What are your new bearers, Lucky? I just want to know what the good life’s like.
Dax
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I was reading a summary of pecan growing worldwide and found a reference to this pecan variety selected from a native stand in Mexico. It is type 1 protandrous.
http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/content/50/9/1399.full
Norteña, Native seedling MX, Type I protandrous, nut weight 7.82, nuts per pound 58.0, percent kernel, 58.4, alternate bearing index 0.39
This is interesting enough that it might be worth Richard getting a graft.
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I potted up pecan seedlings today finishing with all that had emerged in the germination trays. There are still about 20 more that have roots but have not pushed up a shoot with leaves yet. At this point, I have 122 seedlings all of which have been fertilized with 15-30-15 miracle grow. I am going to fertilize the oldest seedlings again tomorrow. The tallest seedlings are just over 2 feet with plenty of new growth. I will have to push them hard to get the stems to 3/8 inch diameter by the end of November.
I understand at this time of the year why you’re keeping the nitrogen sort of low & less than the phosphorus (potassium could be more but is okay.) I like the NPK of Schult’z Tomato Food as a general growth formula. 17-18-28
Just a suggestion for future fertilizer. I like that the Nitrogen is the lowest, that the phosphorus is slightly above the nitrogen and that the potassium is high at 28. The potassium is what gives a seedling/graft strong stems and roots and contributes also to disease & insect resistance.
I like it for a beginning to end fertilizer for the entire season. Of course the name on the box or the picture means nothing. It’s the formulation that matters.
Dax
While I generally agree re using high K fertilizer, keep in mind that promix BX has quite a bit of fertilizer straight out of the pack. I’ve found that seedlings in promix BX are often deficient for phosphorus but have surplus potassium. I have a pallet of promix MPX on order. It is balanced quite a bit better for growing seedlings. Worth noting also that any peat based potting mix will come up short on micronutrients. I’ve got to get some fertilizer with micronutrients and also need enough osmocote to provide long term slow release nutrients.
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Completely right and I like that you’re using osmocote.
Dax
I will weigh in on the growing media. We use ground pine pine bark over a 3/8" screen with the fines added back. This makes up approximately 70% of our mix. To this we add 25% composted chicken litter, with the remaining 5% being wood ash and sand. We use 15 pounds of 9 month Osmocote 18-6-12 and 1.5 pounds of Micro-Max(major and minor minerals) per yard. We mix in a 2 yard nursery blender. Trees will attain size to graft. We also use Nickel CBM, Pecan Kicker (5-0-10) and sulfur in foliar sprays. Iron and magnesium will be organically bound in the potting mix if phosphorus is too high. Also, pecans grow in flushes. If nutrients are not available at the time of need and growth stops most times it will not restart. If pecans are kept growing, half inch caliper and 60" in height can easily be attained.
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I’m glad you showed up. Is this what you do for a living and where did you obtain all that?
What brand/type containers & size are used? How often are you foliar spraying / specifically what is sprayed and at what time intervals? Please be as specific as possible.
Best regards, and thank you.
Dax
Max can be found in Missississississississippi most days of the week where he grows pecans under the name Pecan Hill Farms and sells pecan trees at Bass pecan nursery or hiding out at his day job as president of Mississippi Pecan Growers.
I have owned Bass Pecan since 2006. When I bought it the trees were being contract grown. I was not happy with the cultivars or the quality of the trees. I have spent the last 10 years trying to grow a better pecan tree. Everything that we do is from our own trial and error using scientific method. We use a lot of Rootmaker containers and several other containers like Anderson bands. Still working on best system. We mostly sell pecans in 7 and 15 gallon Rootrapper containers. We also are currently using 5"x5"x12" Anderson bands, but I am not convinced that we will be using it going forward. The key to pecans are the roots.
We spray Nickel CBM and Zinc three times beginning two weeks after bud break. Everything else is sprayed on an as needed basis. The trees tell us. Tissue samples, soil tests, water(pH), visual inspection, etc.
We grow pecans in several different cultural practice scenarios at Pecan Hill Farms. We have 250 acres of pecans grown in management intensive blocks and at the other end of the spectrum in true low input with very little management.
Pecans however are not what I do for a living. The last 5 years it has taken up most of my time. I was the Founder/CEO of a pharmaceutical company that we sold in 2013. I actually run an investment firm now.
Our nursery and farm are becoming more and more development oriented as we go forward. We have several selections of pecan that we will be introducing soon. We have already introduced 5 fruit selections.
Come visit and we will show you around our orchards and nursery.
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Max,
That’s a real nice snapshot of your life. I can see some connections. It was certainly kind of you to share all that work that went into creating a better media as well as the foliar additions of nickel & zinc.
