We call them p cans... never heard them called anything else "here"..

I'm in zone 7A, not sure they would live here?, As far as I know there's none around.

Zone 7A should be fine

Variety dependant, some are more cold tender than others.

Grand dad had one top worked way back when, five different varieties on one tree. One long skinny nut, one small round, one big papershell, another round one and a medium sized one. Hurricane Frederick dropped it on the smokehouse back in 78.

Puh-kahn is the way it is said, not a chamber pot.

None for me this year as mine had a big crop last year. Pecans are bad for biennial bearing heavy one year light the next. Some, like mine, have such a heavy year it takes two to recover, heavy, almost none, light, heavy. The commercial orchards shake their trees in the early season on the heavy years to knock off half the crop to lessen that tendency. Some are now hedging their trees for the same reason.

Not just pecans, I'm seeing a really good crop of acorns and hickory nuts this year.

Here in PA the self appointed high class people say it should be pronounced as paacon I claim that the Pecan Growers Assoc certainly would be the expert to answer my question And all those in the self appointed crowd are wrong I really like pecans . And I bet those home grown ones from the south are a real treat .

Speaking of Pecans, any one from Georgia heard or seen Jesse Barnes. He would always bring some pecans to the Conventions years back. We use sit around the campfire while Ma Pingley made a feast for all that attended and afterwards, we all got to crack open some nuts to enjoy, then the story telling began.

Funny thing is that often the best tasting ones are seedling fence row trees. They are usually small to medium and thicker shelled than the big fancy papershells.

The Elliot variety is one of those. A found seedling tree but considered the best tasting.

Do you think the commercial growers give up flavor for ease of processing and nut size?

Keith

I grew up with a wild pecan tree in our yard. They were about the diameter of a dime and thick shelled. They were delicious. Mom used them for pecan pies. Very hard to shell but had a high oil content.

Yes

The key factor commercially is fancy halves. That's the percentage that shells out in clean halves of the ideal color without speckling, without fuzz or packing material and well filled out of large size. Flavor comes after that.

But the Elliot variety can bring premium in the specialty market as it is known by name for flavor.

BTW, like fur China is the biggest buyer of pecans.

We just call them nuts down in South Georgia.

Are pecan trees common in the South like black walnut trees are here? I have hundreds of black walnut trees on my farm.

Keith

Yes, they volunteer readily and every old farm and house site has them in every fencerow all across the south, though they aren't native to most of the south. Plus they are a common yard tree everywhere. Native range is the Mississippi Valley and western coastal plain.

Funny thing though is that they really don't naturalize into the woods. I think they don't compete well in established forests.

We have lots of native ones here along with a lot of commercial groves in the river bottom ground. Guy can pick up all the native ones he wants.

Yes

The key factor commercially is fancy halves. That's the percentage that shells out in clean halves of the ideal color without speckling, without fuzz or packing material and well filled out of large size. Flavor comes after that.

But the Elliot variety can bring premium in the specialty market as it is known by name for flavor.[/quote]
Thank you for the info!

My son's house in Texas has squirrel planted pecans all over his property, except none of them are in an area he'd wish them to grow, lol

He tried several times to transplant some but they never took.