I’m just south of Brookings, so I went ahead and used Mesonet, the local colleges weather data system for info. If it’s correct, it appears we had 721 CDD, and 8003 HDD, for the year of 2020. We also had 17.5" of moisture, which is down 6.7" from normal.
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I’m east of St. Paul. I’ve tried pecans several times without success, either winter-killed or rodents got one when the hardware enclosure tilted a bit. . My carpathian walnuts and butternuts are growing, at least, although very slowly, so I don’t know if I will see any nuts yet in my lifetime. Chestnuts also surviving, but have hardly grown at all.
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Thanks. I can fully recommend if this data is on par for yearly averages that you should be growing:
NC-4 (155 days to break shuck split)
Mullahy (155 days to break shuck split)
Both these are at the top of the line (#1 & #2) for being recommended for areas outside the pecan belt with at least 500 CDD (but I’m not sure how many frost free days minimum is necessary.) What I can tell anyone is that Lebanon, Connecticut USA can mature kernels fully with 170 or more frost free days and having 500 CDD.
NBraun, when I looked at your data, 160 days was the lowest shown. You get more like 180 frost free days.
To conclude, both Lebanon CT. and your data are the same but you get more heat than Lebanon, CT.
NC-4 is an annual cropper while Mullahy is bi-annual mainly but does have a small crop one year and a large crop the next and the cycle repeats.
If you would like more information on other cultivars just ask. Those two as I said are the best two you’ll grow. Buy your trees large and request that any tree you order has been grafted 10" above the root collar or more. That will improve with hardiness and that problem with die-back on young(er) grafts.
Both you and @northwoodswis4 cannot and I stress cannot go wrong with hickories. Plant as many Grainger hickories at a ratio of 5-6 Grainger to 1 (another shagbark, I’d recommend Porter for instance but there are other great shagbark’s.) Shellbark’s are generally considered zone 5 hardy. So depending upon how cold your “zone 4” winters become, that’s up for you to decide. Definitely focus on as far northern selections of shellbarks when deciding if you’re going to grow them. I don’t have that data.
Dax
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Thanks Dax, I’ll take a look into those varieties.
Would you have any nursery recommendations? It looks like there’s only one nursey that sells the Mullahy, Rockbridge, and they’re sold out, and Nolins is no longer accepting orders.
I’ll definitely look into the hickories, I’d never heard of them and they look really interesting.
The oft overlooked Achilles heel of nut trees is the rootstock. Graft a winter hardy top onto a susceptible rootstock and the result will be a frozen dead tree. This is mentioned quite a bit in the various walnut and pecan threads. I am particularly put off by the number of Elliott rootstocks used here in the southeast. Elliott is a very good rootstock, but tends to break dormancy just a tad too early in North Alabama and anywhere further north. For a zone 5 or further north climate, the best pecan rootstock will be a zone 5 hardy pecan. If you want to grow pecan in a marginal area, do due diligence to get a fully hardy rootstock.
https://www.grimonut.com/index.php?p=Products&category=pecan-ultra-northern
https://www.burntridgenursery.com/Northern-Pecan-Trees/products/59/
You can dig out a bunch of sellers of seedlings. IMO, seedlings are an option, but grafted trees are usually a better choice.
Ditto Darrel’s caution about rootstock hardiness.
Some years ago, a pecan grower in far western KY planted about 1000 grafted pecans, sourced from a Southern propagator. While the grafted varieties were Northern/Midwestern-origin cultivars, fully hardy here, rootstocks were Southern pecan seedlings. A ‘test’ winter (1978, I think) resulted in virtually all of those trees being killed outright, or at least back to the root collar… tops would have sailed right through, but the rootstocks couldn’t take it.
I just purchased 750 grafted varieties from southeastern Georgia. I am planting them in east central Arkansas. You guys are giving me buyers remorse!
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You might be OK
Check with the nursery to see if they can tell you what parent variety seednuts they use for rootstock production.
What varieties did you buy? Hoping you bought scab-resistant varieties unless you’re set up for and prepared to institute an extensive spray program.
