By Clint Thompson
Georgia pecan producers should make plans to attend one of the production meetings held over the next couple of months across pecan-producing counties. The meetings are hosted by University of Georgia Extension, including pecan specialist Lenny Wells.
“Like all of the commodity meetings that the university does every year, we just go from county to county to meet with growers in counties where it’s all taking place. We’re just trying to touch base with them and give them an overview of what the whole crop situation looked like in the state last year. A lot of times, if you’re in one place doing your thing, it’s hard to get an idea of what’s going on outside of there,” Wells said. “It gives them an overview of that and start looking at things we might need to change or any management practices we can tweak or things we might need to do differently to help them grow the crop better or grow it for less money. That’s a key right now.”
Meeting Information
The meetings will highlight cultural practices such as fertility and irrigation, as well as management options for pest and disease issues. A main focus of the event is zeroing in on strategies to curtail input costs to offset staggeringly low market prices.
“I know growers are getting tired of hearing that from me, but honestly, that’s what we need. There are things we can do to grow pecans for a little less than what we have in the past,” Wells said. “Every orchard is going to be different. Every situation is going to be different. There may be some things some orchards can do that others can’t, just based on the varieties they have, the age of their orchards, things like that. There may be things that everybody can do, like fertility; staying on top of your fertility program, basing it on thresholds of what the trees actually need based on soil and leaf samples as opposed to just going out there and applying the same thing every year.”
Mark Your Calendars
Dates and locations of this year’s production meetings:
Jan. 29 Tattnall/Evans County
Feb. 1 Grady County
Feb. 7 Peach County
Feb. 8 Toombs/Treutlen/Montgomery
Feb. 13 Cook County
Feb. 14 Crisp County
Feb. 15 Colquitt County
Feb. 20 Sumter County
Feb. 21 Thomas County
Feb. 22 Laurens County
Feb. 27 Appling County
Feb. 28 Brooks County
March 7 Ben Hill/Irwin/Wilcox Counties
March 12 Mitchell County
March 13 Berrien County
March 14 Dougherty County