By Clint Thompson
Heavy rains last weekend and those in the forecast for next weekend are not ideal for row crop producers trying to harvest their cotton and peanuts. But for pecan growers, the additional rainfall this time of year is expected to benefit the nuts, according to Lenny Wells, University of Georgia (UGA) Extension pecan specialist.
“It’s probably actually doing more good than bad for us at the moment, because anytime that we have a late season drought, like after kernel filling, that extends into late September and into October and even November in some cases like we’ve seen the last year or two, that drought can present more problems where we start to see a lot of shucks that won’t open up,” Wells said. “Then we get some sprouting and issues like that going on, premature sprouting. But the rain actually helps minimize that.
“We’ve always, I felt like, especially with some of the research we’ve done on water use and pecans over the last few years, that is a very vulnerable period for us because of the way the tree uses water at that time. It kind of starts to slow down on the water use, so it’s not really taking it up very well at that time.”
Recorded Rains
According to the UGA Weather Network, Tifton, Georgia received 3.87 inches of rainfall during the Oct. 2-4 timeframe. Waycross, Georgia, received 1.36 inches during that same timeframe, and Albany, Georgia, received 3.33 inches.
Last year’s prolonged drought started in mid-to-late August and lasted until April. Pecan quality was negatively impacted due to the extended dry weather.
“If you’re irrigating, you still got water out there, but because the tree’s efficiency of uptake has dropped and you’re only irrigating a small percentage of that root zone, the tree a lot of times in these extended droughts is not really capable of picking up all it needs to really make those shucks open up and avoid that premature sprouting problem,” Wells said. “But when we get even one or two good rains between kernel filling and when the shucks really start to open up for harvest, if we can get one or two good rains during that period, that relieves that problem. And so hopefully that’s what we will see out of this.”