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Pecan Growing in Florida G. H. Blackmon, Agricultural Experiment Station, Gainesville I am sure that there are not very many of you who are interested personally in growing pecans in the southern part of the state, because of the unsuccessful production of the tree, but you are inter ested in horticulture, in a general way, as it affects Florida, and this paper is pre pared in a general way, because it takes into account the horticultural crop that is grown particularly in the northern and due to the coming into bearing age of as many trees as there are now, and the in creased yield of those in bearing. On the other hand, as time goes on, there will be more information about pe can varieties and orchard management and it is naturally to be expected that there will be a greater per tree yield in the future than there has been in the past. It may seem, therefore, that the pecan is destined to hold a prominent place in Florida horticulture, especially is it an im western part of the state. The average annual production of pecans in Florida, as given by the United States Department of Agricul ture, amounts to about 1,150,000 pounds. portant horticultural crop of the north ern and western parts of the state. In 1909 there was an estimated yield of 307,000 pounds, therefore, there has been an increase in production of about 274 location Pecan trees will make satisfactory growth and produce some nuts in practi cally all parts of Florida when on fertile, well-drained soil; but all parts of the state are not adapted to extensive nut produc tion. The commercial pecan area, as in dicated above, is the western and north ern part of the state, extending south ward to about the latitude of Gainesville. per cent in twenty years. The 1925 United States Agricultural Census showed 594,000 pecan trees in Florida, 206,000 of which were of bear ing age. To this figure should be added the plantings that have been made since 1925, which will doubtless increase the number to considerably over 600,000. There are at this time much less than Just why pecan trees do not yield any bet ter in South Florida than they do is prob ably due to climatic and soil conditions, also to the fact that there are other suc cessfully grown crops to which attention half the total number of pecan trees in Florida of bearing age—therefore, with the same kind of care and attention that the trees have been receiving, the nut ton has been given and none has been paid to nage should be greatly increased in Flor ida during the next ten to twenty years, pecans and no suitable varieties have been introduced. 95 96 FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY The best soil on which to plant pecan trees is a well-drained, sandy loam, under laid with a porous clay subsoil, eighteen to twenty-four inches below the surface. Such a soil will permit proper root devel opment and at the same time be retentive of moistttre and plant food, so that it will be possible to build and maintain soil fertility to its fullest extent—therefore, one should be careful to select land that is sufficiently well-drained and suitably located before setting trees. It is an ex pensive proposition to try and correct drainage and hardpan conditions, espec ially when such a procedure is not always successful. STARTING THE ORCHARD Since pecan trees do not come true to the type of seed planted, it is necessary to grow seedlings and bud or graft them to the desired varieties. Therefore, the most economical procedure to follow in secur ing trees of the desired varieties is to pur chase them from reputable nurseries, who can be depended upon for furnishing trees true to name. TRANSPLANTING The soil should be put in good condi tion, by plowing under all vegetation and thoroughly disking. New land should be cultivated a year or two before setting trees. Stalce the field, spacing the trees not less than fifty feet apart each way, and in some soils a greater distance should! be used. If a planting board is used at the time the stakes are lined up and spaced it saves much time in properly setting trees as to depth and alignment. The holes should be dug large and deep enough to admit the root system without crowding and binding. The same general rule as to depth of soil on the trees ap plies as with other deciduous fruit and nuts; that is, the trees should be set one and one-half to two inches deeper than the ground line shows that they grew in the nursery, so that, when the soil set tles around the roots, they will still be as deep as they were in the nursery. It is advisable to use the fresh, mellow top soil around the roots instead of the soil from the bottom of the hole. Well grown 4 to 5 foot and 5 to 6 foot trees with strong root systems will give good results and make vigorous growth when properly planted and cut, back one-third to one-half, properly fer tilized and cultivated during subsequent years. Trees of the 3 to 4 foot size and smaller may be used satisfactorily in ex tensive plantings, if the price of the larger grades is prohibitive, but these should be vigorous, stocky and well developed, and should be cut back about one-third of the growing top. • Trees are set during the dormant season of December to March, the earlier the better, as they will become better established in the new lo cation by the time growth starts in the spring, thus insuring a more successful life. CULTIVATION AND FERTILIZATION Pecan orchards require careful atten tion to cultivation and fertilization. The grower who can economically produce ad equate crops of pecan nuts, in the future, is going to be the one who will make a profit out of the enterprise. FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY Since humus in the soil is important in successful pecan growing, a system of cultivation should be practiced that will add organic material to the soil. This can be accomplished by the straight cover- crop clean cultivation system, or the growing of cover crops in connection with the growing of cash crops between the tree rows. Cotton, corn, truck crops, small fruits, pears and Satsuma oranges are used as intercrops in pecan orchards, according to the section of the pecan belt under consideration. The intercrop should not be planted closer than six feet on each side of the tree row after setting, gradually widening the strip from year to year until all the space is allotted to the trees. Fruit trees for interplanting should not be set closer than twenty-five feet to the pecan trees. During the first two or three years it is advisable to run a harrow on each side of the tree row once every two or three weeks or oftener, if necessary, through out the growing season to keep down weeds and grass, to assist the young trees in getting started in the new location by maintaining a moisture supply and to prevent vining cover crops from climbing the trees and cutting off light and air. In this connection, growers should exer cise care to prevent throwing too much dirt to the trees, thus giving the appear ance of being on ridges or mounds, and producing unfavorable results. The cover crop system is the ideal way to cultivate pecan orchards in Florida when it is possible to do so. In bearing orchards, this system is recommended to be the one to use exclusively. 