Double-row pecans: Pecan yield at year eleven

   Earlier this fall I posted a photo of the trees in our double-row pecan planting (photo at right). A couple of weeks ago I harvested the nuts from these trees and recorded yields for each of the three cultivars in the trial. 
     In establishing this orchard, we grafted Faith, Gardner, and Lakota during the years 2005-2007 onto Colby seedling rootstock trees that had originally been planted back in the fall of 2002. Below is a chart of this year's average yields.

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Cultivar      Lbs/tree    Std.Dev.
------------  ----------  ---------
Faith           8.16       1.24
Gardner        10.03       2.00
Lakota         20.01       3.18
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   The trees in this trial are still young, averaging a little less than 4 inches in trunk diameter. The Lakota trees actually over-produced for their age resulting in less-than-stellar kernel quality. The 10 lbs. per tree yield produced by Gardner seemed just about right for this size tree. Both Faith and Gardner produced excellent quality nuts.
   On a total land area basis, the double-row planting plan has 27 trees per acre. Per acre yield for 2013 ranged from a low of 220 lbs/ac for Faith to a high of 540 lbs/ac for Lakota.