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| Major, 3 Oct. 2014 |
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Since I checked just 3 days ago, eight more pecan cultivars have split open their shucks. The first 3 cultivars I want to draw your attention to are Major, Kanza, and Hark. Notice how similar the shucks of the three cultivars look (smooth with little or no raised ridge at the sutures). In addition, each cultivar seems to split open the same way (shucks stay narrowly open). Major is one of the parents of Kanza, so it seems only logical that these two cultivars are similar in shuck appearance and ripening date. The parentage of Hark is unknown but the when I compare the shuck opening appearance of Hark to both Major and Kanza it sure points to Hark having Major as one of its parents.
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| Kanza, 3 Oct 2014 |
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| Hark, 3 Oct. 2014 |
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| James, 3 Oct 2014 |
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| Jayhawk, 3 Oct. 2014 |
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| Mandan, 3 Oct. 2014 |
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| USDA 75-8-5, 3 Oct. 2014 |
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| USDA 75-8-9, 3 Oct. 2014 |
The next three cultivars that ripened this week and pictured in this post are James, Jayhawk, and Mandan. Although they split their shucks at the same time these three cultivars have widely different origins. James originated as a native seedling on the George James farm just outside of Brunswick, MO. Jayhawk is an open-pollinated seedling of Giles (KS seedling) originating from a pecan orchard near Belle Plain, KS. Mandan originated from the USDA pecan breeding project and was the result of a controlled cross between BW-1 and Osage. BW-1 is a seedling from Brownwood, TX while Osage originated from a cross of Major (KY seedling) and Evers (TX seedling).
Two USDA advanced selections also ripened this week; USDA 75-8-5 and USDA 75-8-9. These clones have the same parentage, originating from a controlled cross between Osage and Creek.
