With budbreak on the move, I’ve fielded questions the last couple days about the potential effects of the upcoming cold weather on pecans. Many varieties and locations are just beginning to see a little budbreak while others are a little further along. Usually you have to get down to 28 degrees or less for several hours in order to seriously damage green pecan tissue. If you are not seeing budbreak on your trees yet there is no real concern anyway, except possibly on young trees, which could suffer freeze damage if temps dip low enough for a long enough period of time. If you have trunk protectors on the tree you should be fine given the temps that are expected.
Forecasted lows for most areas South of Highway 280 are 33 degrees or more, so those areas should not see any problems. Ft. Valley is forecast for 32 degrees and should be fine. Areas North and East will see the coldest temperatures with forecasts of 30 for Sparta and Athens and 31 for Midville, so in all it appears that we will escape any serious harm from the cold snap if these NOAA forecasts hold up.
