Weevil management strategy important in native pecans

Growers of native pecans are well aware of the need to manage the pecan weevil (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) for prevention of unacceptable infestations of weevil larvae in harvested nuts. Previously, I reported on the dynamics of pecan weevil populations in the Mount orchard of 300 acres of non-irrigated river-bottom populated with about 3,000 native pecan trees...

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Orchard renovation: Thurman Gibson

Forty years ago, when I was just a young new horticulturist with Texas A&M, I received a phone call from Glenn Huddleston, Anderson County Extension Agent, asking if I would help him and a grower decide what to do with a 60-year-old orchard that had not been managed for over 20 years. The answer was...

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Cold storage totals 310 million

Pecans in cold storage at the end of March 2014 included 50 million pounds of shelled meats and almost 200 million pounds of inshell pecans. When these two numbers are converted to an inshell total, the inshell equivalent of 310 million pounds remained in cold storage inventories throughout the U.S. That compares with 313 million...

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Casting Shadows

Pecan trees grow every year according to their overall health and growing environment. The gains in the growth of young trees that are one to five or six years old are usually quite obvious, with branches sometimes adding two or more feet of length in one growing season. They add height to their central leader...

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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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U.S. Pecans probes European market at Alimentaria

In an effort to enhance pecan exports to Europe, the National Pecan Growers Council participated in the Alimentaria Trade Show in Barcelona, Spain for the first time in April. Those volunteers who represented U.S. Pecans at this show included Helen Watts of Young Pecan Co., Rett Salopek of 6U Farms in Las Cruces, New Mexico,...

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