Bill Reid lists Warren 346 as a Type I.
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I hesitate to use Bill’s dichogamy data because he has a few that are flipped from most other sources. That doesn’t mean he is wrong. I’m just cautious when he is the single source for information. It is a well known fact that pecan can flip dichogamy depending on hours of chilling in winter. Kiowa in particular has been documented to flip from type 2 to type 1 when grown in a warmer climate. This is one reason why I speculate that pecan female buds have different chilling hour requirements than staminate buds.
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I’m leaning toward Kanza since I heard it produces in October which is still no frosts here until the very end as well as the fact it is disease resistant and supposed to be a very good pecan. I found Burnt Ridge offers it on seedling rootstock and claims it is zone 5. Other websites claim it is zone 6. Maybe the other websites are using not as hardy of rootstock?
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Your climate will mean a month delay in spring budbreak so Kanza will ripen about the 15th to 20th of October. That should work most years. I agree that Kanza is the best of the group. Keep in mind that Kanza may have problems in any zone 5 climate.
Be VERY picky about rootstock. Verify a northern cold hardy variety is the source. It is literally the difference between a long term productive tree and a dead as a doorknob stick. I have only seen this play out once with my trees. I purchased a Houma back in 1994 and set it out at my dad’s house. It was on a southern rootstock that died 2 years later in a cold snap. Houma is a long season variety in the first place and the rootstock used was a double whammy.
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What about a seedling rootstock? Burnt Ridge sells them as seedlings for pretty cheap.
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That doesn’t tell you anything about the origin of the rootstock. Virtually all pecans are propagated on seedling rootstocks. The question to ask is what variety did the seed come from. Major is the standard for northern grown pecans.
Here is a way to understand how important this is when growing pecans. I grew a few hundred Kanza seed nuts about 6 years ago with intent of selecting any disease resistant and rapid growing seedlings from the progeny. Out of @300 seedlings, only one so far is highly disease resistant. But that is not the point of this post, the point is that of the seedlings budbreak varies from late March to mid April. Any pecan that breaks buds in my climate before the 10th of April is a non-starter. Kanza is from a cross of Major X Shoshoni, i.e. a southern variety crossed with a northern variety. Kanza seedlings will inherently be all over the map for budbreak because they carry both northern and southern genetics. I’ll add for anyone reading and considering growing Kanza for rootstock, I don’t recommend it because 50% or more of Kanza seedlings are slow growing. Major also produces a fairly high percentage of slow growing seedlings, but many of them grow rapidly and are very cold tolerant. Pick the best rootstock for your area and do NOT compromise!
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I called and they said their grafted pecan tree is true while they sell seedlings. Their grafted pecan is supposed to be on a northern seedling rootstock similar to what they sell. I am not sure what rock bridge nursery sells their pecans on but they only sell northern too so I would assume northern rootstock.
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Call Rock Bridge and ask. I’m fairly certain they use Major. I’ll add one more thing which is not necessarily specific to pecan. Buy the best tree you possibly can for your climate regardless of cost. A variety like Kanza on southern rootstock planted in a northern climate is a dead tree. Kanza on Major rootstock will almost always live and be productive in the same climate. You might pay $80 for a tree that will live and handle the climate while a cheap tree elsewhere is only $20. That $20 tree will seem pretty expensive when it is dead dead dead.
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I have seen mixed reviews on Kanza being zone 5 and zone 6. I wonder if the ones stating Kanza to be zone 6 are on southern rootstock while Kanza in zone 5 are northern rootstock.
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That is one possibility but probably not the only issue. Barkslip noted that Kanza was somewhat marginal in his Z5 climate near Moline Illinois. I think the problem is from the length of the growing season more than anything else.
I know of a man who purchased over 1000 grafted pecan trees to set out on his property in Kentucky. They were all northern varieties but had been grafted on southern rootstocks. Most of them died when a test winter came along. This is one reason I really liked Nolin River Nursery. John grafted on Major rootstocks. His trees were reliably cold hardy.
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Finding nursery with pecans is hard in general. I contacted Rock Bridge Nursery and they graft all pecans on northern. That is also the only place I can find certain pecans. I can only find major pecan being sold there for example. I could find Kanza both there and Burnt Ridge which claims northern rootstock as well. Like you said the places selling pecans on northern are not cheap. Rock Bridge Nursery sells 2 for 75 each or 1 for 90 but offers free shipping and Burnt Ridge offers theirs for 58 with a grafted Kanza but I had an existing order there so shipping was the same. To edit Burnt Ridge does not warranty their grafted pecans for whatever reason.
