Thanking the Commissioner
THANKING THE COMMISSIONER — The Georgia Pecan Commodity Commission honored retiring Georgia Ag Commissioner Tommy Irvin, center, for 42 years in his position, making him the longest serving ag commissioner ever, according to commission president Duke Lane, right. Lane, along with Chop Evans, left, presented Irvin with this pecan wood plaque made by grower and commission...
Read moreKnow Thine Enemy
In the book, “The Art of War” by Sun-Tzu Wu, a very famous phrase was used – “know thine enemy”. I’m not sure whether this is a direct translation or just paraphrasing (my Chinese translation skills are seriously lacking), but the meaning is that the better one understands an adversary the better chance one has...
Read moreTired pecans and orchard decline
For years growers have been talking or asking why their trees are in decline. For the last two years, I have been working with three Texas A&M orchards that were definitely in decline. It is not a good time for decline because the pecan industry is at a wonderful point in time; the world has...
Read more2011 Pecan Shortcourse coming up Jan. 24-28
The annual Texas Pecan Orchard Management Shortcourse conducted by Texas AgriLife Extension Service will again be held (Jan. 24-28, 2011) on the Texas A&M Campus in College Station in Rudder Tower. If you are planning to plant trees, or have young trees or simply need a refresher course on growing pecans, this class should indeed...
Read morePecan Industry Sees Record High Grower, Meat Prices
Demand for pecans has been at an all-time high this season with U.S. growers enjoying record high prices for in-shell product. Export demand from China has continued to be a significant factor in the pecan market in 2010. Growers have been paid over $5.00, point basis, for large top-quality pecans in recent weeks — that...
Read morePecan Industry Loses Georgia’s Bud Lucke
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Marion Wilkerson “Bud” Luckey Jr. passed away Dec. 6, 2010 at University Hospital in Augusta. He was born Feb. 13, 1944. Bud Luckey was well known throughout the pecan industry. He began working in the pecan industry as a teenager at Tracy-Luckey Co. of Harlem, Georgia. During his career as a “pecan...
Read moreWhat to Blame?
It is now early January, the crop is in and thoughts turn, hopefully, to what went wrong last year and how I can correct it this coming season. I have seen a couple of articles in the past month that have tried to fix the reason or reasons for the poor crop in the eastern part...
Read moreWorld Race 2011 Has One Nutty Sponsor
Cecil and Kay Crabtree of Crabtree Pecans in Denison, Texas are sending their business name around the world in 2011 — on the side of an antique car entered in World Race 2011. This is a re-creation of the Greatest Auto Race of 1908, leaving New York City on April 15, 2011 and arriving in...
Read moreManaging Crowding of Orchards in the West
Pecan trees LOVE the light. That’s really all there is to it. In their native habitat, young pecan trees can rapidly grow to great heights if given a nice patch of sunlight — then once they’ve surpassed all the other surrounding trees in height, they’ve got it made in the sun, so to speak. But...
Read moreImidacloprid Project Set To Launch In 2011
During 2010 the Texas pecan IPM program teamed with Juan Lopez, USDA-ARS Southern Plains Research Station, to submit a proposal to the EPA Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program for funds to develop information relating to use patterns of imidacloprid-based insecticides to tolerance/resistance in black-margined pecan aphids, Monellia caryella. Lopez is a research entomologist with USDA- ARS and although his...
Read moreWhat’s Georgia Planting?
The Chinese appetite for pecans has placed a spotlight on our crop, which is increasing in popularity. This has led to a pecan acreage increase in Georgia, which from the phone calls and visits I have had, does not appear to be subsiding. Pecan nurseries have been unable to provide enough trees to keep up...
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