If no others are present within a quarter mile to a mile(if no large blocks of trees in between), pollenation issue is the most likely problem. Age…maybe; ‘old’ pecan trees do lapse into ‘senescence’ - and sometimes it takes something like a hurricane/tornado, or hedging/dehorning to shock them back into production.
Some old-timers (like my dad) claim that if you sprinkle a box of Red Devil lye around the dripline of the canopy, that those senescent trees will make a crop.
But…I’m still betting on lack of an appropriate pollenizer. In general, we classify pecans as Type I(protandrous - pollen catkins produced before nutlet receptivity) or Type II (protogynous - nutlet receptivity before pollen catkins produced) Unless you know which group your tree falls into, just grafting another variety may or may not help…if yours is Type I, and you graft another Type I…you’ve not gained much, if anything. If, however you grafted at least one of each type, then you’ve covered your bases.
That’s interesting lucky. I think u r right about a lack of pollination. There are blocks of timber pretty close but pecans just don’t grow in the wild here in this county. I guess I need a type one and a type two and then I would be set. We did have a really bad ice storm here about six years ago and it broke out some of the top branches. It has branched back out from the stubs and these new branches make most of what nuts r produced.
Derby,
Commercial growers will sometimes ‘dehorn’ or ‘hedge’ older low/nonproductive trees to bring them back into production while newer ‘replacement’ trees are growing to production age, then remove the old trees. As you noticed, those vigorous shoots that grew from those broken-out branches are more vigorous about putting out some nuts.
The trees back home in AL were over 100 years old, and most had not borne significant nut crops in years - maybe decades. Hurricane Opal came through and really 'shook ‘em up’ - actuall blew over a lot of older pecans across AL & GA… but the next year, the trees still standing put on a bumper crop of nuts.
Covering your bases with both Type I & II should get you some nuts.
Soil testing and fertilizing/liming appropriately might also get you some production out of the old gal while you’re waiting on the youngsters to hit their stride. You might be surprised how many pecans may be in your area…or, perhaps not.
Thanks for the tip lucky. I understand that it is hard to believe that there are no native pecans here. When my grand pa moved here he was totally shocked. I am an avid outdoorsman and have spent many days and nights hunting and fishing and working in the woods here in the ozarks and have never seen a wild pecan. We have walnuts, hickory, hazel, paw paw, but not a pecan in sight. It is really odd. I can drive an hour and half north to deer hunt and there are enough pecans we pick them up and eat them at camp in the evenings. ( I think the little natives tast the best.)
I believe I have found a nice pecan seedling growing in the fence row on the south side of my yard. They are really difficult for me to distinguish from black walnut but this one is quite large which seems to help me identify. It was growing up behind a silver maple and a big old rose of Sharon. I would say fifteen feet tall , very pleased. I think I need to trim some trees back and give it some sun. I bet it would really take off with some light.
Derby,
Sounds like you might need to do some ‘guerilla’ planting. ;<)
Keep some of those good pecans you’re picking up - or get some top-quality, name-variety northern/midwestern pecan seednuts and start planting a few here and there around the countryside… you could be Johnny Pecanseed of the Ozarks.
Many of the ‘improved’ northern pecan varieties were selections from the native populations, made for better/larger nut quality, productivity, etc. USDA pecan-breeding program has utilized many of these as parents in developing new varieties for the ‘northern pecan belt’.
Dr. Bill Reid, pecan specialist for MO & KS, has a Northern Pecan blog… lots of good info on management practices, grafting, varieties, and some history of some of the pecan selections.
USDA/ARS Pecan Breeding Program website: http://cgru.usda.gov/carya/
Descriptions of named varieties, nut photos, some info on disease/pest susceptibility, etc., but Bill Reid’s blog gives more ‘real-world’ take on some aspects.
Well my big old pecan may be in trouble. We had thunder storms roll through the other night. It sounded like a bomb went off in the yard and it looks like lightning hit my tree. I have seen worse but it looks like it cracked the main trunk. I wounder if it will live?
