Twelve years ago my parents planted a pair of hardy Stuart pecan trees in their backyard.  They were 5 yr old & 10 ft tall when planted and have been producing pecans since their second year of planting.   This year we picked three 5 gallon buckets full of pecans and the trees are about 20 ft tall.

The pecans were a strange mixture of about 25% small native size nuts,  25 % were normal size Stuart nuts, and the remaining 50% nuts had normal size pecan nuts in a smaller native size shell...  the shells were broken in the middle centerline and had the nut meet growing outside the shell and are not worth a crap even when allowed to dry.  

My question is this:  Is this normal for Stuart's???  Worms were bad this year so next year I'm going to spray- but could the worms be the stress that caused the weird nuts this year?.  

Any ideas fellow pecan growers???  

Thanks in advance,

BJ in Carthage

I was interested in getting some since they've got a couple for sale at Lowes.  But at least for growing here in Florida I could find nothing positive about them in this environment.

Glad to hear you've had successes even though you've had some issues.

JBF Stuarts are a very hardy tree that have been grown for over a hundred yrs.  Be forewarned that there are many newer Pecan Trees types that produce a larger paper shell nut and start producing nuts earlier than Stuarts.  I was told that Stuarts won't produce a large crop of nuts for at least 12 yrs after planting.   JBF if your wanting trees for SHTF 12yrs is a long time to wait for a crop of oil rich nuts to feed ones starving family....

BTW my parents bought their trees at Lowes too twelve yrs ago.  I believe that they told me each 10ft tall/5yr old tree cost them around $80 each.  I don't see why Stuart's wouldn't prosper in FL- call your local county ag agent and ask what Pecan tree they would recommend.   You might also want to try:  www.tytyga.com

Best,

BJ

That's a good summary.  Pecans are nice trees to keep, so you want to do it right, but a lot of people put in varieties that have been outclassed for years.  Not all old varieties are like that (I have liked Forkert for years, which no one in Texas has ever heard of), but a lot of the newer ones are really outstanding.

Forkert???... I've never heard of them  I'm pretty sure that one would be hard pressed to find any old-named Pecan tree that wouldn't thrive in either Texas  or FL.  I planted a hardy almond tree and a Metheley Japanese plum tree this year for future SHTF along with a pair of Missouri Bignut Hickory trees to replace the soft maple and cotton wood trees that died in last winters severe freeze.

A few years ago my mother purchased a Japanese ornamental Plum tree at Lowes on clearance for $5.99.  I hope that the self-pollinating Metheley plum tree will also pollinate my mothers tree.  

I wish that I could find a pair of the wild red Texas plum trees that my mother transplanted from around Lake Conroe when I was a kid.  Those small wild plum trees put on very sweet golf ball size red plums that made the best tasting plum jelly...  It put Smuckers red plum jelly to shame

Best,

BJ

Try Forkert and Podsednik with Peruque in between them for pollination.  That would give you all three sizes of nuts, two late and one early, so if you don't pay attention to the watering you just annoy the Peruque and you can make sure to cover the other two properly.

trwoprod THANKS for the really good advice.  After reading up on Stuarts and scab I'm glad that my parents bought grafted trees even though we have a fairly dry summer here in SW MO.   My father told me a few weeks ago that he wishes that he would have planted 6 more pecan trees... so guess what he is getting for a Christmas present this year

I'll work on getting rid of the Hickory Shuckworms  in our trees too.

BTW here is some good Pecan pest info:  http://extension.missouri.edu/publications/DisplayPub.aspx?P=MP711

Best,

BJ in Carthage

The one thing that you may want to check is really cold weather with those three.  I think that Podsednik and Peruque are fine, but I am not for sure on Forkert.  I think that I remember that it is fine in Dallas and Amarillo, but please check.