your climate is quite similar to mine but I’m far inland, not sure if you’re more coastal. I planted a pecan that died in summer so I’m watching this thread for ideas
we have a lot more chill hours but similar summer
1 Like
Hi Anji.
I have had the same type of experience with pecan trees born from seed, and in summer their leaves burn, because they do not tolerate high Ph.
I am verifying that the pecan tree is a friend of high heat, but it needs a good water supply (it likes the sun, the heat and the water).
It is essential to choose a high Ph resistant rootstock (Riverside is really amazing).
Grafting using the 3 flaps system, in spring with the rootstock in a vegetative state, is child’s play (extremely easy and effective).
When you are going to graft , have a glass of water handy, since when making the three bevels of the 3 flaps in the cutting , the wood of the pecan tree oxidizes extremely quickly in contact with the air, so it is advisable to put it in water to avoid oxidation in the cuts, and perform the graft quickly.
Darrell will tell us, but I think that Lakota from seed (planting a nut of the Lakota variety), is also resistant to high Ph as Riverside.
Regards
Jose
2 Likes
Well look, in my area we have around 400 chill hours. I would like to put common varieties that I can find easily, like the ones I already have planted: pawnee, wichita, mahan. These three varieties in the nursery told me that they would go perfectly in Seville. As for western, I was looking at the fruit, and it seemed really small to me. That variety would be my last option. Do you think that mahan, pawnee and wichita on the Riverside rootstock (pH above 7) would work well in my area? Thank you all!
2 Likes
Mahan won’t work very well anywhere due to overbearing. After about 20 years, the tree will set a heavy crop every other year, then won’t be able to fully mature the nuts. Pawnee is climate dependent. If your rainfall is above 30 inches (76 cm) a year, Pawnee will tend to get scab and other leaf diseases. If in a relatively dry climate, it will have to be irrigated to maintain production. If you can spray for fungal diseases, Pawnee can work very well. I don’t know actual winter chill requirements, but based on parentage, it is likely to need about 500 to 600 winter chill hours. Wichita is similar to Pawnee but with later maturity and a stronger tendency toward alternate bearing. Wichita is commonly planted in the western U.S. with low rainfall and using irrigation to maintain production. All pecans have good and bad traits. Pick varieties that work in your climate.
Here is my climate for comparison. I’m at 35 degrees north latitude with between 600 and 800 chill hours each winter. Low temperature usually is about -10C though this past winter we went down to -15. Annual rainfall averages about 60 inches (152 cm) with rain concentrated in the spring and a mid-summer drought that can last up to 8 weeks. I have ready access to a spring if I choose to put irrigation in for my pecans. The biggest challenge for growing pecans is fungal diseases exacerbated by relatively high rainfall. Scab and Zonate Leaf Spot are the two most damaging to leaves. Varieties I can grow successfully include Avalon, Huffman, Adams #5, Amling, Excel, Kanza, Lakota, and several others. Varieties I can’t grow include Elliott (breaks bud too early due to low chill hour requirement), Wichita, Western (both too disease susceptible), Pawnee, Schley, Desirable (all too scab susceptible for my climate), and Houma (requires longer season than I have). The varieties i can grow are all scab tolerant, mid-range chill requirement, and early to mid-season maturity. Rootstocks for my area have to be adapted to acidic soil, cold temperatures, and have vigorous growth. My best rootstock so far is Lakota though I’ve had good results with Stuart. Why Lakota? It is very cold tolerant and produces a high percentage of very vigorous seedlings.
2 Likes
I can’t truly help in this discussion, but living in the deep south near the Gulf of Mexico, as many have stated, is within the range of where pecans traditionally were grown commercially a while ago. Around here mostly what is left is the remnants of the pecan orchards as the children and their children of the original owners have parceled and sold the land.
In this landscape the pecan trees are the last to leaf out in spring, by far, and one of the first to drop leaves…
Harvest is October here in the humid and hot south.
The trees here are so very distinctive in how they look, with or without leaves, that you can literally spot them a mile away.
