By Clint Thompson
One of the best and most efficient ways to preserve pecan fungicides for the future is for growers to not use them as much as they currently do.
That’s why University of Georgia (UGA) Cooperative Extension pecan specialist Lenny Wells continues to advocate the use of scab resistant varieties. If producers grow varieties that are resistant to the disease, there won’t be as much of a need to apply fungicides, especially not at the rate farmers are currently having to utilize them.
“Varieties are going to make all of the difference in the future as far as profitability and growing pecans. You’ve got to have varieties that are going to make higher yields than what we have made in the past and do it consistently, rather than have one huge year and then an off year. We need to be able to make heavy pounds consistently. We need to do that with varieties that we don’t have to spray so much,” Wells said.
“That’s really the only way that I see, in the current market and the current economics of growing pecans. The cost is high, and the price is low. We can’t really control price, and the only thing we can control is what we spend on that crop. The only way you can significantly reduce the cost of growing pecans is to grow something you don’t have to spray 10 or 12 times. We’d rather be spraying 2 or 3 times.”
Scab is a fungal disease that infects the leaves or nuts of pecan trees. If it impacts the nut early enough, scab can cause the nut to blacken and fall from the tree. It thrives on trees that have received moisture which has been the case this year. Some growers may make between 10 and 12 fungicide applications during an average year to fight scab. The more it rains during the summer, the more applications a grower is likely to make.
Click here to find out what cultivars provide good resistance to scab disease.