Lenny Wells
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I just returned from the National Pecan Shellers’ Association Annual Meeting in Seattle, Washington where New Mexico State Pecan Specialist, Richard Heerema and I gave a presentation on the cost of pecan production. Under the growing conditions we faced in 2013 and at the beginning of 2014, the cost of production rises rapidly as a result of the…
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Nut development has accelerated rapidly over the last 2 weeks. Shuck split began on ‘Pawnee’ over the weekend in south Georgia, which means harvest of that variety will probably begin in 2 1/2 to 3 weeks. This means that nut maturity is still about 10 days or so behind normal. The calendar date of nut…
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The Georgia Pecan Growers Association’s Annual Fall Field Day will be held Thursday, September 4, 2014 at the UGA Tifton Campus Ponder Research Farm. Registration will begin at 8:30 and the program starts at 9:30. Topics covered include pecan insect management, pecan scab management, cultural practices, and cultivars. Admission is free to GPGA members. Registration…
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You may be seeing a significant amount of nut drop at the moment on certain varieties. This will usually be water stage fruit split at this time of year. Water stage fruit-split of pecan is often a major problem exhibited by thin-shelled pecan varieties (e.g., Schley, Caddo, Oconee, Sumner, ‘Wichita’, ‘Frotcher’, and ‘Farley’) and, to a…
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Some early pecan varieties have reached shell hardening and others are rapidly approaching. This means that the water use requirements of pecan are about at peak demand and will remain so through kernel filling. Therefore growers should have their irrigation systems running at full capacity at least by next week for most mid-season varieties like…
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Pecan production, like any type of farming, is a continuous battle, but it doesn’t matter how much hard work a grower puts into growing pecans if they slack off in August and allow the many stresses that plague the trees to get ahead of them. Many of these stresses will affect the following year’s crop…
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Black aphids can be one of the most difficult pecan pests to manage because they often slip in, do their damage, and are gone before you know they are there. For this reason, they require pretty intensive scouting on susceptible varieties like Schley, Sumner, Oconee, and Gloria Grande. Anyone growing these varieties probably needs to…
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