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Although this is for Texas, scab resistance would be recommended for East and Central Texas. Those varieites recommended for East Texas would need to be scab resistant.
BTW I have a masive seedling pecan tree in my front yard, 3 feet in diameter at base, that produces nuts larger than Stuart. Not often but a couple years ago I quit counting pounds when I picked up over 100 lbs.
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Monte Nesbitt’s recommendations for Texas are geared toward commercial growers, not homeowners. Of the varieties he recommends, Elliott, Lakota, and Kanza are reliably scab tolerant. For a homeowner in Southeast Texas, I would suggest Amling, Avalon, Lakota, Gafford, McMillan, Moreland, and Sumner. All have significant scab tolerance. North Texas varieties would change quite a bit. Kanza would displace McMillan and Adams #5 should be considered.
One issue not often mentioned is the need for Texas specific rootstocks. Elliott has recently been determined to make very salt tolerant rootstocks that work well in the area. Burkett and its offspring such as Apache make good rootstocks.
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I doubt if one can buy crop insurance on pecans in zones 5 and 6. Maybe not even in zone 7. I would bet that commercial pecan growers in states such as Georgia buy insurance bigtime.
Got to thinking about that because I looked at my pecan trees today and I believe that my Cape Fear has bitten the dust. Maybe not. Did get to -3 F here back in January. My others are budding out. Did notice that the Sumner was a little ahead of the Mahan and Stuart but not by much.
Question that I been thinking about is if one can determine the type of a pecan tree by looking at the flowers? I remember looking at my trees for that but could not see any difference. Know that they have separate male and female flowers.
@Fusion_power
What does the “O” on certain varieties in the Type column in post #12 signify? Thanks.
O means they Overlap pollen shed and pistillate receptivity. They can self pollinate. This is not desirable with pecans as self-pollinated nuts tend to be small and poorly filled.
As for identifying based on flowers, pistillate flowers on some varieties are red and on others are pale green. Varying numbers of pistillate blooms will form in a cluster. I don’t know if much more than that can be seen. I can visually identify many pecan nuts based on the shape, size, and shell thickness. Stuart for example is very unique and Schley is also very easy to identify.
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I was questioning as to whether it was possible to identify pecan type as to protandrous (type 1) or protogynous (type 2) by looking at the flowers rather than determining the name of a nut. If not, just how do breeders determine whether a pecan tree is protandrous or protogynous after developing a new cultivar?
An interesting UG link concerning pecan tree breeding and other info. Of course, this more geared to commercial than homeowners.
Recommended Cultivar List - Cultivars | Pecan Breeding (uga.edu)
I have read the times of bloom and catkins get reversed depending on type 1 and 2. The issue with pollination by itself is many will abort the nut. This is all just stuff I read though
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Yes, you can identify whether or not a variety is protandrous or protogynous by studying the flowers. A protogynous variety will expose female flowers either before the staminate appear or before they release pollen. You can check if the pistillate flower is receptive by touching the tips with a small amount of fine dust. If the dust sticks, the flower is receptive. The pollen “catkins” can be tested by flicking them with a finger to see if dust flies out. If so, it is shedding pollen. If you look very closely, you can see the cracks in the sacs that hold the pollen.
Grauke explains this very well here. https://cgru.usda.gov/carya/Manual/flowering.html
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For what it’s worth, I have a couple Kanza’s that I bought from Rockbridge, planted back in 2017 I think. And they’re growing great here in 5b Omaha, which includes making it through a -28ish winter a couple years back. I’d be very confident of the root stocks from Rockbridge.
Now, I got those trees before I’d read as much here as I have now. I’d be nervous about planting Kanza these days, based on Darrel’s commentary. They haven’t produced nuts yet. I’m hoping one of these years soon. Based on my records they usually seem to break buds around April 9th or so. Which at least one year, I think those initial buds did get froze. Didn’t really seem to hurt the trees, they just pushed secondaries, but if they’d been in flowering age, that may have killed the crop that year.
Just some anecdotes from a nearby zone.
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I ended up getting my Kanza from Burnt Ridge nursery as I had an order with them already so shipping was free. I got my major pecan from rock bridge nursery and it was massive. Hopefully Burnt Ridge has the same success since they claim they have it on northern pecan rootstock.
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