The Posey trees are in an east-west row about one-third the distance from the north end of the orchard. Most of the Major and Busseron trees are farther south, some as much as 200 yards. A few trees of both varieties are directly south, within 100 yards, while others are the same distance away off and some farther southwest. It is stated in a recent bulletin of the Virginia Agricultural Extension Service that Posey is needed to pollinate Busseron and Major.
Since reading the bulletin, I have been thinking of our crops in the past. I remember that trees of these two varieties farthest from the Posey, do not bear as well. Until now, I have attributed this to the fact that the soil was less fertile and the trees are smaller and less vigorous. Also the trees are farther from the frost-tempering river. I am not sure yet that this is not the reason.
We are not alone in our experience of an uncertain crop, as other pecan growers in the county tell the same tale. There are a number of large old trees in this general section of Virginia, as well as a good many seedlings. In addition, there are native, bitter, large-growing water hickory (Carya aquatica), which is not uncommon in lowlands. (These hybridize freely with true pecans, producing beautiful trees but astringent nuts. Ed.)
One of the largest orchards was set out a few years before ours, by the late Dr. Wm. C. Stubbs, on a farm that had been in his family for many generations. It is on York River, about 15 miles from our place. It was he who encouraged my husband to set out our orchard. Dr. Stubbs was for many years Director of the Louisiana Experiment Station near New Orleans. He spent his summers at his old home. His trees were probably the best started and cared for during his life, as he knew how to do it. I drove to see the farm recently, and talked with the present owner, who bought it in 1942. The next year, when I also had my good crop, he nearly paid for the place with proceeds from the nuts.
However, like ourselves, he has had practically no nuts since, and is so much discouraged that he plans to take out some of the trees. The varieties there are mostly Moneymaker, Schley and Success. The same varieties are also in a small orchard of another neighbor, who reports that Success does best. The trees owned at one time by Dr. Stubbs seem not to be cultivated at all, but are grazed and mowed, and the orchard is now rather a tangle of briers and weeds.
+We Grow Bulbs with Pecans+
As this is primarily a daffodil farm, and the trees have the best land, it is also used for bulb growing. The daffodils are a much surer crop with us than pecans. We sell both flowers and bulbs. The season for daffodils is in March and April which is well ahead of the pecans. The pecans do not leaf out early enough to shade the daffodils, and I can't see that they injure them in any way except in very dry years. Bulbs near the trees do just as well as those in the open field and sometimes bloom earlier.
All cultivation and fertilization that the trees get is what is accorded the bulbs. As soon as the season is ended for bulbs, we begin cultivating. We go over the bulbs about three times before the tops die back to the ground, in late May. In late July, we mow the weeds, which are high by that time. We frequently mow again later in the fall. We take up the bulbs every two or three years in June, cure them in trays in airy buildings, grade them, sell some, and replant what we need to keep up our supply. When a plot is dug, we plant it with soybeans, turn them under in late summer and replant with a winter cover crop, rye or clover usually. That crop is turned under the following late April when the rye is usually waist high. We replant again with beans which are turned under in July.
If we think the soil needs more humus, we repeat the process another year. During this rotation we apply 0-14-7 at least twice, usually with the first two plantings. The land is limed only at long intervals, as daffodils like a soil rather on the acid side. Of course, during this cultivation and planting, we plow rather close to the trees, within about four feet, and sometimes cut the roots. You may well think that this accounts for their not bearing well, but in this neighborhood there is the same story with trees that are not plowed around. I have wondered at times if they are not too near salt water, and maybe the roots go down to water, yet the trees nearest the river bear best. We have a Teche tree only about 20 feet from high tide line, and it is our surest bearer, having never missed a crop.
Our only varieties that scab to any extent are the one Georgia and the two trees of Delmas, but the man on Dr. Stubbs' place says that both varieties scab although I forgot to ask which variety was worst. (Delmas is one of worst scabbing varieties in the South.—Ed.)