Good nut crop in pecan breeding plot

KT114 and lady beetle 26 July 2019

    I finally got some time to look over the trees in my pecan breeding block. The nuts are starting to size up and the crop load is starting to become clearly visible. Although I ran out of daylight to photograph all of my top selections, I was able to record some pictures of nut clusters as of 26 July 2019.  At this point, they all look about the same size but you can start to see minor variations in nut shape and shuck appearance. Overall the crop looks good and I am excited to see the kernel quality of these selections once I harvest the crop in November.

KT121 26 July 2019

    Please note that all of the nuts in the photos are free of pecan scab. The combination of some genetic resistance to the disease and my fungicide program seems to have resulted in a clean nut crop so far.

KT129 26 July 2019

KT143 26 July 2019

KT149 26 July 2019

KT201 26 July 2019

KT307 26 July 2019

KT316 26 July 2019

Why is the date of shuck split important for pecans?

Yates 68, 5 Oct. 2018

   Every fall I have spent a lot of time in a hydraulic lift inspecting pecan cultivars for their date of shuck opening. Over the years I've created a photographic record of this important event for dozens of cultivars. Just today, I noted that the cultivar Yates 68 had just split open (photo at right).
    But why is nut maturity date such an important cultivar characteristic? In northern pecan areas, only cultivars that split shuck before the average date of first fall freeze should be grown. Too often, I have come across folks in the Midwest that plant pecan cultivars advertised in flashy nurseries catalogs that never reveal that a cultivar requires a much longer growing season to ripen their nuts. It is only after 15 years of tree growth that they discover their tree only produces black stick-tights every fall. (Desirable and Western are two prime examples of cultivars not adapted to northern pecan areas).

KT255, 24 Sept. 2018

   Now that I've retired from Kansas State, my focus has shifted from taking notes on established cultivars to recording maturity dates for the trees in the breeding project. In breeding pecans for our northern area, maturity date is of prime importance. And we have found some early ripening clones. KT255 and KT307 both ripened by Sept. 24th this year. That's really not surprising since both of the trees are the results of a cross between Pawnee and Greenriver. In addition both clones have good nut size, high percent kernel and are not prone to pecan scab infections.

 Please Note.  These clones are still under test and I am not in the position to supply scions at this time. When the time comes for a new cultivar release, I'll announce it on the blog.

KT307, 24 Sept. 2018

   

Early ripening cultivars split their shucks

USDA 61-1-X, 22 Sept 2018

     This year I'll be making a photographic record of pecan shuck-split just as I have every fall since starting this blog. However, this year, the photos will be limited to the cultivars I have bearing on my farm. The first grafted cultivar to split shuck was a USDA clone numbered 61-1-X. This clone was the result crossing Barton with Staking Hardy Giant way back in 1961.

Faith, 25 Sept 2018

   Today, I found that Faith and Gardner had split open. These two cultivars are very similar to Pawnee in terms of ripening date, nut size, and nut appearance. So, if I had any Pawnee on my farm (I don't), I'd expect it would be shuck-split also.

Gardner, 25 Sept. 2018

    Over the past couple of weeks I've been collecting nut samples from trees in my breeding block. As each tree ripens their nuts, I collect a sample and record the shuck split date. So far this year, two trees ripened on Sept. 17, two ripened on Sept. 20 and 14 ripened ripened on Sept. 24. Among the trees that ripen before Pawnee several look promising.

Pecan shelling quaility: Genetic links

Kanza 2017

    One of the reasons Kanza has become a popular pecan cultivar among consumers is that it shells out so well.  After cracking Kanza nuts in a mechanical cracker then blowing out the shells with a single stage air leg, Kanza yields a high percentage of free kernel halves (photo above). Once all the free halves are separated out, it is very easy to remove attached shell fragments to extract the rest of the kernels.

Major 2017

     I've been cracking several cultivars in my Savage air-cracker and have come to the conclusion that the shelling quality of Kanza nuts is probably inherited from its Major parent (Kanza resulted from a cross of Shoshoni and Major). The photo above shows a sample of Major nut processed using the same equipment I used to crack my Kanza crop.  Even with a thicker shell, Major nuts crack out cleanly producing a large number of free halves. This got me thinking.

USDA 64-4-2

    I grabbed a sample of  USDA 64-4-2  which originated from a cross of Choctaw and Major. Cracking and blowing this sample yielded a high percentage of free halves. Nuts of 64-4-2 are not as round as Major or Kanza but the shelling quality was impressive.   

KT143

    Next, I cracked a sample KT143, a  selection from my breeding project that originated from a cross of Pawnee and Major. Once again, I found excellent shelling quality.
    Kanza, USDA 64-4-2, and KT143 share one thing in common. All three cultivars have Major as their female parent. And after looking at my cracked sample of Major, I'm convinced it is Major parentage that makes these pecan cultivars such good crackers. I'm also convinced that producing pecan cultivars that are easy to shell will make my customers for cracked pecans very happy and willing to pay a premium these nuts.

First pecan to shuck-split

   I spent some time today looking at trees in our pecan breeding plot. I was especially interested to see if our earliest ripening hybrid had split their shucks yet. Using our hydraulic lift, I climbed up into the canopy of the tree to find limbs loaded with fully ripen pecans (photo at right). This is a tree labeled as KT337, a cross between Pawnee and Greenriver. So far, this tree has demonstrated good scab resistance and is bearing annually.

   The nuts of KT337 are small in comparison to many modern pecan cultivars but are large enough to produce very attractive kernels (photo above).  The few nuts I pulled from the tree averaged 13/16 inch in diameter (21mm) and were 1.5 inches long (38mm).  The kernel was well packed inside the shell and the dorsal grooves were wide and "v" shaped (indicating the nut meat will fall free from all shell and packing material). I'll be keeping my eye on this one.

    To give you a better idea about nut size, I collected a few Pawnee nuts and peeled the nuts out of the shuck (Pawnee has not split shuck yet that's why the shell color is white). The photo above gives you a good visual reference as to the size of KT337.  The nuts are obviously smaller than Pawnee but not  unacceptably small.  

Selections from the breeding block

   This past fall, we collected over 400 nut samples from our pecan breeding block. Now, in the dead of winter, we've begun to crack out those samples. Many of the nuts we've cracked revealed mediocre nut quality or the pecans that are so small that we can mark the trees that produced them to be cut for firewood. However, a quick look through the samples revealed some pretty awesome looking kernels. I grabbed four samples with bright, plump kernels just to give you an idea of the variation we are seeing among some of the better quality nuts (photo above). Below is a table that gives some of the details of these four seedlings.

   You'll note that Pawnee is a parent to all four seedlings (male parent for three of the seedlings and female parent for the open pollinated seedling). Two of the nuts had Major as the female parent, while one had a Greenriver mother. All four of these seedlings ripened before or at the same time as Pawnee (Oct. 8 in 2013).
   There are other seedlings in our collection that have outstanding nut quality. If you attend the annual meetings of the Nut Growers Associations of KS, MO, and IL this year you'll be able to see some of the better nuts from our breeding block on display. But a word of caution.  It will take several more years of evaluation before we are ready to send out scionwood for advanced testing by growers. We still need to evaluate each seedling for disease susceptibility, cold hardiness, nut bearing potential and tendency towards alternate bearing. It is so easy to fall in love with a pecan that produces a beautiful kernels. But, the history of pecan cultivar development is full of examples of cultivars that looked good as young trees only to turn out to be a grower's nightmare.