Cold wave freezes pecan tissues

   The weather this week has been miserable; Rain, drizzle, and cold temperatures. A late night cold front finally pushed through SE Kansas early this morning and cleared the clouds away (at least for a few days) but ushered in sub-freezing temperatures.  The thermometer read 27 degrees F this morning at dawn, so I was curious to see if the leaves and shucks of my pecan trees would display signs of cold injury.
   This afternoon I walked out to some Kanza trees and found that many leaves looked freeze dried but were still hanging onto the tree (photo at right). Frozen pecan shucks typically appear water soaked after a hard freeze but this morning the shucks looked just like they had last week.

   During previous fall seasons, a morning low temperature of 25 degrees F would cause the leaves to drop off the trees by noon and the shucks to become water-soaked and dark immediately. However, it appears that 27F is just not cold enough to cause total vegetative tissue destruction.
    I'll be interested to see how my trees react over the next few days as temperatures climb back up into the 50's. I expect to see partial defoliation but I'm afraid the shucks will continue to hang tight around the nuts preventing them from falling freely.
    With the soil under my trees rain soaked, it looks like it will be some time before I can start shaking trees and harvesting nuts. But, gosh darn,  its hard being patient.