Looking over the nut samples at this year's KNGA annual meeting I was struck by several interesting seedling pecan selections made by pecan growers across the Midwest. Let me highlight some of the best.
St. Genevieve was discovered as a large native pecan tree growing within the city limits of St. Genevieve, MO (photo at right). If you every travel to this historic town, you'll discover that St. Genevieve was originally a French Canadian settlement founded in 1735. You'll also discover numerous native pecan trees growing throughout this Mississippi River town of 4,410 people. St. Genevieve is a large-sized native pecan averaging 8.83 g in weight and 46.7% kernel. This cultivar produces beautiful kernels that fall free from the shell.
Al Newkirk from Miami, OK has been watching tree #459 in his native grove for a long time (photo at left). The tree produces consistently, bearing medium sized native nuts. This year, nuts averaged 6.54g and produced 48.2% kernel. Al especially likes this pecan because of its disease resistance and has grafted several trees over to this clone.
Bob Kussman submitted a seedling pecan called Blunk that originates from the native pecan bottoms near Brunswick, MO. Blunk is not a very large pecan weighing only 4.48 g but this nut produces a plump, light-colored kernel that falls free from the shell when cracked (photo at right). For a native nut, percent kernel is high at 50.6%.
Shepherd is a native nut
discovered by Gerald Shepherd. This medium sized native pecan weighed 5.48g this year (drought year) but averages 6.39g when receiving normal rainfall. Shepherd nuts produced 51.4% kernel in 2012 but average 53.0% with adequate moisture. The Shepherd pecan matures 3 days before Pawnee and is scab free (photo at left).
Ralph Voss submitted another sample of the
Zapp pecan (photo at right). Zapp looks to be a seedling of Stuart, originally planted as a yard tree in Germantown, IL. Nuts are large and blocky weighing 9.58 g in 2012. Nut produced 54.5% kernel last year. Nuts mature two weeks after Pawnee or about the same time as Lakota. Scab has not been seen on this cultivar.
