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Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Pecan cultivars ripening by September 30th

 
Faith, 30 Sept. 2014
     The pecan ripening season is moving right along. Today, the last day of September, I found that five more pecan cultivars had split open their shucks since last week (photos at right and below). Gardner, Faith, and Pawnee always seem to ripen at the same time and this year was no exception. However, when checking the nuts for ripening date, I had to make sure to check nuts well above the April 15th freeze line in order to make an accurate assessment.
    Also ripening over the weekend was Surecrop and Posey.  Posey's shuck split is a little difficult to see at first. Look carefully at the photo below and you will note that the shuck has opened up at the very tip of the nut. If you press gently on the shuck you would find that the shuck has actually split down each suture all the way to the base of the nut. In a week or so, shucks will start to dry and shrink from moisture loss. At that point, the shuck will start to curl back away from the nut and Posey will actually look  like a fully ripe pecan.   

Gardner, 30 Sept. 2014
Pawnee, 30 Sept. 2014
Posey, 30 Sept. 2014
Surecrop, 30 Sept. 2014