Pecans

[Lucky_P]

Pecans and other hickories are my passion.
Have been collecting and grafting improved pecan & hickory cultivars for 30 years.
H2OFowler will need northern pecan selections.
Seedlings from a superior cultivars, pollenized by another improved selection have a better likelihood of producing better-than-average nuts, but there is no guarantee of nut size, quality, productivity or disease/pest resistance.
Seedling pecans generally take 20+ years to come into production - pushing w/ fertilizer might shorten that slightly; grafted trees generally bear in half that time or less - and nut size/quality, disease resistance are a known feature.
Some cultivars, like 'Major', are noted to produce a high percentage of seedlings with good scab resistance and excellent nut quality.
Dr Bill Reid has lots of good pecan info, with emphasis on northern varieties at his blogspot:

Northern Pecans

Observations on growing pecans in Kansas and across middle America

northernpecans.blogspot.com

 

[Lucky_P]

Bill Reid's northern pecan cultivar list is useful in comparing nut qualities, ripening times, scab resistance, etc.

Pecan Cultivars

On this page, you will find a summary of pecan cultivar information that has been collected at the Pecan Experiment Field near Chetopa...

northernpecans.blogspot.com

'Major' pecan, which originated in KY, has been shown to have some gene markers common to bitternut and shagbark hickory, suggesting that an ancestor close-up in its pedigree may have been a shagbarkXbitternut hybrid. It has been used extensively by USDA and others as a parent in breeding scab-resistant pecans, especially for the northern/Midwestern pecan belt.

 

[b116757]

I just planted my first grafted pecan trees this past spring 4 of them one died already but we had a drought and I didn’t water them but once or twice all summer. I really really wish I’d of planted some grafted trees 20 years ago I’d have some producing trees at this time. I do have a few native trees at the home place that produce some years.

 

[H20fwler]

Pecans and other hickories are my passion.
Have been collecting and grafting improved pecan & hickory cultivars for 30 years.
H2OFowler will need northern pecan selections.
Seedlings from a superior cultivars, pollenized by another improved selection have a better likelihood of producing better-than-average nuts, but there is no guarantee of nut size, quality, productivity or disease/pest resistance.
Seedling pecans generally take 20+ years to come into production - pushing w/ fertilizer might shorten that slightly; grafted trees generally bear in half that time or less - and nut size/quality, disease resistance are a known feature.
Some cultivars, like 'Major', are noted to produce a high percentage of seedlings with good scab resistance and excellent nut quality.
Dr Bill Reid has lots of good pecan info, with emphasis on northern varieties at his blogspot:

Northern Pecans

Observations on growing pecans in Kansas and across middle America

northernpecans.blogspot.com

Thanks, that is good info. I’ve got a few ordered for next spring.
I so wish I would have paid closer attention to pecans years ago and got into them a decade ago.
The couple people I know in my area that have any tell me they are a December drop here, almost all are in peoples yards.
Seems like the perfect hard mast for just after acorns to fill that spot. It’s obvious that deer and all wildlife will get after them.

I’m surprised there hasn’t been more chatter about them, I know everyone is into chestnuts and acorns, pecans just seem to have slipped under the radar as a late season big draw further north.
I think a lot of it is because pecans are a more of a “southern” thing and a lot of people me included had no idea that thin shelled northern varieties were even a thing.

The most I really hear about pecan is how guys with smokers love the wood. Never had heard much wildlife talk about them.

 

[Lucky_P]

Gotta water those transplants if they don't get at least an inch of rain per week for at least the first year; especially critical if they are bareroot! Mulching and keeping at least a 6 ft circle of ground around the tree free of competing vegetation really helps get them off to a good start.

Best source for grafted northern pecans and hickories is Rock Bridge Trees in Bethpage TN. Bass Pecan is great for Southern pecans.