By Clint Thompson
Pecan harvests are ongoing throughout the Southeast-producing areas of Georgia and Alabama. It has been a non-stop couple of weeks for growers, explains Lenny Wells, University of Georgia Extension pecan specialist.
“Really from, say, around probably Leesburg, north to Fort Valley, kind of through that region, the harvest, from what I can tell has been really good. Everything seemed to get ready all at once,” Wells said.
“Usually we’ll have a break in between the varieties getting ready. You may get Pawnee and then you’ll have a couple of weeks, and then like Creek will be ready; and then right after that, your Desirable and then after that, Stewart and all that. But I mean this time everything just seemed to get ready real quick. Right after Pawnee, everything else seemed to be ready, and the weather was really good for harvesting.
“I noticed down in like the Mitchell County area down in there, it looks like folks down there were waiting a little bit longer. I think, down that way is just getting started and, over further south around Valdosta and then probably into East Georgia, too, I would say the harvest is a little bit behind what it is, over in that middle Georgia area. But it’s going pretty good.”
Yields
Pecan yields have varied across much of the region.
“The yields of the middle Georgia crop have been really good. I think I’ve heard mixed things from other locations. I know in the Dougherty, Lee, Mitchell County area and down on toward Valdosta, there was a good bit of scab on Pawnee and Desirable,” Wells said. “It was strange because some orchards or some operations would have scab would be bad on the Pawnee, but desirable would be fine. But the resistance issues we’re seeing, with some of the materials, I think are certainly contributed to that and all the rain we had all summer.
“After mid-September, it has stayed pretty hot and dry for the most part. That has caused some problems in some orchards, with shucks not opening up and nuts sprouting. We’ve seen some late generation shuck worm come in on some of that with the shucks weren’t opening up just right. We’ve had some of those issues in places. So yeah, it’s been kind of a mixed bag so far.”