As most readers of this blog will know, I am a big fan of the Kanza pecan (photo at right). At the Pecan Experiment Field we have a 3 acre block of Kanza trees that was established when we planted nuts in the field to produce rootstock trees back in 1996. These seedling trees were then grafted to Kanza during the years 2000-2003. The original planting contained 144 trees but since 2012 we have been removing trees as adjacent trees start to crowd. My goal was to maintain a high level of nut production while preventing tree over-crowding. I outlined this
gradual thinning plan in a blog post back in 2012.
By 2016, we have removed 33 trees, yet total yield per acre has increased (table below). Yield was negatively affected in 2011 and 2012 by intense summer
droughts and small nut size.
We saw the first indication of Kanza
over-producing in 2016, so I expect a drop off in yield in 2017. In addition, I've marked 15 trees in the Kanza block for removal this winter. Can the remaining trees make up for the lost production from thinned trees? I guess we'll find out come next fall.