Conversely I’ve been to pecan orchards in New Mexico. Whole different world. I’m sure they are different cultivars but the way the tree grows there, using flood irrigation from the Rio Grande river, would make you think it was a totally different tree altogether. Half the height or less, much more dense growing habit. Probably climate as opposed to variety.
One anecdotal story. My father had a large pecan that had never fruited (nutted? Oh that sounds so wrong…). The tree was probably 2 feet in diameter, so easily old enough to be productive.
The ‘farmers tale’ about getting a pecan to produce was to drive some uncoated, rusting nails in the trunk with the thinking that the iron or some other mineral would spur production.
The next year the tree produced for the first time.
I’m not saying there is a correlation at all as that obviously wasn’t scientific…but the post above about trace metals and pecans tickled my memory of that damn tree and those damn nails.
Good luck.
3 Likes
The nails were sometimes effective but for a reason other than what people thought. They tended to girdle the tree which put it into stress. The result is intense flowering and resulting production. I got to see this first hand when my 7 year old son used a heavy knife to whack the bark of a young pecan tree effectively girdling but not killing it. The next year, that tree produced an abundant crop. It was 3 or 4 inches diameter so not big enough to produce that many nuts.
As for metals in pecan culture, zinc and nickel have transformed the industry, particularly in the west where calcareous soils bind metals so tightly the tree can’t extract them. One recommendation from long ago was to spread zinc sulphate beneath the tree. This had three effects, first by lowering the pH, second by making zinc readily available to the roots, and third because the lowered pH tended to make other minerals available from the soil. It has only been about 30 years since pecans with mouse ear leaves were proven to be nickel deficient. We are still learning how to grow them.
Entirely off topic, but the USDA breeding program is discussing partnering with growers, nurseries, and universities to trial advanced selections for production potential. I could potentially apply to produce a research orchard trialing new varieties. It would take a minimum of 100 trees to do the job right.
3 Likes
I sent an email to volunteer for testing but haven’t heard back. Been a month or more.
Anyone have a chance to test Lipan? Its scab resistance is high in Texas, but not sure how it would do in South Georgia.
UGA hasn’t tested it yet according to them.
1 Like
Several growers in the southeast planted Lipan. Scab magnet. Surprisingly, it is reasonably productive in Kentucky and parts of the midwest.
1 Like
Hi Darrell.
For his quality , in my region with a very dry climate and less probability of suffering from scab, and due to its medium early harvest, Lipan is a variety that is among the interesting ones for me.
Regards
Jose
1 Like
Yes, it has potential in your climate Jose. It performs very well in dry climates with irrigation. Staziak lives in Georgia USA with a hot humid climate. It has been tried by a few growers in his area. Diseases make it unproductive though growers who spray can grow it. Pawnee is one of the parents and is widely grown in Georgia by growers who spray. The problem with growing Lipan is that scab adapts to a variety over time. Pawnee was at first described as scab tolerant. Within a few years, Pawnee became so scab susceptible that it is more affected than Desirable. Lipan will likely follow the same path. In a dry climate, this is not a concern.
1 Like
Hi Darrell.
As I had Riverside rootstock, and for well-known reasons, I could not obtain the cuttings of the varieties that interested me, my friend Antonio Benito from Spain , sent me cuttings of his Pawnee and Caddo varieties, so that I could test the grafting of the pecan tree.
I can guarantee you two things:
- Grafting the pecan tree using the 3 flap system by placing a grow protective tube (acts as a greenhouse, regulating the temperature and preventing solar radiation), is child’s play and the success rate is 100%.
- Pawee and Cado develop in my climate grafted on Riverside like two champions (they have a lack of vegetative growth in the months of July and August due to excess heat, it is normal, and in spring and at this time they have great vegetative development ).
Both adapt very well to my soil and climate conditions.
Neither of them present symptoms of leaf scorch.
If there are no setbacks, next spring will be a great pecan tree grafting campaign.
Regards
Jose
2 Likes
Hello everyone, i’m new on this forum and thread. Sorry if my english is bad, it’s because i’m French 
I discovered this thread yesterday and readed it carefully cause it’s full of information.
