Small Pecan Grove Question

[big bend gyrene]

Seeking advice / answers to questions from ANY board members with experience growing pecans.

At our place we've got two fields to the sides of our entry driveway. Loving both eating pecans and the forms/looks of pecan trees, I've got an itching to plant a small grove in a portion of the fields. Living between Lloyd & Wacissa the variants I'm leaning to putting in include mixed plantings of Moreland, Elliott, Cape Fears, and possibly Curtis with the Cape Fears & Curtis helping to pollinate the Moreland & Elliotts.

Here's a rough layout of what I've got pictured in my mind.

So here are my questions.

1) Pretty sure once the trees start producing that 18 trees (or even a few more) will produce more than I can eat / give to friends. So, that said, can pecans be sold locally here in the Tallahassee area? Should add my preference is over low maintenance than high production. Definitely plan on watering first year, but not really looking to treat commercially but instead more as an organic home stand. Just wandering if am lucky enough to have excess of nuts if I can sale them.

2) If CAN sell, will it matter having the mixed varieties together?

3) Again, with emphasis looking to treat as home orchard, anybody feel strongly I've picked the wrong varieties?

4) My drawn layout has spacing of roughly 50' between trees. Know folks often plant 30' apart then thin 20 years or down the road to 60' spacing. Making a big mistake to plant 50' apart? Just thinking won't be issue until I'm old enough not to care too much (67 in 20 years) .

5) I like the idea of 18 or even 24 total trees more for looks in the now empty field space than I do the work they'll entail. Am I crazy for thinking of putting in that many? If so, how many would anyone advise planting in the TLH area if just doing it to have a bit of excess for family / friends.

6) What questions should I have asked that I didn't?!

[countrycorners]

My advice is take up your questions with your county extension agent and/or UF Ag school people. They'll help and get you lined up with knowledgeable local producers. You're looking at a huge investment. Why get advice from strangers off a fishing forum??

[Rhettley]

Definitely talk to the experts.

I do know you can sell them. Lots of folks in S GA do. Thomasville has the best prices in the area this year. It is a LOT of work though if done by hand. You have to pick them up and then clean them. I'm guessing you would have to keep them separate since different varieties bring different dollars per pound each year. You'd want to check which varieties typically sell the best and what it would cost to buy some sort of automated equipment for the tractor to pick them up or brush them into rows verses the cost of hiring help to gather them.

Most folks here thoroughly clean the ground then hire a tree shaker to come shake the nuts out of the trees so they can be gathered quicker.

[big bend gyrene]

Why get advice from strangers off a fishing forum??

Countrycorners, quite a diverse group of folks check this forum regularly, many who live here in the Tallahassee area where the forum originated/is run, and be pretty surprised if none has pecan trees and offers some useful insight. What we have an "Off Topic" section for after all.

Rhettley, having been out our way you're probably one of the folks who can best appreciate my posing the questions... really think pecans would match the aesthetics of the land and love to utilize the space, but not really wanting ANOTHER business to run. Why I asked "Am I crazy..." in question 6. Lived around pecans my whole life but never had any on my own land. Know the limb drop is a PITA, and don't mind dealing with that but not really wanting to spray, buy harvesting equipment, etc.

If nothing else, love to hear from anyone on how many they think produce enough for family/friends (and squirrels) use, appreciating takes years to get them to produce and need at least couple different varieties for pollination.

[Dubble Trubble]

Are you going to try to graft them yourself? It is an art, and even the good grafters get only maybe a 60% to 70% success rate.

I think you can also buy them grafted, but I am betting they are expensive!

Dubble

[Rhettley]

Have you thought about maybe planting the 4 trees on the outside corners of your diagram and running some fruit trees down the middle? Maybe run the row of three's and leave out the middle row and plant fruit. I'd think from what I've seen gathered around here on a good year 8 or 10 trees would give you plenty for family and friends and probably more than you care to pick up by hand.

[big bend gyrene]

Have you thought about maybe planting the 4 trees on the outside corners of your diagram and running some fruit trees down the middle? Maybe run the row of three's and leave out the middle row and plant fruit.

Tempting, Rhettley, tempting! Definitely going to do some fruit planting and likely some rows of sawtooth oaks on the property, but thinking of putting them to the side and back of the house to best target increased daytime deer traffic away from the highway / closer to wooded portions of the property. At least that's what I'm thinking for the moment.

[zload]

Pecans for N Fl


120 Pecan articles from UF ifas site

Not sure these articles were accessible from Leon County back in the day my dad had two trees in the front yard... every other year they had a heavier yield, that was more than I wanted to pick up by hand and he usually sold a couple of burlap feed sacks full on top of what went in the freezer. Saw a nice little manual pecan "picker upper" at the Moultrie Ag fair one year everything from small push units to something for a small utility tractor beat the heck out of those old spring balls at the end of a pole!

Nothing better looking than a pecan tree but having had a yard full of old heirloom trees they can be a pain between the limbs self pruning, the bloom pods dropping off and then the hulls and leaves. I did like using the limbs in the smoker though. Also looks like any semi-serious nut production requires multiple fungicide spraying in the spring.

[big bend gyrene]

Have read / reread the first link many times, though a few times from Jefferson county where we actually live.

