up”. If you...

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Pesticide Drift Affecting Pecan Trees

With twin 5-year-old girls in the house, it is a pretty common occurrence for me to be reading a children’s book, including nursery rhymes. Most parents have probably read the poem: March winds and April showers bring forth May flowers. It’s a cute little poem, but after working in agriculture the last few years, a...

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New food safety regs on the horizon

As I sit down to write this article for Pecan South, we’ve just finished up the holiday season and the kids have started school again. It’s a new year and I was pondering the idea of actually choosing a new novel to read over the next few weeks, something I haven’t had the time to...

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The Diverse World of Hickory

If you are reading this then I assume you know that pecans (Carya illinoensis) are in the hickory family. Pecans are also the “high point” of the family in terms of economic importance. However, there are several other species that might have some value as well if some time and effort was put into their...

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Dry weather lessons

The nuts produced in the northern portions of the pecan tree’s native range are known for having bright, high-quality kernels that provide the food industry with great tasting ‘topper-halves’. However, northern natives are not renowned for their large nut size. Over the past couple of years, region-wide droughts have had a major impact on our...

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2012: the year the minors went major

As I write this article, we are at the beginning of another pecan harvest season. ‘Pawnee’, ‘Candy’ and ‘Kanza’ have all initiated shucksplit before Sept. 1, 2012. Therefore much of a grower’s time over the next few weeks will be devoted to getting equipment ready to go out into the orchard. However, try to find...

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pecan trees affected by drought in Oklahoma

Pecan Trees: Coping With the Drought

During 2011 Oklahoma and Texas endured a severe drought resulting in major agricultural losses. The losses from the continued drought conditions of 2012 could be as equally significant if adequate rainfall does not occur. Drought conditions cause extreme stress on pecan trees. Water is critical for tree survival and nut production and is involved in...

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Weevils in their native environment

Weevil is the number one pest native pecan growers must learn to manage. Every time I think I’ve discovered the magic formula for completely stopping pecan weevil damage, nature throws me a curveball and I end up pulling weevil-damaged nuts off the cleaning table. It seems that managing pecan weevil in a native pecan grove may be...

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A list of some pecan varieties originating from Mississippi.

Don’t Call it a Comeback…

The last time I wrote an article I was in Oklahoma. Since then I have moved to Mississippi State University. My position is similar, but some change in crops of major interest. Pecan growers, however, were one of the first groups to latch onto me. You see, just like everyone else in the U.S. the...

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Water covers the ground in a native pecan grove.

Working on Field Drainage

Last summer’s searing heat and bone dry conditions are still fresh in the minds of native pecan growers from Texas up through Kansas. However, it will not stay dry forever. The rains will return and we’ll soon be talking about cleaning up after a flood in the pecan grove. The fact is we can do...

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Native Treasures

During 2010 over 45 million pounds of native pecans were harvested in the United States. This production had a value of over $60 million dollars. With an estimated one million acres of native pecan timber, there is a huge potential to increase farm income from managing these trees. Often times, native producers do nothing to...

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Taking On More Natives

One thing’s certain in the pecan business. When pecan prices spike, more people get interested in managing native pecan trees. Drive through any native pecan area and you can find stands of trees that look to have potential for profitable pecan production. But looks can be deceiving. Some of these native stands were abandoned for...

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Aw Shucks! This Season Just Ain’t Normal

The last article I wrote discussed the flowering process in pecans and the different nut drop stages a grower could expect to observe through the spring and summer months. Now that we’ve managed to keep part of the crop on the trees until September, I thought we would spend some time discussing the effects of...

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Rambling on and Pondering Pecan Nuts

As an Extension specialist, I need to be pretty good at observation. I must be able to look at a problem, diagnose it, and file it in my memory for the next opportunity. I also watch people and observe their habits. For example, I listen to what someone talks about, even if it has nothing...

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Water and Native Pecans

Out here in the middle of the country, we’ve been under a dome of high pressure for weeks. Daily temperatures soar above 100 degrees and the sun is baking the field dry. It is even starting to get dry in our native pecan groves. At this point, even atheists are praying for rain. As most...

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How Will Weather Affect This Year’s Crop?

If you search on the internet for pecan pollination, you will generally find that pecan is referred to as a wind-pollinated, monoecious crop exhibiting heterodichogamy. What does that mean? Simply that pecan trees produce separate male and female flowers that mature at different times. When pollen is shed before the female flowers are receptive, the...

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Old Grove, New Potential

Last year over 45 million pounds of native pecans were harvested in the United States worth over $60 million dollars. The good prices from the past year have generated a lot of interest in pecan production. I receive several calls each week from folks wanting to get into the pecan business and benefit from these...

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The Other Pecan Product

The 2010 pecan crop set new records for prices paid to the producers of native pecans. With high prices comes renewed interest in developing new or long-time abandoned native pecan groves. Over the past few months, I’ve spent a lot of time working with landowners ready to get rich in the pecan game (oh, if...

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The Importance Of Good Soil

Another year has passed us by and I’m sure you’ve heard or read many reflections on the events of 2010. As I sit here, pondering the last year’s pecan season, the overriding message has got to be “Wow, what a difference a year makes!!” Last year (January 2010) we were lamenting over the fact that...

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Know Thine Enemy

In the book, “The Art of War” by Sun-Tzu Wu, a very famous phrase was used – “know thine enemy”. I’m not sure whether this is a direct translation or just paraphrasing (my Chinese translation skills are seriously lacking), but the meaning is that the better one understands an adversary the better chance one has...

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Native Trees Recover from Ice Storm Damage

The older I get, the more respect I have for the durability of our native groves. Wind, floods, drought, freezing temperatures, and ice storms have all pummeled our native groves. But following every natural disaster, native groves recover and grow back into productivity. Sure, we lose some trees along the way, but our younger native...

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Wildlife Can Take Significant Toll on Pecan Crop

Pecan groves seem to be a common gathering place for a variety of wildlife.  Often times, individuals find this visually appealing when in fact wildlife gathering in these areas can become quite a nuisance. The damage resulting from wildlife inhabitation can be divided into three areas:  tree injury, nut injury, and cashing. Tree injury occurs when the...

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Native Disease Management

Ever since the 2007 Easter freeze, it seems like we have had to re-adjust our thinking about pest management in native pecans, at least in the northern portion of the native pecan range. It seems like the freezing temperatures in the spring of 2007 not only destroyed all the emerging new shoots on our trees,...

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Native Crop Looks Good in Texas So Far

It is with a great deal of sadness and respect that I note the passing of Belding Farms pecan grower extraordinaire, Mr. Jim Bennett. The first time I visited Belding Farms I was not only intrigued with the trees, but the size of the operation and the smoothness with which it ran due to Mr....

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Successfully Managing Native Pecans Can Be Challenging

One of the most challenging aspects of pecan production is managing the native pecan grove. Native pecan groves are unique since no two native trees or orchards are alike. Since these differences exist, each grove must be managed differently. To successfully manage a native grove, a producer should take a holistic approach when evaluating the...

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A Walk In The Grove

It was a long cold winter. When the weather finally broke with a warm spell in mid-March, I decided to enjoy a moment of warm sunshine to walk the grove. This has become a sort of annual tradition with me, looking over the trees and reflecting on all the things we did right and all...

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Pecan Graftwood Collection

Have you ever found a native tree that produced great, flavorful nuts every year and wanted to make more of them? Do you have a lot of native pecan trees that produce few or poor nuts and wished you could switch them to another variety? Well, all of that is possible and late winter to...

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