By Clint Thompson
This year’s pecan season endured the worst scab disease pressure in 20 years according to one industry expert. However, this year’s crop survived and thrived thanks to better available fungicides, says Lenny Wells, University of Georgia Extension pecan specialist.
“As far as scab pressure goes, the worst I’ve ever seen was 2003. We had an enormous amount of scab that year. This year I think the scab pressure was probably equal to that,” Wells said. “There was some scab out there, but it was not to the extent we saw in 2003. I think a lot of that has to do with the chemicals we have now.”
Summer Rains
Wells said that summer rains contributed to the increased scab pressure.
“From June through about mid-August, we had a good bit of rain in most areas. There was a lot of scab pressure out there. Most growers did a pretty good job of keeping that off even with the pressure that we had,” Wells said. “I think we’re doing a much better job of rotating that chemistry, and growers are doing a better job with their timing of their sprays than they were 20 years ago. I think that has helped it not be as bad as it could have been given the scab pressure that we had out there.”
Weather played a key role in pecan’s production this year, capped by Hurricane Idalia on Aug. 30.
“We saw some quality issues over in that hurricane area in east Georgia. I think there were some problems there from the storm like we see commonly in that situation with nuts not quite filling out right and don’t have the weight that we would expect,” Wells said. “I haven’t heard a lot of that recently outside of that area.”