Extreme drought impacts pecan shucksplit

     During the first week of October, I usually note several pecan cultivars that have split shuck. However, this year, the extended drought has delayed the normal timing of nut ripening. The photo at right shows a cluster of Earlton nuts with the first signs of shucksplit on October 3rd, 2022.  

    Earlton is a cultivar I released from my pecan breeding program primarily for its early ripening date. During a more normal rainfall year, Earlton ripens in mid-September. The photo at left was taken on 18 Sept. 2020 and shows a cluster of Earlton nuts as they normally appear at shucksplit. 

    Besides splitshuck two weeks later than normal, this year's Earlton nuts appear barely split open. This is a good reminder that adequate water supply is necessary for normal shuck opening.

    Liberty, another of my pecan cultivars, usually ripens around September 24th at my location. However, the drought has also delayed normal shucksplit for Liberty. The photo above shows a Liberty nut in cross section and a whole nut that I cut off a portion of the shuck to reveal the shell. This photo illustrates several impacts of the 2022 drought. First, these Liberty nuts are less that 1/2 the size of normal Liberty pecans. Although there is a good amount of kernel inside the nut, I noted that kernel fill was less than ideal. There are voids within the kernel halves and the central kernel partion is not fully compressed. These observations lead me to predict drier and less oily kernels at harvest. When this photo was taken on Oct. 3rd,  the shucks were not split open. When I cut off a portion of the shuck, I revealed a fully colored shell underneath. This tells me that the nut is fully mature but the tree lacks sufficient water to pop the shucks open on schedule.