By Clint Thompson
Pecan harvests have concluded. Some growers fared better than others. East Georgia producers struggled the most, says Lenny Wells, University of Georgia Extension pecan specialist.
“Certainly, east Georgia, I think, was really light. I’ve heard from others, further to the west, it’s hit and miss. It seems to be people that have a lot of young trees seemed to do okay, better than they expected to when harvests were beginning,” Wells said. “But then you’ve got others that just did horrible; had the worst year ever. It’s pretty much hit and miss. Either you had a pretty good year, or you had a horrible year, and there was no in between.
“Certainly, east Georgia, as a whole, was significantly off; way off.”
Environmental Impact
Wells attributed the light crop in East Georgia to Hurricane Helene’s impact in 2024. Other environmental factors impacted the crop in other parts of the state.
“Everywhere else, it’s a combination of things. We had the rainfall which generated an enormous amount of scab pressure. We had some scab losses,” Wells said. “Along with that rain we had cloudy weather throughout, pretty much all summer. That of course limits your production. It affects the nut development. That drought we had late season, starting about mid-August, pretty much through November, that really hurt us a lot I think.
“We were getting rain all summer long, so that whole root system of that tree was getting plenty of water, and then all of a sudden it just cut off at a very critical time during kernel filling. Even if you were still irrigating, that irrigation system is only covering a small portion of that root system.
“For that drought to happen at a critical time was tough, and that’s also a time when the tree drops the efficiency with which it takes up water. You get into a situation where it doesn’t really matter how much water you put out with the irrigation, when it’s that dry at that time of the year when the tree’s not taking it up real well, it’s hard to keep up.”