Wish I could afford the land to try those two winners here, although the squirrels would probably be the only beneficiaries.
northwoods, I suspect that Woodstock’s northern pecans are seedlings… so scab resistance would be a genetic crapshoot. You could contact them and ask about resistance of the parent trees…
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My kids and I planted about 400 2-yr old seedlings of Major & Posey pecans in a CRP riparian bufferstrip planting, back in 2000; A few of those seedlings are now beginning to produce nuts… I’d intended to go back and topwork every other one, then remove the ungrafted trees in between, once canopies began crowding… but didn’t get many grafted… they’re so much more difficult to get successful grafts on than apples/pears or even oaks/persimmons.
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Yes, they had good kernel fill. The flavor is best described as sweet, I guess.
The problem that I see with the Sumner pecan is that because the shuck split is so late (early November) it will not dry out the pecan properly in cold air. Then it tends to hang on the tree until it discolors. Being a “papershell” pecan, I think that they would go bad quickly if not harvested soon after shuck split. That and the tree maybe not liking the cold are the reasons I think its not recommended for northern areas. Mostly its a deep south pecan.
I have a Cape Fear pecan tree that I received in winter 2011 and because it was a bareroot I put in a pot and then planted in March the following year. Also, I have one Mahan and one Stuart pecan tree that I bought at a flea market sometime I think in 2013. Again, because they were bareroot, I put them into pots and planted them the next spring.
And I will never ever again buy another @#$% bareroot pecan tree. 
@Lucky_P, I’ve looked at a lot of online pecan tree vendors, and I don’t think I’ve seen any with Major varieties, except Nolin River, and they always seem to be out.
Other than Major and Kanza, what other type 1 and 2 varieties do best in this area? Or is it more a matter of what rootstock they’re sitting on?
I’ve checked UK’s ag site regarding pecans and they recommend those two, even tho they say Pawnee is scab susceptible. They also rec Colby, Greenriver, Posey, Fisher and Yates and some others. Problem is again finding any of these being sold online.
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GreenRiver is perhaps my favorite pecan… but it’s hard to beat Major & Kanza; Oswego, an open-pollenated seedling of GreenRiver looks really promising. Posey does OK, big nut, but is not a heavy bearer, and its kernel goes dark quickly - not rancid, but looks like a rancid year-old kernel. Lakota good… but like most Mahan offspring, it’s probably going to over-set and fill poorly as it gets some age. The Yates series (68, 127, 145, 152) are all pretty good… as would be expected as they are mostly, if not all, MajorXPosey.
Colby…meh. I have one tree of it. Chetopa is another late pollen producer that helps set good crops on Major, but scab resistance is not all that great. Fisher… I know nothing of it.
Norton is another one with good scab resistance… still waiting for first nuts from it.
I have one Stuart tree, for nostalgia’s sake, grafted from the old tree back home in AL, and a couple of Wortham trees - from a tree over west of Murray, KY that is probably Mahan. Stuart scabs pretty badly most years; Wortham/Mahan is a big ‘papershell’ type, but fills really poorly most years. Probably not gonna bother with any more Southern pecan varieties unless they have good scab resistance and early-season nut maturity - if they freeze on the trees before shuck split/drop… they’re not much good to me.
Nolin River NTN, England’s Orchard & Nursery, Rock Bridge Trees, Forrest Keeling Nursery are potential sources… I know it’s been hard for them to keep up with demand… you may need to learn to graft your own… I did.
Do they just not fall if they freeze before shuck split? They must fall eventually. Do they go bad before they fall? Or are they not mature enough to be good and so they never finish maturing?
It’s a little bit of all three, but mostly the latter - they just don’t complete filling of the kernel.
Noticed that England’s Orchard & Nursery sells pecan scions. Have you ever ordered scions from them? If so what time of year did you order and graft? How difficult would be to graft 4 year old Mahan and Stuart trees using their scions? I am interested in ordering Major and Kanza scions from them.
I got some pecan scions from Cliff, all good there. The hard part is getting takes, I didn’t have any luck whatsoever. If you want to try read up on nut grafting as it requires different techniques.
