Conventional to organic: Raising more fruitful pecan orchards

By MINDY POEHL | Central Texas Edition

Left to right: Howard Garret, The Dirt Doctor, of DFW Metropelx; Sabino Cortez, Erath Earth Inc. Compost in Hico; and Dr. Joe Bradford, USDA Kika de la Garza ARA in Weslaco, attend the Organic Pecan Field Day in Hamilton County. Courtesy photo by Jimma Byrd

Oct. 13, 2005 - Sonny and Noreen Gebert own a thriving 800 pecan tree orchard in Hamilton County. And this year, the Hamilton County Organic Pecan Field Day was held on the Gebert's farm, on Sept. 19, where the audience was able to learn how to change from conventional to organic pecan production.

The Gebert's trees have been cared for with conventional production practices for the past 20 years, but for the last three years, half of the orchard has been treated with several different organic treatments from Dr. Joe Bradford, research leader at the USDA - ARS Kika de la Garza Subtropical Agricultural Research Center in Weslaco.

"Joe Bradford is the head scientist working on the study of organic versus conventional methods. He's found that organic treatment is more successful," stated Steve Bridges, with the Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association. "After two years of his study, the landowners wanted to take the organic side, too."

The audience at the Pecan Field Day in Hamilton takes notes on the “Dirt Doctor’s” presentation of growing organic pecans. Courtesy photo by Jimma Byrd

Some of the organic methods Bradford uses are compost, organic fertilizer and compost tea.

"Compost tea is a highly concentrated solution with air blown through it. It increases the oxygen in the treatment given to the trees," explained Bridges.

Compost Tea helps to create a balanced soil foodweb for the trees, which suppresses disease-causing and pest organisms, improves the nutritional quality of the plant, produces good soil structure and improves the water-holding capacity. Compost teas also help retain nitrogen and other nutrients such as calcium, iron, potassium, phosphorus.

"The attendees learned the biological approach to raising pecans, paying close attention to microbial in soil," said Bridges.

The "Dirt Doctor", Howard Garrett, was on hand to speak about his expertise on organic pecans, as were organic pecan growers, Leah and Kyle Leonard of Weyrich Pecans in Eagle Pass, who spoke about organically growing pecans on their farm. 

The "Dirt Doctor" suggested planting trees in wide, rough-sided or square holes.

"Those who say to dig a small round hole are deficient," Garrett said.

Then, fill the hole from the soil that was dug out and settle the soil with water, adding a one inch layer of lava sand and compost mix. Finish with a 3 to 5 inch layer of coarse-textured native cedar mulch and do not stake, wrap trunk or cut back the top, Garrett instructed.

"Mechanical aeration of the root zone of existing trees is beneficial, but tilling, disking or plowing destroys feeder roots and should never be done," Garrett said. "Pecans should never have bare soil. The root zone should always be covered with mulches or native grasses."

In his studies at the Gebert's orchard, Bradford has discovered that an organic orchard works well and is more successful than a conventional orchard. 

"You don't want a lot of harmful pesticide residues, and organic processes are kinder to the environment. It is less harmful to people, too, because they are not in contact with chemicals," explained Bridges. "On an organic orchard, we are doing thing with nature instead of against her."

Bradford will continue his study for three more years and then release a scientific publication on his findings.

"There is not much of a study on how organics work. USDA gives very little money - less than 1 percent per year - to study organics. And, the demand for organic foods is growing 20 percent per year," Bridges said. "With conventional methods, there is one variable. In organic methods, it's a combination of variables. Everything is working together. It is a "whole system" instead of a silver bullet."