As for picking up nuts, though don't have pecans do have a few big productive hickories and use a spring ball to pick them up. Gathered up over 100 pounds this year in about an hour. Had the patience to shell / pick through five pounds or so before I got generous with the squirrels. LOVE the taste of the hickories on our place but man they'll test your patience!

[FUTCHCAIRO]

HEA YA OLE GYRENE, WE HAVE 30 PECANS OF DIFFERENT VARIETIES ON THE OLD PROPERTY WE JUST SOLD, I WOULD BE SURE TO HAVE SOME MAHAN VARIETIES, THEY MAKE LARGE SOFT SHELL PECANS. I WOULD ALWAYS KEEP THE GROUND LIGHTLY DISC AND FERTILIZER IN THE SPRING AND FALL, SPRAY WITH COPPER IN THE EARLY FALL SEVERAL TIMES. THIS VARIETY DOES NOT SEEM TO DROP AS MANY LIMBS AS OTHER VARIETIES AND SEEM TO BE EASIER TO DEAL WITH. THIS VARIETY SEEMED TO PRODUCE FAIRLY REGULAR AND SEEMED TO PRODUCE A LARGER CROP THAN THE OTHER VARIETIES.
I MADE A SWEEP TO HARVEST THE NUTS AND COULD SWEEP THE LITTLE GROVE IN ABOUT 4 HOURS DEPENDING ON HOW MANY HULLS FELL WITH THE NUTS. MY MOWING AROUND THE TREES SEVERAL TIMES A YEAR MADE FOR EASY HARVESTING. YA CAN BUY A SMALL PECAN SWEEP IN STORES LIKE (TRACTOR SUPPLY) OVER IN THOMASVILLE, THIS I WOULD RECOMMEND. WE HAVE A PECAN PURCHASER HERE IN GRADY COUNTY OVER AT THE FARMERS MARKET. HE IS OPEN AS SOON AS THERE ARE ENOUGH GROWERS START SHOWING UP. THERE IS ANOTHER PURCHASERS OVER IN WHIGAM AND IN THOMASVILLE. THIS YEAR WE HAD A SMALL CROP ON ALL VARIETIES AND THE PRICE WAS WAY UP, GENERALLY THE PRICE HAS RUN AS LOW AS .30 AND UP TO SEVERAL DOLLARS A POUND LIKE LAST YEAR. DO NOT MIX UP VARIETIES WHEN YOU SELL, IF YOU DO NOT IT WILL CUT WAY DOWN ON THE WHAT THE BUYERS WILL PAY. WE GENERALLY GOT ENOUGH PECANS TO GIVE ALL THE KIDS A 100 # EACH AND GET ENOUGH MONEY TO DO CHRISTMAS AND TAKE SEVERAL NICE TRIPS A YEAR. I WOULD NOT PLANT THE TREES CLOSE TO ANY BUILDINGS SINCE THEY MAKE A MESS IF YOU CAN NOT CLEAN UP THE GROUND WITH MECHANICAL EQUIPMENT, WHEN THE TREES GET UP TO ABOUT 100 YRS OLD, BIG LIMBS WILL START TO FALL, IF THEY ARE OVER ANY BUILDINGS THEY WILL POKE HOLES IN THE ROOFS, AND SOMETIMES MORE, LIKE RAFTERS AND CEILING PLATES. WELL I HAVE GONE ON TOO LONG AGAIN, GOOD LUCK ON YOUR CHOICES AND BE SURE TO PLANT SEVERAL APPLE AND PEAR TREES TO GO ALONG WITH THE PECANS, ANOTHER GOOD PLANT TO PLANT WOULD BE BLUEBERRIES, WE HAVE ABOUT A DOZEN BLUEBERRIES AND GET ENOUGH TO HAVE BLUEBERRIES FOR ICE CREAM, MUFFINS ETC. TO LAST ALL YEAR LONG.
PA
SEMPER FI

[big bend gyrene]

Was hopeful you would share some wisdom, PA, and very thankful you did. Know you've gained lots of knowledge through experience in your life and MUCH appreciate your generosity in sharing it!
Semper Fi,
BBG

[MudDucker]

I've poked the idea around myself. There is a family here in Lowndes County that is huge in pecans. The Paulk family. There was an article in the paper about their raising grafted trees. They go by Shiloh Farm. The young trees didn't seem to be too expensive, but the infrastructure for a pecan orchard done right is expensive. Most put in serious irrigation including irrigation systems that allow you to inject fertilizer through the system. There are several local pecan houses in Valdosta that buy pecans from folks off of the street and I am sure there are some in your area. I used to have some trees around my office, but some disease got into all but two of them. That was a relief because I would come out several times during the year only to find a skinny black man climbing up to the top to shake the tree. Harvesting the nuts by hand is tough work. We used to do it for my grandmother who had a 10 acre orchard by her house.

Usually the ag extension folks have a lot of information on these types of topics and they make great resources.

[redbelly7]

I'd plant some Satsuma trees along w Blueberries.

[big bend gyrene]

Interesting video on the subject of harvesting without spending a fortune on equipment... his sorter is proof that necessity is the mother of invention.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7un4bYoV1VQ[/video]

[zload]

Thats the one I saw in Moultrie, they were doing the demo on clean grass but apparently works in the rough as well, maybe add a lawn a blower along the back to blast the leaves put before they get in the hopper