By Clint Thompson
A prolonged dry spell across the Southeast during the fall has prompted pecan producers to consider applying irrigation to their trees at a time when it is usually not required.
Lenny Wells, University of Georgia Extension pecan specialist, explains the reasoning.
“I’ve had a lot of growers call over the last couple of weeks. Normally this time of year, I would absolutely say don’t worry about it. There’s no need,” Wells said. “The situation that we’re in now, especially for orchards where the land is real sandy or where there may be a shallow soil with a high water table or anything that stops that tap root in a shallow soil situation, then you may want to consider watering a little bit. I don’t think you have to do it much, probably six hours or so a week should be fine.
“Other orchards which have a little bit more of a loamy soil or deeper soils, it’s probably not going to make a whole lot of difference at this point because the trees should be headed into dormancy if they are not already dormant. Once the chlorophyll leaves those leaves, they change color and just fall off the tree, that tree is not really using a lot of water at that point. It doesn’t really need it to function properly. You just want to keep them alive and healthy right now and keep them from getting stressed.”
“Those with shallow soils certainly need to consider it, moreso than those with deeper soil conditions.”
According to a recent release of the U.S. Drought Monitor, exceptional drought conditions are expanding across the Southeast; mostly in South Georgia and North Florida. Most of that region has not received substantial rainfall since mid-August.
“It’s certainly one of the driest, it sure is,” Wells said. “I think it’s given the pecans a little bit of a shock this year just because we’ve went from being really wet all summer to just bone dry. For a tree like that, sometimes that can be a little bit of a shock.”