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Gary Fernald is making select pecan seeds (for planting) available again this year.  The seeds are extremely cold hardy to USDA zone 5 (-20° Farenhiet) and are native to Iowa.  I highly recommend this choice selection of one of the best nuts that you can grow.

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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 

Gary Fernald

416 East Broadway

Monmouth, IL 61462

20 seeds @ $10.00 ppd