I was so impressed yesterday that it struck a loud bell with what my friends Bill Totten & Gary Fernald have been talking about ever since I met them; and that is creating a great media. I’m not quite sure how to say this but it’s been my observation that the USDA has given these guys the run around for a very long time. However, in recent conversations with Bill he’s said more about media mixes than in the past (5-6 years ago). It’s a complicated matter for me to match the jigsaw pieces together as there are a lot of gaps in the dialogue. Gary and Bill have always contended the USDA may have the answers but simply won’t share them.
At any rate, thank you very much from the far-northern pecan belt across the river from New Boston, IL. and across the Mississsississsippi River from where Gary (and Bill) have made some discoveries where there were none when they began for growers or hobbyists. Because of Gary and Bill, John Gordon and Ernie Grimo, and a few others that joined in at times… one place I know now ‘Shepherd Pecan Farm’ in Missouri, which I visited with Gary last Fall, began his orchard due to the combined work of these gentleman’s finds. With cultivar improvements, these cultivars are continuously being added… but there are still ‘Mullahy’ in the orchard. Mullahy’s is arguably Gary’s best find. And of course ‘Hark’ is moving rapidly to the forefront everywhere and is Bill’s best (seedling-selection.)
Wishing you much success and success with your new cultivars that are being released upcoming & thanks once-again.
Dax
Here is a document in spanish that covers almost every insect pest of pecan. It is worth reading just because it is so thorough. Wish we had a similar document readily available in English.
http://biblioteca.inifap.gob.mx:8080/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/895/233.pdf
I worked in the greenhouse about an hour today watering and potting up 8 more seedlings. There won’t be many more. I’d like to get to 150 seedlings but looks like I won’t quite make it. On a mundane level, Kanza seedlings have a taproot that heads for the center of the earth.
I picked up a box of water soluble fertilizer plus micronutrients today with 24-8-16 major nutrients. Pecan seedlings are growing moderately well with some at a rate of 1 to 2 inches per week. The extra nitrogen in this mix should boost them quite a bit.
I’ve been watering the pecan seedlings every other day. Today was water day so I put about 1/2 teaspoon of the fertilizer with micronutrients into each pot and put about a quart of water to dissolve it and spread it through the promix. This is a very heavy dose of fertilizer for a relatively small tree and container. Hopefully it will trigger faster growth.
I checked the seed start trays and saw a couple more seedlings emerging. I’ll wait until they are a few inches tall before potting them into the large containers.
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The pecan seedlings are turning dark green from the fertilizer application. A few seedlings have not changed color which makes me wonder about varying ability of seedlings to absorb nutrients. I think I will set the light green seedlings aside and watch to see how they change over the next few days.
There is a lot of variability in seedlings that can be seen just looking at the leaves. One seedling has very frilly leaves. Another has jagged edges with deep indentations. Most have leaves are rounded but a few seedlings have long thin leaves.
About 15 seedlings are from nuts that I think are water hickory X pecan hybrids. They have relatively thin leaves with purple growing tips from anthocyanin. I’m going to use them in a low area on my land in hopes they can handle occasional flooding.
On a different note, I’ve got to look carefully at methods to start seed next spring. The nuts I stratified in my refrigerator have been germinating very erratically which is a sure sign the stratification was not effective. I also need to start seed in the greenhouse at least 2 months earlier than I did this year. I could have had them in starter trays in late March with most seedlings emerged and growing by early May. Part of this is down to not having enough time to run my tomato and pepper seedling business while doing all the other tasks I set for this past spring and summer.
Grafting:
Beekeeping
Gardening
Greenhouse business
It adds up to more than one person can keep up with. Fortunately, I enjoy having too much to do.
Edit to add this link to an article about Bill Reid’s retirement. https://www.kansasfarmer.com/education/retirement-bill-reid-ends-4-decade-era-kansas-pecan-research
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Watered again today with plenty of new growth on most seedlings. There are 4 seedlings in the seed start trays to pot up which I plan to do tomorrow. Several of the older seedlings now have 1/4 inch diameter stems just above the soil line. My goal is to get them up to 3/8 to 1/2 inch diameter.
I harvested 5 gallons of tomatoes today and used them to make 35 quarts of soup. Ingredients: tomatoes and tomato paste, onions, carrots, celery, potatoes, green beans, okra, lima beans, and corn. Most came from the garden. There are times when a garden and a greenhouse make me very happy. 
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Heaven!
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The Northwest flank of the Mendocino Complex is less than 1/2 mile away now. Firefighters plan on using this mostly op
en valley to make a stand and have been preparing now for 5 days. I have been working the last five days morn till night removing all mulch and undergrowth from some 800 trees including 75 pecans. I have a collection of some 200 species of rare conifers and some 30 cultivars of pecans.
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Keep in touch, please.
Dax
Omg, that picture is terrifying!