We have nearly reached November and so far, the pecan harvest has been disappointing for most producers. The issues (light loads, pops, and stick-tights) we were seeing for early varieties like Pawnee, Creek, and Oconee have continued into our mid season and later varieties. Most growers are reporting a lot of B grade nuts blown out in the cleaning plant, making wagon loads much lighter than they appeared leaving the orchards. We are seeing this across the entire state. Later varieties like Stuart are showing some delayed shuck split, especially in orchards in which growers have shut off the irrigation too early. The issues we are facing are the result of three different factors–1) excessive summer rain, leading to scab in some places and conditioning trees to ample soil moisture availability through much of the season, 2) Cloudy conditions throughout summer, and 3) Extreme drought since mid August. I wrote about these issue in my last blog a few weeks ago (https://site.extension.uga.edu/pecan/2025/10/pecan-harvest-update-hot-dry-conditions-following-kernel-fill-can-lead-to-pecan-problems/).
It is this latter factor (drought) that is currently wreaking the most havoc. It is imperative that growers continue to irrigate trees under these conditions until they are just a few days away from shaking. It may be too late in this process for some orchards but in the absence of significant rainfall (an inch or more), continued irrigation will be the only way to get these nuts open. The cooler temperatures this week probably helped matters some but if it warms up again and the trees do not get sufficient soil moisture to generate shuck split, there is a strong possibility of sprouting (vivipary).
Even growers who have continued to irrigate are seeing these problems. This is because irrigation only covers a small percentage of the tree’s root system and the uptake efficiency of the trees has also declined since mid September due to the trees’ physiology. We have experienced warm, dry fall conditions in the past but they are particularly troublesome this year because the rainfall most orchards received throughout the summer had trees conditioned to ample water availability throughout the entire feeder root area. Now that things have turned dry, the trees are searching for the water they need, some of those feeder roots are declining or dying (this is a normal process) where the irrigation does not cover and the remaining roots are having to feed the tree what moisture it can get. This generates shock on the tree and leads to the potential problems we see during warm, dry fall conditions being amplified. There is only so much growers can do under such a situation.
But again, I cannot stress enough the importance of irrigating to get the shucks open where they are still closed. Be sure to continue irrigation 7-8 hrs every other day until the trees are a few days away from shaking. It is critically important under these conditions.
