Dr. Larry Stein, Texas AgriLife Extension horticulturalist, said water and fertilizer are two of the most important aspects of pecan management.
—Staff photo by Rost
Management key to pecan production
By CAROLYN ROST, Country World Staff Writer
May 8, 2008 - Orchard management, drought strategies, integrated pest management and the market outlook were all topics of a recent pecan field day held at Barclay’s Lazy B Pecan Ranch near Seguin.
During the field day, orchard owner Steve Barclay, along with several Texas AgriLife Extension pecan specialists, gave attendees valuable information on growing pecan trees and marketing the popular nuts.
In his opening address, Barclay spoke about his years of successes and errors while establishing his orchard.
“I’m not an expert. I came into this business knowing absolutely nothing about pecans. I made enough mistakes along the way. I might be able to keep you from making some mistakes,” he said.
At his orchard, Barclay grows 300 pecan trees on eight acres. The orchard, he said, is about 10 to 13 years old and all the trees are under cultivation.
“I’ve got an underground irrigation system and I’ve got two wells. My main well pumps about 15 gallons a minute and the second one is a solar well. It has panels that, even when the sun isn’t shining, will still pump at 50 percent.”
One early lesson Barclay learned was the size of the line needed to carry the water to all the trees.
“I started out with a 1 1/2 inch line but that was a mistake. That doesn’t carry all the water you need when you are trying to irrigate. I could only irrigate about five trees. So I put in a 3 1/2 inch line right beside it. Now I water 35 trees at a time.”
In four hours, Barclay said, he can put out about 900 gallons of water per tree. Since the first of March he has watered three times, and, if it continues to stay dry, he will remain on a regular watering schedule.
According to Dr. Larry Stein, AgriLife Extension horticulturist from Uvalde, watering and fertilizing at the right time and having a good management program is the key to good pecan production.
“He (Barclay) did a good job of taking care of them last fall when they were filling. He gave them enough water, they had enough fertilizer so they went ahead and filled out the pecans, stored reserves and this year they are coming back with a crop.”
Before a management program can be implemented, one first has to determine what their crop outlook will be. Right now, he said, one way to tell if pecan trees will make a good crop is to look and see if the trees have a lot of catkins (male flowers).
“If you walk out in your orchard and you see the catkins out, you are going to have a fairly good crop. Then you need to step up with your management program.”
The first thing growers need to do is spray zinc on the trees, he said.
“You need to get the zinc sprays out there early to get the leaves to develop to full size.”
For those looking at a good crop this year, five applications of zinc throughout the year will be needed.
“We like to spray at bud break, two weeks later, then when we spray for casebearer, two weeks after that and then if they (the leaves) are still growing - another one.”
Once the leaves get to be full size, he said, “they don’t take it up anymore.”
Stein said for those who don’t have a good catkin crop, there’s no need for five applications.
“We make one at bud break, one two weeks later and then we are going to adjust our program based on what we’re finding casebearer wise.”
Due to the high costs of fertilizer this year, growers should adjust accordingly.
“If we don’t have a crop, there’s no need to throw all this money at these trees.”
On the other hand, he said, the trees should not be neglected either.
“We don’t want to short them and put them in a stress situation because we want them to come back in 2009.”
When it comes to fertilizer, nitrogen is the big element that makes trees grow, said Stein.
“Nitrogen is necessary to cause these shoots to grow and expand. It’s also necessary to fill out the pecans. As the pecans go into the fill stage, they need a lot of nitrogen fertilizer.”
Typically, he said, pecan trees get nitrogen out of the soil.
“If they don’t, they rob the leaves. If they rob the leaves, the leaves turn yellow. If the leaves turn yellow, they don’t photosynthesize like they should. So there are a lot of key times when nitrogen is real important to the tree.”
The best way to apply nitrogen fertilizer is to put it on the ground - not on the leaves.
“When sprayed on the leaves, not much goes in,” he stated.
An even better way to apply nitrogen - if at all possible - is in the irrigation water.
“If you can get set up to fertigate, that is the best way to do it because you are putting it in the water, in the ground and you are not going to lose any of it.”
According to Stein, the Texas AgriLife Extension service recommends a grower put 60 to 100 units (pounds) of nitrogen per acre per year on mature pecan trees.
“We recommend that you put half on now at bud break and then you come back toward the end of May, first part of June - if you have a crop -and put the other half on. If you don’t have a crop, I would not fertilize any more this year. Put on 40 (units) now and none later.”
When it comes to water, he said, the leaves dictate how much water a tree uses.
“It has nothing to do with the age. It has nothing to do with the trunk diameter. It’s the number of leaves.”
To help stretch the water supply, Stein recommends that growers take out limbs.
“When you take limbs out of trees, you take leaves out. When you take leaves out, they need less water.”
Stein said the best way to irrigate pecan trees is to water an inch a week from now until the end of July. Then two inches a week in August, September and October. For those this year who don’t have a crop, he said, “you can maybe go every four or five weeks without irrigation.”
Since weeds and grass compete with the tree for water, keeping the orchard clean is important. According to Stein, the best way to control the weeds is with glyphosate applied three to four times a year.
“Apply it when the grass is dry and you apply less water per acre.”
For those interested in establishing an orchard, the type of soil will have a big impact on the size of the tree, and therefore, the production numbers.
“These trees are 10 to 13 years old and they are not very big. The reason they are so much smaller is the soil. This is a heavier soil. This is not a number one pecan soil. It is not as well drained as other soils. So the amount of production on this type of soil is going to be limited.”
Even though the trees are smaller, they will still be good producers, he said.
“Basically what we would like these trees to do now is to grow about 6 to 8 inches more, then stop growing and make pecans. Then we will get the amount of production we are going to get out of them. If they did that, we would never have to take trees out or thin them.”
Depending on the type of soil, some varieties grow better than others. Barclay said, for him, the variety Desirable, produces the most nuts and is the best crop for the area and Stein agreed.
“If it was me, I’d plant Desirable today in this soil. Desirable does good year in and year out. It does scab a little bit, but if you spray it, you are going to be in good shape.”
