The Pecan and its Culture

by H. Harold Hume

PROPAGATION OF THE PECAN.

The pecan tree is difficult of propagation by budding or grafting. Skillful propagators are satisfied with seventy-five per cent. of living buds or grafts, while very many have to be content with less. The difficulty is due, in part, to lack of skill; in part to lack of judgment in selecting good material with which to work; but in some regions it is due to the attacks of the bud-worm, Proteopteryx deludana, more than to anything else. The buds are eaten out and destroyed by this insect at the time they start into growth. In certain sections spring working of pecans has been abandoned entirely owing to the destruction wrought by this pest. But notwithstanding all the drawbacks, pecan trees can be, should be and are propagated in large numbers by budding and grafting, and the seedling is becoming more and more a thing of the past.

Seedling vs. Grafted Trees.

It is a fact worthy of note that the beginning of every tree-fruit industry is marked by the use of seedling trees. In the later stages of the development of the industry the seedling, owing to a more intimate knowledge of its failings and shortcomings, gives way to the grafted[I] tree. This stage has already been reached in pecan orcharding.

It has been stated that a certain percentage of pecans would produce nuts identical with those of the parent tree. The author has yet to find the first instance in which this was the case. This truth is borne out by the observations of others.

In view of the fact just stated, if a planter desires to secure a certain definite fixed variety of pecan, it can only be done by planting grafted trees. Even though all the seedlings were of good size, yet the variation in time of ripening, quality, prolificness, form and size would be against them. Take a certain quantity of each of a number of our largest pecans—Stuart, Van Deman, Centennial and Frotscher for instance—mix them together, and under average circumstances the mixed lot will sell for less money in the open market than the same varieties and the same nuts would if marketed separately. Mixed nuts, no matter how good the quality, cannot compete successfully in the market with a single uniform sample of the same or nearly the same quality.

Grafted trees will come into bearing at an earlier age than seedlings. In the case of seedlings it is very difficult to say when they will begin to bear, while grafted trees of the more precocious varieties may be expected to bear quite a little fruit in six or eight years from the time of planting.

The great objection to grafted trees is the first cost, and yet, in the face of that objection, it is best to plant grafted trees even if fewer of them are planted. If grafted trees are out of the question, then plant seedlings and top-work them. Grow the seedlings from nuts if necessary; but to those who live in sections where pecans can be grown, let me say, plant pecan trees; plant budded or grafted trees if you can—but plant pecan trees.

Pecan Stocks.

Nursery trees are propagated entirely on pecan stocks, and in the present state of our knowledge, it is the best stock to use. It may be that the pecan will grow and thrive as well on a number of different species of hickory, but definite information bearing on this point is lacking. Hicoria tomentosa, H. alba, and H. aquatica have been used for stocks in North Carolina, Florida, and other States, the pecan being top-worked upon them. But for the present, at least, until our experimental knowledge is farther advanced, the safest advice is to use pecan stock only.