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Yeah… I’ve been grafting pecan/hickory/walnut for 20 years now. 50% success rate looks like an incredible, unattainable goal for me.
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I tried a four flap graft on a seedling pecan (just fooling around) a few year ago without success and that is my only experience with grafting pecans. Was not impressed with the four flap. I would have thought that using a simple bark graft similar to Konrad’s graft on GW would give better than 50%. It did work fine on an apple graft that I did. What would be different?
There is plenty of video that uses that same technique on pecans.
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I do mostly a modified simple bark graft technique… 3 or 4-flap banana type graft really best for large caliper scions (which I usually don’t work with. any more than I have to.
Whip & tongue in March, before rootstock breaks dormancy has worked OK recently… I just have a hard time stealing time to get out and to 'em at that time of year.
Dr. Bill Reid has some good step-by-step photos of how to perform a number of different grafts on his Northern Pecan Blogspot.
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Any updates on those 12 pecans. Looks like you had some fairly good early success. What about now? Thanks.
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Just stumbled on this thread. Around here the commercial guys plant all bare root. Sometimes aa many as a thousand at a time. UGA recommends cutting at least 1/3 to 1/2 of the top and trimming the roots. We go get them at the nursery. Wrap the root ball. Then put them in the pond immediately. Then plant a few at a time. All within 24 hours of them being dug. Roots never dry out. Seems to work.
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Hi Lucky, I have a pecan grafting question. I have just yesterday planted two smallish northern pecan seedlings (dormant bare root). I have two Hark scions heading my way later from Red Fern Farm. I told Tom Wahl I’d need scions about 1/4-3/8” in diameter to fit with the seedlings, he said he’d try to accommodate that, tho most of his scions are about 5/8”.
My questions… what kind of graft would you use in this case? Most of my experience is with cleft grafts on persimmons, would that work? And, for zone 7a, when would you do the grafts? While the rootstocks are still dormant, or wait until temps are in a certain range? Or small leaves show up?
Thanks! I’ve never tried pecan grafts before, and feel pitifully ignorant of “best practices” with them.
Rick
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I have had good luck with the three flap graft. Probably 95%. Bark graft about 60%. If the graft wood has a lot of pith, your chances are not as good.
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Answers re pecan grafting will be all over the place. I suggest looking up a video on 4-flap grafting pecan. Grafts that work in order of preference are:
Bark graft on 1 or 2 inch diameter stock
3-flap or 4-flap graft, works best with scions in the 1/2 inch to 5/8 inch diameter range but can be successful with smaller stock
Whip graft, must be the best whip and tongue graft you ever made with 2.5 to 3 inches of cambium contact.
I have made successful pecan grafts with each of these methods. I prefer bark graft similar to what Bill Reid uses if the rootstock is large enough.
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Agree with Darrel. I do mostly bark grafts or 3- or 4-flap ‘banana’ grafts, performed after leaf-out, once temps get into the 80s. I probably do 90+% bark grafts.
I do have one tree that is the result of a W&T graft done with dormant scion just before rootstock broke dormancy. Just not a technique I use very often.
As time goes on I’m more and more convinced that many, if not most of my pecan/hickory graft failures have been because I was in too much of a hurry to graft, and did not wait until temperatures had warmed sufficiently.
I have doubts about whether your freshly-planted bareroot seedlings are going to be established well enough to accept, callus, and push growth on a graft this year.
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Ah, a 3-flap graft with temps in the 80s - that is key info! Thanks, guys. The scions were inexpensive enough so that if it turns out the rootstocks are not ready for grafting once the temps are high enough, I can try taking part of one and bark grafting it onto my Kanza to carry it over to a future retry next year after the rootstocks mature a bit. Or, I could take the lazy man’s (more expensive) route, and buy an already grafted tree next year.
But I’d first like to try to get the sense of accomplishment that comes from doing it myself! I’m a sucker for jousting with windmills…
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Rule of thumb is two feet of new growth the previous year. For bark or banana graft. The root system has to be established enough to push the graft.
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