We finally got a stretch of dry weather this week, allowing me to move freely in the orchard without getting mired in mud. My first stop was to check on the development of the earliest ripening tree in the pecan breeding block. I pulled a nut from tree KT337 and cut into the shuck near the apex to test for separation between shuck and shell (photo at right). As you can see in the photo, the shell has started to develop its characteristic black shell markings. The shuck could be easily separated from the shell on the upper half of the nut but was still firmly attached at the base. Last year, KT337 shuck split on Sept 17th (ten days from now). This year, it will split early compared to other pecan cultivars, but the date of shuck split for 2019 will probably be closer to Sept. 20.
I also cut some nuts to check on kernel development. By early September, all cultivars adapted to growing in our climate should have well defined kernels inside the shell. The photo at left is a nut harvested from KT316. The average ripening date for this tree is the 23rd of Sept. Although the kernel inside the shell looks fully formed, the kernel is still expanding and pressing against the shell and inner wall partition. As the pressure builds, the packing material will become hard, brittle and turn a reddish brown color. Currently, the thickness of the inner wall partition and its orange coloration tells me that this pecan is still packing in more kernel.
Fortunately, the sun is shinning, temperatures are warm, and the trees have plenty of soil moisture. These are all great conditions for developing maximun amounts of pecan kernel.
