By Clint Thompson
Georgia’s pecan crop was vulnerable to Hurricane Debby and its trek through the Southeast the week of Aug. 5. The nuts that did not fall to the ground because of Debby’s high wind speeds may have been victimized with poor quality as a result.
It’s an issue that producers in Southeast Georgia are not likely to see for some time but they should be prepared for, says Lenny Wells, University of Georgia (UGA) Extension pecan specialist.
“Those nuts that stay on the tree got beat around a lot by the wind. It can damage the nuts. It can damage the stems that hold the nuts to the tree. Sometimes you can have some quality issues that result from that,” Wells said. “That’s one of those things where we’ve got to wait and see. We don’t know the extent of it at this point.”
According to the UGA Extension Pecan Blog, Wells wrote that the Pawnee variety was impacted the most in terms of direct crop loss from high winds. It was more mature and larger and in size. Estimates are 20% loss of Pawnee nuts in some orchards, with estimates for most other varieties being at 10% to 15%.
The greatest tree loss occurred in Brooks, Lowndes, Berrien and Cook counties. A few of the larger farms in those areas lost as many as 500 trees.