I live clause from Carcassonne south france, near mediterranean climate but not close to the see at 500m of altitude. I want to plant pecans here. It’s now 2/3 years that summer are so long that i think it worth the try. But it’s difficult to find the right cultivar. In France i can find easily mahan, kiowa, cape fear, cheyenne and wichita at a decent price. I can find pawnee but very expensive. I tried to contact 2/3 nursery in Spain without getting any answers… Do you think it can work with those varieties? (i’ll plant a few trees as a test not an orchad). I think they will maybe not be able to give fruits every years but i want to try…
If someone have a nursery in Europe who can help me that could be great too
thank you very much for your help!!!
1 Like
vince11, can you describe your climate a bit? I think you have cool summers and relatively warm winters, in other words, a Mediterranean climate. Do you have more than 2 months with average daily temperature below 7C?
Here is a thread that gives several European sources of pecan trees. Posts 151 and 152 have the info including one in France.
1 Like
Hi Darrell.
As far as I know there are only three varieties available in Europe, really good for our climate:
In the Spanish Fruitex nursery:
- Pawnee
- Caddo
In the French Dubosc nursery:
- Lakota (now this variety is not available)
- Kanza ( now this variety is not available )
The rest of the available varieties are not suitable for the reasons that we have talked about many times: - Very late harvest
- High susceptibility to scab and aphids
- Alternation or overload of harvest
It is the big problem in Europe, the lack of varieties suitable for our climates.
Regards
Jose
1 Like
Have you checked here?
1 Like
Hi! Thanks both of you for your answer!
@ Darrel. The climate here is not mediterranean, it’s oceanic but very close to the limit of mediterranean climate. Summer are hot and longer every year… Spring can be rainy so scab can be a problem.
Yes i checked the dutch nursery i tried to send mail to them several times but they never answered, i don’t know why… That’s really bad cause they have a great collection of trees, not only pecans!
@ Jose. I know “le bosc” but their trees are crazy expensive and i heard bad things about them, i never bought a tree there so maybe those rumors are false… Fruitex is not answering me and “quercus vivero” neither. I don’t know why no one want to sell me trees haha.
Thank you once again!
1 Like
Darrell, the Dutch don’t have much either, there is only the Kanza variety as interesting
Furthermore, the Dutch are very expensive, it happens like the Frances Dubosc nursery, where they ask you 70 Euros for a grafted pecan tree.
Vince, for your conditions the two main premises will be:
- Scab resistant varieties
- Very early maturing varieties
Darrell will advise you on good varieties for your conditions.
In this thread there has been a lot of talk about this type of early maturing and scab resistant varieties.
I have a lot of friendship with Ramon Rovira, the owner of Fruitex nurseries, the pecan trees from this nursery cost around 15 euros.
This winter I have to buy rootstocks, so if you let me know in December I will order Pawnee and Caddo for you.
Regards
Jose
1 Like
Ok so if the dutch is so expensive i can’t afford it… Too bad
I’ll read once again the thread but the problem is that even if i found a good variety, there’s no nursery to sell it and nursery from the usa can’t send trees in th EU.
Thank you so much for your offer José thatt would be very very nice! I’ll try to phone there cause if i can buy the trees straight from them that could be easier. Anyway thank you once again!
1 Like
We are working on ways to get some scionwood into the EU of more desirable varieties.
Here are some varieties to consider:
- Adams #5
- Amling
- Hark
- Kanza
- Lakota
- Oswego
In addition, check out the new varieties newly released by Bill Reid.
If you have Excel, you can pull a copy of the pollination spreadsheet which is posted on my website.
http://www.selectedplants.com/miscan/PecanPollination.xlsm
Jose is interested in getting Lipan as it is potentially viable for his climate. Lipan is not likely to maintain scab resistance long term, but this is not a major concern in an arid climate.
1 Like
Thank you Darrel! I know his blog and most of the cultivar could work in my climate but the problem is to find it here… So if you find a way to send scion wood here i’ll be more than interested
The excell file seems to be full of information, let me a few days to check that
1 Like