Lenny Wells

  • Irrigation Schedule for Pecan Production

    Intense heat has arrived in South Georgia this week with daily high temperatures in the upper 90’s . This occurs as nuts are sizing and the water demand for pecan trees begins to increase. Up to June pecan trees benefit from irrigation but only need a fraction of the amount they require as the crop…

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  • Update on UGA Extension Pecan Hotline

    UGA Extension Entomologist, Dr. Will Hudson has informed me of on-going technical problems with the Pecan Hotline. Dr. Hudson’s update for the hotline on June 15, 2015 follows: The weather has settled into a pretty normal pattern after a very dry May. In my yard we got less than a quarter inch of rain for…

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  • Many of you may have noticed pecan trees with wart-like galls on the leaves. This is the result of feeding by an aphid-like insect called phylloxera, which causes rapid and abnormal growth of young leaf tissue to surround and enclose the female (called a stem mother). Based on the calls I’ve had and observations in the…

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  • Irrigating Young Pecan Trees

      Young pecan trees require two key ingredients for establishment; 1) water and 2) elimination of weed competition. There is no published data on required irrigation amounts for young pecan trees that I have been able to find. So, we began a study in 2014 to determine this for trees grown under Southeastern U.S. conditions. Looking at trees…

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  • ‘Desirable’ Bark Flaking Off

    I get calls every year about ‘Desirable’ pecan trees on which the bark is peeling off or sloughing off in large chunks. While it occurs on other cultivars, this is a common occurrence and yet another quirk of ‘Desirable’. When trees grow in diameter the older, outside bark can’t stretch. This is why, on younger…

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  • The American Pecan Board has released a draft of the Federal marketing order for pecans. It can be found at the link below: Draft Federal Marketing Order for Pecans Hearings regarding the Federal Marketing Order will be held in Texas, New Mexico, and Georgia in July 2015.

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  • Desirable Leaf Drop “Again”

    I’ve had a few calls in the last day or so regarding the dropping of leaves from ‘Desirable’ trees. This is an annual occurrence and is a physiological condition we see more pronounced when there is a fast change in environmental conditions as we’ve seen recently with a shift from cool and wet to hot and…

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