Pecans

[H20fwler]

A good friend of mine has a very large very old pecan tree in his front yard. I never have had any experience with pecans, after researching them some they sounded pretty cool.
A couple years ago my friend gave me nuts from his, I planted some in my nursery garden and direct seeded the rest along the woods.
Well five trees grew from the garden, three pretty good ones.
In July I moved the nice three out to the new place. I should have moved them in spring when they were still dormant but was just to lazy and to busy moving everything we own out to the new house.
I cut them back pretty hard the roots and tops. Two are doing pretty good but no new growth, the third definitely got root shock and has been slowly dropping leaves for two months even with me trying to baby it.

Here is one of the two good ones.


The pecan trees make a lot of sense to me , I know the mother tree of these really puts on a lot of nuts every few years that are thin shelled and tasty…and it is a late dropper around end of November. I’m thinking deer and everything else should really go for them.
I ordered three more bare root from the Arbor Foundation to plant over at the other farm.

Does anyone else put out pecan trees?
Do the deer and other wildlife eat up the nuts?
Any specific things I should be doing to raise these right?
How has your experience with them been?

 

[Catscratch]

I contacted a forester about planting walnuts for logging. Was told that what ya read on the internet about being able to harvest in 30yrs is actually more like 80yrs. He then strongly suggested pecans as a money maker. They can be logged at some point but until then the nuts sell very well. I didn't plant either. Cows seems to be the best long term investment to profit land.

 

[OakSeeds]

Make sure you plant them so that the crown of the tree in 20 years (for your sons) does not reach within 12-15 feet of the crown of another tree. Then, when they begin producing pecans, make sure you build a squirrel proof guard to place on the tree trunk by Aug 20 (removal at a later date each year). Otherwise, squirrels will eat you out of house and home and pecans. Leave one tree unguarded, sit one morning a week under that tree with the firearm of your choice and you can have all the squirrel and gravy you like.

 

[Triple C]

Built our retirement home on an old farmstead with about a dozen very mature pecan trees and 2 massive walnut trees. Beautiful to look at. But I don't like em. Pick up limbs after every storm and mowing is a nightmare with the nuts from both trees.

 

[b116757]

I have them naturally on my home place very poor nut production in a timber setting. My open field grown trees produce well some years and the deer will eat them. I do not plant them in my deer orchards however. I have planted a few grafted varieties of paper shell as much for people use as for the critters. I do wish I’d of planted the grafted ones sooner.

 

[SwampCat]

I have quite a few native pecans - smaller nut probably than what you have. I think everything eats them - squirrels to hogs - crows may be the worst.

 

[The Fishman]

You will probably need to graft the seedlings you have planted if you want thin shelled pecans. You will also need a different variety to pollinate each other. You could use your friend's tree as a source of scion wood. It helps if your friend knows what variety he has so you can match up another variety as a pollen source. I found several pollination charts for southern pecan varieties, but you will need to find one for northern pecans. Your local extension office may be able to help if you cannot find one online.

As OakSeeds stated, you will need to protect the trees from squirrels or you and the deer will never see a ripe pecan. Squirrels will get into the trees night and day several weeks before the pecans ripen and clean the trees before the pecans ever think about dropping naturally. The squirrels will either eat them or knock them out of the tree.

 

[b116757]

Pecan orchards are often planted on a 40’ grid giving the mature trees room for full crowns.

 

[b116757]

I ordered my grafted trees from Ison’s and was satisfied with their quality.

Pecan Archives - Ison's Nursery & Vineyard

We are now taking orders for Pecan Trees. We will begin shipping them in January. Please Note: When you order online your cc will be charged immediately. For delayed billing call (800) 733-0324 & order by phone. *** Pecan Trees generally ship from January through April *** *** We ship to colder...

www.isons.com

 

[H20fwler]

I appreciate the pecan feedback. I’m kind of surprised that there isn’t more interest in pecans I don’t read much about them on here.
In my area they are very uncommon to see and I was surprised they could thrive this far north.
The wood lots here are mostly hardwoods oaks/walnuts/hickory’s being the dominant trees.

I’m not worried about them being a dirtier tree, they kind of sound like hickories. I guess most nut trees are a pain if in or close to someones yard. I plan on using them more as an edge tree along woods or a few as an ad on in the shrub strips.
For me having squirrels go after them isn’t necessarily a bad thing I like squirrel hunting and have two young grandsons that will be after those as their #1 target in a few years. I’m all about any tree or shrub that is a benefit to wildlife and the properties. I was thinking that as thin as the shells are that deer might eat them too.
Always looking to ad new links to the food chain on our farms and I like the late fall early winter drop time of northern pecans.

