Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Short season pecans split shuck early in 2012

Warren 346
   The rain we've received over the past 10 days has kicked pecan nut development into high gear. Today, I walked through some of our cultivar trials and was shocked to find split shucks and fully mature pecans. It may be only a handful of short season pecan cultivars but its only September 4th; a date that is early for even the earliest maturing cultivars.
    The earliest ripening pecan we have under trial is Warren 346 (photo at right).  From the looks of the dry shuck, this pecan was probably mature at least a week ago in late August.  Warren 346 originated in Dale Warren's native pecan grove near Chillocothe, MO.

Mullahy
        Mullahy is a seedling pecan discovered in Iowa by Gary Fernald (Photo at right). This early ripening pecan most likely split shuck over the Labor day weekend. For a short season pecan, Mullahy has fairly good nut size.
Henning
 







 





    Henning is a cultivar that originated near Brunswick, Mo that probably ripened about the same time as Mullahy (photo at right). The nut is small and seems to be a favorite for wildlife predation.
Goosepond
  














     Goosepond was also found near Brunswick, MO (photo at right). But for an early nut, this pecan has good size. At this point, about 50% of the nuts on the tree have split their shucks.
Osage
















    Osage has also started to split shuck (photo at right). At this date, about 25% of the Osage nuts have split open. Osage is the earliest ripening pecan cultivar released by the USDA Pecan Breeding Project.