North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["MARIE ASHTON" <bwoodtx@verizon.net>]

I attended a Pecan Day at our USDA/ARS research station here last week. They are presenting the Pawnee variety as their leading recommendation. The main reason is that it matures in early to mid September (Here in Central Texas.) That gives the tree enough time after harvest to store more starch for the next year. Giving you a more healthy tree. The early nuts bring a little more money too. They are recommending a newly released variety Lakota (released - 2007) as a companion to Pawnee (mainly for cross pollination.)

 

For those of you further north (zone 7a and north) there is an outstanding combination. I say combination because you need two types of trees for cross pollination - Dichogamy group I and II. When the pollen is viable on one type tree the nutlets (pistilate - female flowers) are viable on the other and vice-versa but not at the same time. Anyway you need a tree from group 1(one) and another from Group 2 (two). The combination I am talking about (for more northern areas) is Osage released in 1989 and Kanza released in 1996. Osage is type 1 and Kanza is type 2 making them highly compatible for cross pollination.

The nut size is a little smaller than some but they will grow further north. They are both very good tasting pecans and shell out well. They are both early ripening varieties, which is good for more northern areas. Kanza and Osage are both scab resistant and are moderately resistant to most pecan diseases, making them good candidates for eastern areas as well.

 

I know that Kanza and Pawnee trees are available from Womack nursery in De Leon, Texas (www.womacknursery.com). They usually offer the new releases of the USDA so I would think they would also have Lakota in the near future.

 

Take a look at http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/CARYA/PECANS/kanza.htm for a description of Kanza. You can also look through their listings of pecan varieties.

 

The news of the release of Kanza is at http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/1996/pecan1096.htm

 

Regards,

Richard Ashton

Oak Creek Orchard

www.oakcreekorchard.com

bwoodtx@verizon.net