Harvesting the 'on year' pecans
News from the Farm
Mark Crosby

On Sunday afternoon, I was in my front yard picking up pecans. This is the first crop of nuts that my Stewart pecan trees have dropped in four or five years. The quality is very good considering the size of the crop and the weather of the past several years.

In early spring of this year, I received a newsletter from Lenny Wells, UGA Extension Agronomist for pecan production. One of the articles was titled Preparing for an "On" Year of Pecan Production. As I was picking up my pecans, I began to wonder exactly what Mr. Wells knew and how he was able to tell in advance that 2007 would be a good year for Georgia pecans.

Lenny began his article with the following quote "With last years short crop and relatively good growing conditions, including good soil moisture from mid August to mid September, we should be set up for a pretty good crop in 2007."

The first idea to be gleaned from that quote is that last years growing conditions greatly influenced this year's crop. In most of Georgia, last years crop was a total disaster and very few nuts were set or reached maturity. Experienced pecan producers know that pecan trees tend to set flowers on terminals where there had been no pecans the year before. Therefore, there was lots of space in 2007 for pecans to set.

The second important item in the quote was associated with August through September rainfall. If soil moisture is adequate during this approximate 30 day period, the trees will develop more fruiting buds and less vegetative buds. In most of Georgia, we had adequate moisture during those months. In the 30 day period that began August 15th, 2006, weather stations in our area averaged 4.98 inches of rainfall. (Dublin-5.27 inches; Midville- 2.65 inches; Sandersville- 8.2 inches and Statesboro- 3.83 inches)

Together, adequate, timely rainfall and last year's small crop load helped us have a very good crop in 2007. In some cases, the crop was so heavy that the fruit load broke many large branches out of trees.

What does that say about next years crop? The signals are mixed. The four weather stations mentioned above had rainfall totals of 5.3 inches in the 30 days following August 15th of 2007. Once again some farms received over 8 inches while some only received 2 inches. Therefore some dryland trees and some irrigated trees may set a decent crop in 2008.

If your trees set a crop heavy enough to break limbs, 2008 may be another poor crop year for you. This will be associated with a lower flower bud count. But we do have two things in our favor. Insect and disease pressure was very low this year. Maybe this will equate to more pecans next year.

Homeowners with pecan trees need to keep in mind that they can help their trees maximize their fruiting potential by providing adequate fertilizer in mid- February through mid- March and providing supplemental water during the growing year. For more information on pecan production, call the Emanuel County Extension Office at 237-1226.--Mark Crosby is director of Emanuel County Extension Service.

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