By Clint Thompson
One of the top emerging pecan varieties provides producers with an early-season option that has desirable size and percent kernel.
Pawnees are one of the first varieties to be harvested every year and possess traits that make them highly desirable, according to Lenny Wells, University of Georgia Extension pecan specialist.
“The quality is usually pretty good,” Wells said. “The size of it is right in there where we want. It’s considered a large pecan, and it’s like a 57%, 58% kernel. It’s a real high percent kernel nut with good quality. All of that is certainly good.”
The average harvest date for pawnee in its research trials at the UGA Tifton Campus was the third week of September. However, producers will need to practice patience with this cultivar.
“They take a while for the trees to get to the point where they bear heavy. You’ve got to be patient there, but they do eventually get there,” Wells said. “It’s a good variety, and it’s replaced Desirable on the gift pack market which has driven the price of Desirable down some. You still get good money for Pawnees.”
Pawnee has a promising future, but growers should not expect it to completely dominate the market like other varieties did in years past.
“I think that’s one good advantage that Georgia has is the number of different varieties that are out there. I don’t think we’ll ever see one variety that will be as dominant as Stuart was for so long, because we have so many different varieties that are planted now,” Wells said. “But yeah, it’s one of our major varieties or will be in the future.”