During the summers of 2022 and 2023 we suffered through extremely dry conditions in our area. However, last night we finally received some much needed relief. This morning I dumped 2.98 inches of water out of my rain gauge. Unfortunately, the strong thunderstorms that brought us the rain also came with extremely strong winds. Besides waking up to rain puddles and mud, I discovered several trees had broken limbs. In most cases, the wind broke just a single limb (photo at right). With a single limb broken, corrective pruning was simple; I just cut off the damaged limb at the point it was attached to the trunk.
However, not every tree was easy to fix. The top of this tree (pictured at left) fractured and broke in 2 places, completely removing all leaf and nut bearing limbs. I could prune off the broken limbs but I'd be left with nothing but the trunk. Even if the exposed trunk resprouts new shoots next year, I've found that naked trunks quickly get attacked by wood-boring insects and wood rotting fungi. Ultimately, the tree would never regain a healthy condition. So in this case, I'll remove the entire tree and replant with a new tree this fall.
Most of the limbs that broke out of my trees were one half of a narrow branch angle (photo at right). This fall I cut off the broken half of the narrow crotch but left the other half to mature its nut crop. With harvest a little over a month away, I want to maximize the number of nuts I collect this fall. The standing half remains in a much weakened condition which means that after harvest I'll need to prune out the rest this damaged branch. If left un-pruned, the standing half has a high probability of snapping off during the next strong storm.
Damage to the entire orchard was light. I took the photo above to show you the task I was faced with this morning. You'll note one severely broken tree and one with a single broken limb. However, the remaining trees in the background did not suffer any limb breakage. It took me about 3 hours to drive around and prune off broken limbs on 30 acres of pecan trees. Once the soil dries up, I'll go back with my tractor and grapple to pick up pruned limbs and haul them off to the brush pile.
However, not every tree was easy to fix. The top of this tree (pictured at left) fractured and broke in 2 places, completely removing all leaf and nut bearing limbs. I could prune off the broken limbs but I'd be left with nothing but the trunk. Even if the exposed trunk resprouts new shoots next year, I've found that naked trunks quickly get attacked by wood-boring insects and wood rotting fungi. Ultimately, the tree would never regain a healthy condition. So in this case, I'll remove the entire tree and replant with a new tree this fall.
