By Clint Thompson
Modified irrigation recommendations for Southeast pecan producers means growers can produce a viable crop with less water requirements.
It is part of a message that Lenny Wells, University of Georgia Extension pecan specialist, is highlighting about cost reduction during this winter’s county meetings.
“The water itself for us is not a big expense, but the cost to pump that water can be at certain times of the year,” Wells said. “I know a lot of utility companies over the winter have gone up on their rates. I think that’s going to become more of an expense, and thankfully, we do have the work that shows we can cut back on that water some at certain times of the year.”
Irrigation Recommendations
Irrigation recommendations on young trees now include: 3 hours once per week (45 gallons per week) in April; 3 hours twice per week (90 gallons per week) in May; and 3 to 4 hours of watering time (one day on, two days off) in June through September.
Growers with mature trees can reduce their irrigation applications by 65% to 231 gallons per acre per day in April and by 50% to 462 gallons in May.
Improved knowledge of water requirements has enabled Wells and the University of Georgia to help growers be more efficient with their water use and save money in the process.
“As I’ve talked about in the some of the county meetings that we’ve done, we are learning more about how pecan trees use water in the southeast. All of the early work that was done on pecan tree water use was done in New Mexico and desert arid regions,” Wells said. “Of course, our environment being much different, our trees are going to use water much differently than those trees. Now we’ve got the data and information to understand how they do use water and modify our irrigation recommendations to reflect that and be more efficient.”