I’m in zone 5, so I’m mainly looking at the early varieties. The temperature that would stop nut maturation process should be 26F and below, right? What about a light freeze 27-32F at which I’m expecting leaves would fall down, can it continue maturation process after that, for instance, if it needs a couple more weeks to mature completely?
Within some limits, yes, a pecan can mature even after leaf fall. But! If it freezes, all stop, don’t pass go. Frozen pecans will die and fall from the tree as inedible mush. Zone 5 would suggest somewhere north of Moline IL. If so, only ultra northern varieties have a chance of maturing. That puts you back to Warren 346, Lucas, OC-6, and similar.
I have an unusual occurrence this year with Sumner pecan grafted 2024/04/24. My tree has a cluster of 3 nuts maturing. This is on a branch that was heavily pruned for scionwood back in February. One of the remaining spurs grew a branch with a cluster of female flowers which are developing. I have many other pecan trees up to 5 years old that have not yet produced a flower cluster. It is normal for some varieties to produce nuts only after 7 to 9 years from graft/transplant.
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From my experience I would say yes. My Sumner produced 15 or so nuts after only 3 years and then produced small amounts for the next 3-5 years. It was planted as not much more than as a whip. The 14 year Stuart has never produced. Maybe the Stuart was not a grafted tree.
I believe the word is precocious. Meaning that certain cultivars produce at an earlier age than others. Precocity seems (to me) to vary much more in pecan tree varieties than other fruit tree varieties. I would certainly say that it is normal for some pecans varieties to produce after 7 to 9 years. It just happens. The way that I look at it it is not necessarily when you have the first crop but when you have the first meaningly sized crop.
I am not absolute certain that I follow your statement though. I take it that you are saying that that you grafted a seedling tree with a Sumner scion and then had a cluster of 3 nuts the following year!? How old was your seedling? Why would you prune a branch for scion wood after only one year? It grew that much?
Sumner is a precocious tree as advertised and in my experience that is true. My Sumner nuts are average in size and thin walled. Industry seems to prefer the thin walled nuts but I wonder if they are lacking in durability.
I grafted Sumner on a 3 year old seedling last spring with 2 scions both of which took and grew about 4 feet tall. I cut one of them back for scionwood this spring leaving the other stem growing. The stem I cut back now has a cluster of nuts developing.
Lakota is far more precocious than Sumner, meaning it produces harvestable crops after just 5 or 6 years.
You should do really good with pecans since you are serious. In my view you have to be ultra serious to succeed with pecans. I can say without a doubt that I was not serious enough when I first started. Should have waited until I could purchase better varieties. Too many mistakes.