Tuesday, September 25, 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.