U.S. Pecans team travels north to promote, change perceptions
The U.S. Pecans team led another trade mission to Canada and into a market where customers are familiar with pecans, but there is still work to be done. The team included Janice Dees from the Georgia Pecan Growers Association, Olivia Carver from the Western Pecan Growers Association and Blair Krebs from the Texas Pecan Growers...
Read morePesticide 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...
Read moreMany pecan questions remain
Many have grown, worked and studied pecans for 100 years with change coming with each generation. In the last 40 years, a dramatic change has occurred yet many questions continue and new production systems will come. Here are some of our major concerns. Alternate bearing has and will continue to bring unstable prices and profits...
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Retirement Hobby Fires Up R.G. Box
Blacksmith artist R.G. Box of Lubbock, Texas, is pondering the possibility of creating a pecan tree. Considering the fact that he has already made a 6-foot roadrunner, an entire tree is certainly within the realm of possibility and his capability. But to date, his pecan work in the forge has been smaller projects like limbs...
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New plantings growing tall in Georgia
Take a drive around South and Middle Georgia and one cannot help but notice the amount of new pecan tree plantings and development in the pecan industry. New growers are joining the pecan industry and experienced growers are making the most of the development and planting new trees. Along with the planting, other services, such...
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Pecan weevil population dynamics in an Oklahoma native orchard
A recent review of the biology and management of the pecan weevil (Mulder et al. 2012) indicates that weevil population density estimates are critical to economic management. During the past 13 years, I had the opportunity to estimate densities of pecan weevil populations in a non-irrigated, river-bottom native orchard of approximately 300 acres and 3,000...
Read moreMechanical crop thinning in the West
Pecan crop load management can be done in several ways. Hedging reduces crop in the short-term on the trees that are hedged. Since hedging is done routinely in the West, my discussion will focus more on crop load management by mechanical crop thinning. In this method, pioneered by Mike Smith, Ph.D., and others in Oklahoma...
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