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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Iowa Native PECAN Seed

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  • From: mIEKAL aND <qazingulaza@gmail.com>
  • To: chex.rice@gmail.com, North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Iowa Native PECAN Seed
  • Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2009 13:51:44 -0500

For the record the hardy pecans I planted 12 years ago are doing fine
in southwestern WI & we are definitely not 5a & maybe not even 4b...
We get 30 below every 3-4 years.

On Mon, Apr 13, 2009 at 1:43 PM, Chex <chex.rice@gmail.com> wrote:
> I am passing this information along.  This should be of interest to
> anyone in USDA zone 5a especially Iowa and Northern Illinois where the
> far northern pecan is an increasingly rare native plant.
>
> Chris Rice
> zone 5a, IL
>
> ****************************************************
>
> Iowa Native PECAN Seed For Sale
>
> Gary Fernald - Nut Tree Evangelist -
>
> President Iowa Nut Growers Association
>
>
>
>      Pecans will grow and produce in the north, in fact, they are
> native all along the Mississippi River Valley to Dubuque, Iowa. The
> pecan strains “native to Iowa” means they already know what hardy is.
> As they say, it is in their genes. They have proven themselves capable
> of growing and producing even further north into Wisconsin and even
> parts of Canada.
>
>      I have a limited  supply of the pecan cultivar “Mullahy” which
> has proven to be the best sized and best cracking northern native
> pecan in our trials.  I located the “Mullahy” pecan on the Jim Mullahy
> Farm in 1976, after returning home from the Northern Nut Growers
> Association’s 67th Annual Meeting in Brownwood, TX.  The USDA pecan
> breeders had inspired me to search out northern early ripening types
> for their breeding work. Graft wood cuttings were collected the next
> spring and seed nuts were planted and evaluated for the next few years
> until a bolt of lightning blew the original tree to smithereens. From
> those first Mullahy grafts other trees were propagated and are now
> producing crops across in Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, Indiana, and
> south.
>
>      The interest and exploration for northern pecans spawned other
> activities and intrigued others. Canadian NNGA members got involved in
> exploring for the most northern natives. Over 100 pecans near
> Belleview, IA. were located and tagged as research trees.  In 1979, a
> group of NNGA members collected a good supply of seed from these
> remaining hardy stands of pecans for a seed distribution. The revenues
> generated help funded the first northern pecan research trial with 57
> grafted clones at the University of Nebraska.  In subsequent years, I
> have planted 5 separate preservation plantings (4 non-gratis) on Corp
> of Engineers ground from Muscatine, IA. to Galena, IL. My goal was
> that these trees provide a publicly accessible in-situ orchard of
> native pecans as a seed resource for future plantings. These preserve
> plantings, mostly unmanaged, have been sorely tested by mother nature.
>  They have survived the spring frosts, the cold winters, the drought
> years, and flooding (remember 93) as well as the continual threat of
> deer browsing.  Despite all the odds many of the trees are producing.
> GPS locations will be available in the future.
>
>      I thought in this year of 2009, which marks the 100th
> anniversary of the NNGA, (meeting information available at
> http://www.northernnutgrowers.org/), it would be appropriate to take
> another step toward the goal of breeding even better northern pecans.
> This Mullahy seed  offered is open pollinated from an orchard of the
> best early ripening commercial cultivars and should produce “some”
> even more exceptional progeny.  Forrest Keeling Nursery is growing
> some for me and I will offer these seedling trees this fall. Seed
> packets with planting instructions and larger quantities of stratified
> pecan seed are FOR SALE this spring.  I have made it a life’s work of
> love to find, select, preserve, and improve these northern early
> ripening pecans. This is truly an opportunity for you to have a part
> in breeding improved northern hardy pecans. The prospect of hitting
> the jackpot with a commercial super pecan for the north are real.
>
>
> garyfernald@yahoo.com  or Gary Fernald, 416 East Broadway, Monmouth, ILL.
> 61462
>
>
> 20 seeds  @ $10.00 ppd




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