7—Horti 97 The soil should be turned completely or thoroughly disked about three or four inches or just deep enough to cover all vegetation and to meet the requirements in the program recommended in the con trol of insects aitd diseases. Deep plow ing near the trees is not to be recom mended. A dust mulch should be cre ated and maintained during the dry spring months and during the latter part of August and September. A winter cover crop should be planted in Septem ber or October. Austrian winter peas and hairy vetch are giving good results as winter legumes, the peas somewhat better, and oats or rye as non-legumes, while Crotalaria sericea is proving to be one of the best legumes to be used as a summer crop in pecan orchards. Sum mer cover crops that are favored hosts of the green stink bug should not be planted in bearing orchards, as this pest punctures the nuts and causes kernel-spot. Pecan trees grown in Florida must be fertilized to give the best results. The plant food may be supplied in,stable ma nure or commercial fertilizers. Stable manure is always good to use, but since there is generally such a small supply on many farms, it is often cheaper to buy the plant food in commercial fertilizer, and grow the organic material in the form of cover crops. Good results are apparently being ob tained by using a mixture that will anal yze about six per cent ammonia, eight per cent phosphoric acid and four per cent potash (6-8-4) on young trees and one with about four per cent ammonia and the same in phosphoric acid and potash (4-8-4) on bearing ones. It is advisable FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY to have from one-fourth to t>ne-third of the ammonia in a readily available form, and the remaining portion slowly avail able sources. The phosphoric acid and potash apparently may come from the commonly used materials. Newly set trees should receive from one and a half to two pounds each, in creasing this amount as the trees become older and larger at the rate of about one pound per year, for the first six to eight years—after that age apply fifteen pounds per tree, increasing at least two to three pounds per year, depending on size and amount of nuts being produced. During years of light crop yields, the trees generally do not require as much fertilizer as those of heavy crops. The fertilizer should be applied to young trees once each year during the last of February or first half of March, scat tering over an area slightly greater than the spread of the branches and then worked into the soil, to about one or two feet of the trunk of the tree. While one application of fertilizer, as indicated above, is generally made to bearing trees, it is often advisable to make a second one in the last of June or the first of July, when there is an excessively heavy crop of nuts being carried. It is apparent that, when trees have attained a large size and the branches cover most of the area, that it is advisable to broadcast the fer tilizer over the entire orchard soil area. There is a great opportunity for devel opment along the line of economical pe can production to such an extent that the nuts can be placed with the consumer in sufficient quantities as to encourage con stant consumption. The market possibil ities have not been touched. A prelimi nary report on Marketing of Pecans, Sep tember, 1929, by the Bureau of Agricul tural Economics, United States Depart ment of Agriculture, states on page two that (for the United States) : "In the 5year period 1924-25 to 1928-29 the ap parent consumption of all pecans (unshelled and shelled) on an unshelled basis has averaged 0.31 pounds per capita." Therefore it is apparent that, with proper co-operative marketing facilities, the con suming masses can absorb a much greater pecan tonnage than is being produced at the present time. W. L. Drew, Eagle Lake: You speak of production decreasing as you go down into the state. Is it true that it increases as you go beyond the state into central Georgia? uniform annual production in the pecan G. H. Blackmon: You take the north ern and western part of the State of seem to be favorable for that resting pe Florida, the production is practically the same per tree average per year as Central Georgia's, so there seems to be as good belt of Florida as in Georgia. The con ditions there seem to be very similar. In other words, the tree seems to require a certain resting period, and conditions riod, although it does not get as cold in Northern and Western Florida as in Georgia, yet the conditions seem to be sufficient to induce that resting period. FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY W. L. Drew: I was once closely associated with another, in the pecan industry at Monticello but I was talking with a nurseryman of hxgh standing, and he told me that they felt the conditions for grow- 99 G. H. Blackmon: It seems to be a malnutritional trouble that can be caused by a number of factors that win cause Iack of nourishment that the tree wil, take , , , „ , .,. ing pecans were superior around Albany, "P' SUch as Iack of fertlllt^ hard-pan, and as you go into Georgia than they were in the northern part of the state. That is why I asked. At that time we were much troubled with Rosette. I have lost track of the whole situation, but what has been the outcome of Rosette and what has been known about it? hard w.ater table or rocks> or anything that wil1 Prevent root development or prevent proper nourishment being taken UP- It is not a disease caused by an organism, but is what we call a physiolog- ical trouble. It is purely a mal-nutritional trouble.