 

[b116757]

The nuts you planted will not be the same thin shells as the parent tree most likely that is why pecan orchards use grafted trees same as with apple seedling trees. My native pecan trees are not really thin shelled and the deer will eat them but they will work over acorns way before ever fooling with pecans this is why I don’t really utilize them in wildlife plantings. Also pecan trees will generally grow to be massive specimens some of the grafted trees maybe smaller but nuts planted will likely be huge trees at some point. I’m not trying to discourage you planting some pecans but I’d probably focus on other nuts trees for the majority of your plantings with a few pecans mixed in for diversity.

 

[SwampCat]

These are native pecans - big trees.

 

[H20fwler]

The nuts you planted will not be the same thin shells as the parent tree most likely that is why pecan orchards use grafted trees same as with apple seedling trees. My native pecan trees are not really thin shelled and the deer will eat them but they will work over acorns way before ever fooling with pecans this is why I don’t really utilize them in wildlife plantings. Also pecan trees will generally grow to be massive specimens some of the grafted trees maybe smaller but nuts planted will likely be huge trees at some point. I’m not trying to discourage you planting some pecans but I’d probably focus on other nuts trees for the majority of your plantings with a few pecans mixed in for diversity.

Good info.
The mother tree is a huge tree.

I’ve got lots of different oaks that are all native, did ad a lot of pin oaks to my strips 8-9 years ago also lots of chestnuts and hazelnuts. In the last two years I’ve direct seeded some English oaks and chinquapin oaks in strips and around edges of woods.

 

[H20fwler]

This has me thinking out loud now.
Question on the thin shelled maybe not being true to the mother tree...if there are only two pecan trees in my friends yard and both are thin shelled no others for miles, the seedling tree from nuts off them may not be?

And that makes me wonder about apples. If I have an orchard full of Honey Crisp only with no other apple trees around for miles and miles would the seedling apples trees from those still be Honey Crisp with just a different tree shape owing to not being a certain grafted rootstock? Or do they revert back to single traits of one of the cross parent trees from Honey Gold/Golden Delicious/Macoun that were crossed to make the honey crisp?
Would the same be true of an orchard full of a non crossed variety? If there is such a thing, maybe Winter Pearmain or something like that?

 

[H20fwler]

View attachment 57791
These are native pecans - big trees.

Nice pic!!!! The deer in your area sure seem to like pecans.
Do they drop late down there like they do up here? Up here they drop end of Nov through Dec so I thought it being after the local acorn drop they could possibly be a draw?

 

[SwampCat]

Normally, they drop around Nov 1

 

[bigbendmarine]

One of the first tree species I planted when I moved to my current place 10 years ago.

I planted 24 trees -- a dozen on each side of my driveway. Hard to see as don't think they'd leafed out yet in the satellite photo I'm sharing (and it's 2 years old), but they're planted with 50 foot spacing in the areas I marked in orange.



Few observations, and some points relative to the other tree species I planted...

A few of the pecans HAVE produced a handful of nuts in under 10 years but sure not bumper crops. In fairness to the pecans, that's also true for the Chinese chestnuts and sawtooth oaks I planted -- they're producing now but not yet bumper crops.

Most of the trees you can see planted in parallel rows in the photo that AREN'T in the orange boxes are sawtooth oaks. The sawtooths definitely have grown the fastest, with some having calipers of approximately 8 or so inches and heights I'm guessing are approaching 30 feet, and worth noting I planted them a year or two after the pecans.

Though far from being the tree with the largest growth, the most mast I've actually gotten from any species planted ABSOLUTELY is Kieffer pears. Planted them around the same time as the sawtooths, and though the trees are modest in size half of the Keiifer pears I planted have been LOADED with baseball to softball-sized pears the past two years. Sure not the prettiest tree in the world, and branches are prone to breaking when overloaded... but good gosh, they put out the fruit. Took these pictures yesterday and that's with half or so of the pears having already dropped.





Don't regret planting any of the species that I planted, but am glad I went with multiple different types of nut and fruit trees as each has its pros and cons.

 

[bigbendmarine]

One additional note on my pecan plantings... I did plant several different varieties for pollination purposes though can't recall varieties off the top of my head (and recommended varieties DEFINITELY are dependent on location so my North FL ones wouldn't likely be the same for your area anyway).

This link speaks to the benefit of using varieties from two different types of pecans relative to pollination timing. I also have lots of wild native pecans nearby, so it may have been overkill to plant the multiple varieties but I wanted to maximize odds of nut production as much as possible.

https://www.plantmegreen.com/pages/pecan-trees-pollinator-type

 

[SwampCat]

My native pecans have a bumper crop this year. Look like they are going to drop a little earlier than normal. I think the natives may be a better size if solely a wildlife tree. Takes a lot of effort to shell them for human consumption - but I do think they are better. They do grow natives commercially here

 

[H20fwler]

I'm jealous....in fifty years mine will look like that!