I have a major pecan that is growing and clearly hardy to zone 5 as it lived through last winter. I bought Kanza from burnt ridge but it has not leafed out and may be zone 6. Given it is almost June and seeing no green I don’t have high hopes for it. I noticed Stark Bros has Surecrop for sale now and I have been waiting 2 years for them to have inventory of it. They say it has survived -18. Do we know how hardy it is and if major and it will pollinate?
Major is a strong type 1. Surecrop is not documented but I suspect is type 2. I don’t know whether they would be good pollination partners. Your best options for fully hardy pecans at your location are Campbell NC4, Lucas, and Warren 346. Of these, Lucas is confirmed type 2 and a good pollination partner. Warren 346 is not known. Campbell NC4 is type 1 so not a good partner for Major. There is one other alternative worth thinking about. Of the recently released varieties from Bill Reid, Earlton is potentially a good choice. It is type 2, exceptionally early, and a northern adapted variety. Northern Pecans: Kansas Pecan Breeding Project
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That is the issue I have faced. A good type 1 was easy to find. A good type 2 is harder.
email Dave at rockbridge rockbridgetrees@gmail.com and ask about availability. He has Lucas and Warren 346. He might have Earlton grafted by now. Iirc, he uses Major seedlings as rootstock.
I may try some surecrop for a season and if those do not work I will try Lucus.
Hedge your bets and get one of each. It will save a year of growing and maybe you wind up with 2 more pecans. Regarding Kanza, it has been winter hardy up to and past your zone. It has not matured nuts which is a different problem. It takes about 2 weeks too long for areas north of Moline IL. This is why I suggested Earlton.
I would argue the test of sure crop is better because then if it fails I will get a earlto.
What happens if it lives and you find out it is type 1? There won’t be a pollination partner though it is arguable some overlap would still occur.
I believe Stark Bros claims it is type 2. Somehow they must know
In this link they claim it is type 2 and that it is at least partially self fertile. They claim the same thing with Hardy Giant Pecan and I read on here that Giant hardy pecan has high enough overlap it can self pollinate. The thing I worry about is it dying. On reviews some claim it did not make it through winter and others claim it survived a -30 degree winter. Quite the opposite reviews. Stark® Surecrop™ Pecan Tree - Stark Bro’s
Most of the time, a pecan that is self-pollinating is protandrous. It is rare for a protogynous pecan to self-pollinate. What is not rare is a late protandrous tree to bloom so late that its pistillate flowers overlap with most normal protandrous trees that bloom earlier. This is the exact reproductive strategy of Adams #5 which is technically protandrous, but blooms so late that it is most often pollinated by nearby protandrous varieties. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it often means your protandrous tree won’t have pollen available from a compatible partner. I would hedge my bets and put in a third tree because Major is a known early protandrous tree. An advantage of trees with this pollination strategy (late protandrous) is that they rarely suffer crop loss from spring freezes. Their flowers stay enclosed until bad weather is mostly gone.
If that is not confusing enough, there are protogynous varieties - Forkert is an example - that bloom so late that very few protandrous pecans overlap. Surprise surprise, Adams #5 is a perfect pollination partner for Forkert! There is a time for both late protandrous and late protogynous!
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What do those phrases mean. I was aware of type 1 and 2 but am not sure of those terms.
Stark Bros claims it Protogynous type 2 but am unsure what that means.
Protandrous is type 1. Protogynous is type 2. Under normal conditions, type 1 pecans pollinate type 2 pecans and vice versa. The description of Surecrop highly suggests it is an overlap late protandrous, not a type 2. If it is, you would wind up with Major which is a normal type 1 pecan and Surecrop - if it is late protandrous - shedding pollen too late to pollinate Major. The best solution and the one guaranteed to prevent problems would be to put in a third known protogynous (type 2) pecan such as Earlton. Alternatively, skip Surecrop and just plant an Earlton. I don’t want to discourage you from Surecrop. It is a long term successful variety for Stark. But the pollination description raises my hackles. This may just be because Stark is using ad copy to promote a tree. They want to sell trees!
I don’t think they sell that yet though?
Stark has sold glitz and ad copy for years. 
If it helps any, even experts make mistakes when determining if a variety is type 1 or type 2, especially when it blooms out of sequence with most other varieties. Not to mention that moving a pecan 500 miles north or south will often cause it to flip from type 1 to type 2 or vice versa. Why does this happen? Bloom time in pecan is moderated by chilling hours and female blooms have a different counter than male blooms. Increase or decrease chilling hours and the flower buds may change bloom sequence.
Either way I cannot buy earlton right now from my understanding.
Hence my suggestion to email Dave at Rockbridge trees. I sent him an email a few minutes ago. He should reply by tomorrow. If it helps any, I have Earlton grafted about a month ago that has opened a bud and is growing. I’ll post a picture of it tomorrow. Earlton will be available from a few places next spring. Dax may have it even if he is avoiding growingfruit currently.
I emailed him too. He was recommending Mulley earlier this morning. I messaged dax amount something and he never responded. He wanted me to do something and I could not do it anymore. I was surprised he did not reply back.
Dax changed his email and has not given the new @ to many people. I sent him an email asking about Earlton.
Also, avoid Mullahy. It is useful in some climates but yours is more challenging. Lucas is a small pecan, but you can eat a small pecan. You can’t eat a pecan that doesn’t mature nuts in your climate. This is why Earlton is potentially a good choice. It matures 2 weeks before Kanza which should put it in sync with your seasons.
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