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Lakota, Oconee, Avalon and Caddo
Most southeastern nurseries use Elliott as rootstock because it produces fast growing seedlings. Elliott is susceptible to cold so you can wind up with serious damage at the graft union.
Lakota tends to overbear. It has decent cold tolerance given Major is one parent. If you grow Lakota, plan to shake off part of the crop in years of heavy load. Lakota is protogynous.
Oconee has several advantages, but is not particularly cold tolerant. It is moderately precocious and moderately productive. This is a good thing because it tends to be profitable for low input operations. You will have to spray for scab, but only 4 to 8 times per year depending on rainfall. Oconee is protandrous and a fairly good pollination partner for Lakota. There is one problem with this combination. Lakota tends to drop mature nuts 2 or 3 weeks before Oconee. This will make harvest a bit disjointed.
Avalon is unknown for cold tolerance, but based on genetics, should be reasonably good. It is moderately productive, moderately precocious, and very low input meaning 2 or 3 scab sprays should control most of the fungal diseases. Maturity is in the middle between Lakota and Oconee.
Caddo is one of the best quality small pecans. Weakness is that it is susceptible to aphids and moderately susceptible to scab. You will have to spray 8 to 12 times per year to keep fungal diseases and pests under control. Harvest is very similar to Oconee.
IMO, your choice of varieties is probably weakest with Lakota which has such a problem overbearing. Other than that, the rootstock represents significant risk.
By chance, did you purchase from Buck Paulk?
I bought a few things from burnt ridge nursery last spring and they sent me a catalog a few weeks ago… they have several pecan trees listed… including some hardy northern types. The plants i got from them last year were great quality. Good luck… TNHunter
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Anyone know of a source for Kanza seedlings? Alternatively is there any rootstock selection that you’d recommend for zone 7?
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Seedlings of ‘Major’ (a parent of Kanza) are preferred here on the zone 6/7 interface.
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I started a bunch of Kanza a few years ago to use as rootstocks. A relatively large percentage of them have been slow growing. Grauke recommends to cull the slowest growing 30% of seedlings. I’ve been culling 60% of Kanza seedlings for slow growth. I’m getting better all around results using Adams #5 as a rootstock. It tends to produce a high percentage of fast growing seedlings and has pretty good cold tolerance. If I lived in Kentucky or further north, I would definitely use Major. Don’t use Elliott as a rootstock in Zone 7. Too many Elliott seedlings are cold susceptible and break dormancy too early. Should also mention that Lakota produces a large percentage of fast growing seedlings that show excellent cold tolerance. I only have 2 years of data on Lakota so far, but intend to use it a lot more in the future.
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Lakota stays cold-tolerant in my true IL zone 5b that stays at -12 or so each winter. We have at least 180-days on any given year. ‘Lakota’ won’t ripen here. There’s some info., for ya.
It’s hardy here but might suffer a bit of cambium damage on a -18 or -20 winter. I’ll ask Gary again the next time I see him, Darrel.
Dax
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I wouldn’t recommend Lakota as a rootstock that far north. It should be good up to at least the southern half of Kentucky and perhaps as high as zone 6A.
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I planted a Kanza and a Hark this year (Northern VA, outside DC). I know these two should pollinate each other pretty well, but there are also lots of hickory trees in my area.
Will Hickory help pollinate pecan?
Also, thanks to a windstorm I may have space for a third pecan tree. What variety would go best with a Hark and a Kanza?
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You may consider a ‘Grainger’ shagbark as they are huge nuts that crack easy! A Master Nutcracker is great for hickories/black walnuts/ etc. Fusion will help with the pecan recommendation.
Hickory is a long long long term project as they usually grow much slower than pecan. Don’t hesitate to plant one if you have 20 years to watch the tree grow. Grainger and Porter are good suggestions.
To answer your question regarding pollination, yes, 32 chromosome hickories will cross with pecan, but my experience has been that hickories generally produce pollen too late for most hickory trees.
If you want another pecan, Oswego is a good candidate.
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