Jayhawk's kernel defect

When we first started to evaluate Jayhawk, we were hoping that this cultivar would represent and improvement over its parent cultivar, Giles. Well, the data is now coming in. The first thing we noticed about Jayhawk was that it was scab resistant, while Giles is not. Nut size and yield of Jayhawk and Giles are very similar. Unfortunately, after cracking out nut samples we found that Jayhawk kernels suffer from the same defects we see with Giles kernels. If Jayhawk or Giles nuts suffer from a lack of moisture during kernel fill (late august to early sept) nut meats take on a mottled appearance (photo above) and become very dry tasting.  How disappointing! I was so enthused about the scab resistance of Jayhawk that I almost overlooked the importance of a cultivar being able to produce a quality kernel under a wide range of weather conditions.

Time to Thin Trees

   With the temperatures pushing 50 F  and the ground nice and dry, I decided today was a perfect day to started some long planned thinning operations.The orchard pictured above is 25 years old and the limbs of adjacent trees were getting very close if not touching. The original orchard was planted with trees 30 feet apart in a square pattern (see diagram above, right). To thin the orchard, we removed every other tree in first row (tree number 2,4,6,8, etc). For row two, we switched to removing the odd number trees (tree 1,3,5,7, etc).  For row three, its back to removing the even numbered trees.
To avoid confusion, clearly mark the trees you plan to remove with flagging tape (if you look closely you'll see yellow tape around the trunk of the sawed trees in the photo above). 
  After thinning the remaining trees should still be arranged in a square pattern with trees 42 feet apart but the squares are now shifted 45 degrees. Sometime in the future this orchard we be thinned again to achieve the final spacing of 60 x 60 feet. 
   One the worst decisions you can make is to delay the thinning process until the time the trees become so crowded that you start seeing significant limb loss and a decrease in yield. It looks like we are having a pretty good winter to make some firewood so don't miss this opportunity to crank up the chainsaw..

Harvest 2010

  The ground dried up in December, and the harvest season really kicked off in the Neosho River Bottoms. We had the first decent crop since the disastrous ice storm of 2007. For us the 2010 harvest went smoother than any year in recent memory. No mud, a decent ground cover to pick from, and the nuts seemed to fly across the cleaning table (very little junk to pick out). But best of all, our pecan harvesters made it through the entire season with out any major break downs. We met our target for getting all our nuts picked up by Christmas and the crop cleaned by the 1st week in January. Now all we have to do is get the crop shipped out.
   We did have one set back during the December harvest season. Our building was broken into with chainsaws and pecans stolen. I personally spent a lot of time with the sheriff's office trying to catch the thieves but it seems our laws are designed to protect the bad guys while making the victims of the crime (the Pecan Field) spend money we can't afford to replace essential equipment. Looks like we'll also be investing in additional security systems.

I wish I had grafted more Kanza!

     Back in 1995, we grafted a 3 acre block of Kanza trees. Since we are surrounded by 8000 acres of native pecan trees,  I wasn't too worried that grafting a solid 3 acres to one cultivar would create a pollination problem.
     Now it is 15 years later, and we just recorded an average of 1050 lbs/ acre from this Kanza block on the first picking.  There are still nuts out there (probably 200-300 lbs/acre) that we'll get when we run the harvester over the grove for a second time. 
    The yield in 2010 was great but check out the kernel quality of freshly cracked Kanza nuts (photo above). Kanza may be the best shelling cultivar available for growing in the north. Kernel halves practically fall out of the shell after running the nuts through a Meyer pecan cracker. 
    I'm grafting more Kanza next spring!