Category: Pecans

Squat Pecan Orchard Follow-Up

10/21/2012

Pecans (Wish they were from my trees!)

Back in February I planted six pecan trees on a vacant lot near my house. I planted the trees approximately 35 feet apart along the northern edge of the lot where they should be fairly out of the way, and placed a 3-gallon pot with the bottom cut out around each tree to protect the trunk. I marked them with orange pin flags, small t-posts with some orange flag tape, and metal tags with the variety names. Luckily the guys that mow the grass didn't cut them down.

Since then, I haven't done anything for the trees except the occasional drive-by inspection. No water. No fertilizer. Nothing. So last week I thought it was time to take a walk out there and take a close look at how my little experiment was going. To my very pleasant surprise all of the trees were still alive! This is no doubt partially due to the frequent rains we received this summer. Weeds were thriving within the safety of the three-gallon pots, but I made quick work of them with my pruning shears. I know the trees didn't grow as well as they would have if I had babied them all year, but all things considered, I'm very impressed. After all, I just took some bare-root little twigs out there, haphazardly shoved them in the ground, and then left them to fend for themselves. This spring I'll fertilize them, and put down some leaves and pine needles for much.

The Oconee tree appears to be the healthiest of the bunch, but hopefully all the trees spent the year developing good root systems, and will shoot up in the next couple of years. My grandfather always said that a pecan sleeps the first couple years, but will catch up to any tree after that. Since the mowers haven't bothered the trees so far, I'm definitely thinking about how many more trees I can plant out there. I would like to plant some Forkert pecans (the best for the Gulf Coast according to John Panzarella) along the southern edge of the property, but I haven't been able to find any that weren't prohibitively expensive. Depending on how much I have to spend, I may just plant 6-12 native pecan trees. The nuts aren't as large, but they are still very tasty, and I can plant twice as many trees for the same money. Regardless, I am greatly encouraged by my little squat orchard, and I hope to have all 1.3 acres of that lot planted before too long.

Oconee

Kanza

Desireable

Podsednik

Lakota

Choctaw

2 Comments

Squat Orchard

2/5/2012

4 Comments

Vacant 1.3-acre Parcel

I've always wanted to plant some pecan trees, but I just don't have room in my yard. For five years I've driven by a 1.3-acre vacant lot on my way home, and thought about planting trees there. I even tried to contact the property owner to ask permission, but no one has ever returned a single call or email. As I drove by the other day I thought to myself, "If I had planted some trees out there five years ago when I first had the idea, I might have been able to harvest a few pecans by now." I've always heard that the best time to plant a tree is five years ago. So I decided to stop just day dreaming about it, and actually put my plan into action.

I called Womack's Nursery in De Leon, Texas, and ordered six 12"-18" grafted pecan trees, three of each flower type. Pecan flowers are dichogamous, which means that the male and female flowers on a tree mature at different times. This is a strategy that has evolved to prevent self-fertilization and promote genetic diversity. In protogynous (female first) flowers, the pistils are receptive to pollination first, and and then shed pollen. In protandrous (male first) flowers, the pollen is shed first, and then the pistils become receptive to pollination. In order to get good cross pollination, I ordered three protandrous and three protogynous cultivars:

Protandrous: Oconee, Desireable, and Podsednik
Protogynous: Choctaw, Kanza, and Lakota

The trees arrived on Monday, packaged well and in great shape, with each one having a significant root system up to two and a half feet long. So far I've been very impressed with Womack's and will definitely order from them again. Since I couldn't plant them right away, I covered the roots in moist potting soil until the weekend. Once the kids went down for their naps yesterday, I snuck out the vacant lot and got to work. Thankfully the ground was fairly soft from all the rain we've had recently, because I had to dig some seriously big holes to accommodate the tree's long taproots.

I planted the trees approximately 35 feet apart along the northern edge of the lot where they should be fairly out of the way. It also looks like water from the nearby homes drains to that area, which will be big plus if we have another brutally dry summer. I placed a 3-gallon pot with the bottom cut out around each tree to protect the trunk, and marked them with orange pin flags, small t-posts with some orange flag tape, and metal tags with the variety names. I'm hoping that this will be enough to keep the mowers that come around every couple of months from cutting them down. If I can fool the mowers into thinking that those trees are supposed to be there, then the trees' chances of survival will be that much better. I'm going to go back later and add some printed labels with an official sounding name, for a little extra insurance.

So now when I drive by the lot every day on my way home from work, I'll be keeping an eye on my squat pecan orchard, and not just day dreaming. They may get run over by a mower, pulled out by the landowner, or otherwise killed by drought or disease, but at least I will have tried. Who knows? They might even make it. The boys and I could be picking up pecans in five years or so. If the trees survive until next year I'll plant six more, and just keep adding trees every year until the whole lot is planted.