Environmental

  • Freezing Temperatures Damage Pecan Trees

    An early budbreak just prior to last weekend’s freezing temperatures has caused damage to the developing buds of early pecan varieties. Below are some photos of budbreak on Cape Fear pecans taken in Crisp County on Friday afternoon. Elliott buds in the same orchard were also open. Budbreak occurs from the bottom up, so most…

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  • After a couple of weeks of 80 degree temperatures we are facing low temperatures in the mid 20s this weekend. Forecasts call for temps anywhere from 25 degrees to 28 degrees from middle Georgia down to Valdosta. Temps further north in the Athens area may get down to 23 degrees. What does this mean for…

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  • A Short Crop Gets Shorter

    The never-ending array of challenges each pecan crop presents continues with the 2021 pecan crop. From the beginning this year’s crop has appeared late and short. The intermittently cold spring pushed budbreak back and greatly slowed the progression of foliage expansion, and thus flowering and crop development by at least 10 days. This may have…

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  • It seems pecan trees are lagging behind this year. Well, what is going on exactly and what does this mean? The timing of pecan budbreak and fruit set is determined by a combination of chill hours accumulated in the dormant season and heat units accumulated in spring. If we have a cold winter and accumulate…

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  • The temperatures over the Easter weekend dipped down a little further than forecast in a few areas in the state. April 3 saw the lowest temps of the weekend. While temps in Ft. Valley area reached 32, there were low lying areas that dropped down to as low as 26 degrees. UGA weather stations in…

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  • Shuck Decline

    Growers are starting to see symptoms of shuck decline in the orchard. Symptoms range from shucks turning all the way black to the tips green shucks turning black and peeling back at the suture. In some cases, kernels are black and in other cases, there is no kernel. The degree of declining shucks is different…

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  • Shuck Decline I’ve had a number of calls so far this week and the end of last week asking “when is it ok to turn off the water?”. You can usually cut way back at this point. The problem is that we are in a severe drought, which makes it very risky to stop irrigating,…

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