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...
Read moreNew Mexico State University Expands Pecan Research as Region Expands Production
Pecans, like people, are moving to the Southwest. According to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, New Mexico and Arizona accounted for a mere 4 percent of U.S. pecan production in the mid-1970s. As a result of steady growth in production, the percentage had blossomed to more than 28 percent a third of a century...
Read moreU.S. Pecans on Hand for Sial China Trade Show
The U.S. Pecans effort to promote the export of pecans was focused on China May 18-20 when 4 representatives manned a booth at the large annual SIAL China trade show in Shanghai. Cindy Wise of the Texas Pecan Growers Association, Bob Whaley of Whaley Pecan Co. in Alabama, grower Mike Spradling of Oklahoma and grower/sheller...
Read morePush Young Trees in Early Summer
Pecan orchard establishment can be slow or fast depending on soil type, depth, irrigation, weed control, zinc sprays, nitrogen fertilization and pruning. With the increased interest in pecans as a cash crop, there are many new plantings. Not all trees will grow; some will actually die while others will make tremendous growth. The main idea...
Read moreThat “Next” Generation of Pecan Nut Casebearer
So far I would say that the 2011 season has gotten off to a difficult and rough start with the drought, high diesel and gas prices, a lighter than expected crop (from what I have seen so far) and pecan nut casebearer showing up a bit early. Given the higher than average temperatures during March...
Read morePecan Culture – Observations and Uncertainties
After more than 30 years of growing pecans in Osage County, Oklahoma, I have discovered that the more I learned about pecan culture, the more I found out that I didn’t know. Such is the case with many subjects! My orchard is about 10 miles east of Ponca City, Oklahoma. I purchased the land in...
Read moreWe Can’t Predict Which Pecan Cultivars Will Scab – Or Can We?
Perhaps the question should be “We can’t predict which cultivars not exhibiting scab now will scab badly pretty soon – or can we?” Certainly we can predict which cultivars will scab, simply by placing them in many locations in many states with many strains of the fungus where incidence is high and not masking the...
Read moreViews on the 2011 Crop
In reviewing the farms that I manage, it appears that we have a good crop coming on. We are yet to get through the “June drop” so things can still change but terminal counts and observations support an estimate for our orchards that is consistent with our production in 2009 and 2010. To extrapolate that...
Read moreTexas Pecan IPM Team Wins Superior Service Award
COLLEGE STATION – The Texas AgriLife Extension Service’s Pecan Integrated Pest Management team has been awarded the Superior Service Award. The nine-member team was recognized for “their work in developing and implementing a program that has culminated in a computerized information delivery system to provide real-time information to pecan growers throughout Texas and other pecan...
Read moreClimate Changes Contributing To Orchard Decline
After decades of pecan farming in central Texas, I have begun to see major changes in my orchard, which makes it more difficult to conduct seasonal activities like spraying, etc. My educational background is in engineering and meteorology, and as I began to read more and more of the scientific research about the earth’s changing...
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