Clearing areas to make a native Pecan grove

        If you are in an area where you are lucky enough to have a large number of wild pecan trees that are already producing nuts and you are wanting to harvest some pecans either for yourself or to sell, it can make a lot of sense to cut down trees that are 'crowding' the pecan trees. Any trees that have branches touching the pecan trees branches are the first to go, and then any trees that would interfere with you harvesting the nuts, then you can look at the canopy and see if there are any trees nearby that are likely to interfere with the pecan trees growth in the near future.

 

ABOVE On the left you see a large tree and on the right you see two smaller trees. The two smaller ones are pecans that are being crowded by a pin oak tree. The pin oak was cut and both pecans were left standing. They will quickly fill up the space in the canopy left by the pin oak.

ABOVE This is a pecan tree left in an area post-thinning. Notice there is nothing around this trees canopy. All other large trees were cut. This pecan is in an excellent location and should have rapid growth over the next few years.

ABOVE Obstacles to actually harvesting pecans off the ground. In order to pick nuts up off the ground there has to be a relatively 'clean' surface. There can be grass, and it can be a few inches tall, but there cannot be downed trees, huge branches, etc. All trees that I cut that have any value as lumber or firewood get used for those purposes, all other wood becomes brush piles for wildlife. 

ABOVE This is what used to be an old roadside. It is now the edge of a young pecan orchard. This area is undergoing thinning. The trees with colored tape on them are pecans that will remain. The short one on the left with colorful tape was grafted last year (see below)

ABOVE I like to graft relatively 'high' on the trees to prevent deer and other animals from eating my grafts. This tree was grafted in 2018 at approximately 5 feet off the ground and then in one growing season it grew about another 5 feet. That is a lot of growth and a lot of weight to support without breaking. This area is relatively protected from wind for now since I have not cleared out some of the larger trees around it. This greatly improves the chances of my grafts not being destroyed by high winds. When the grafts are fully healed in another year or so I will thin out more of the larger trees around the grafted pecans. 

ABOVE This is a close up of the graft on that specific tree above. It was a type of bark graft and it took very well. The original twig I grafted on this tree in SP 2018 was about the size of my index finger both in terms of length and circumference. Currently, it is larger than the circumference of my thumb and is 5 feet tall. It grew rapidly in 2018 despite a terrible drought. Part of this was because the original tree I cut to make this graft was at least 10 feet tall, so it has an enormous root system and was able to find enough water to make such dramatic growth. There are many good reasons you should consider grafting existing trees. They are much lower maintenance, take much less time to establish, and will produce nuts much sooner. This particular grafted tree was grafted to the variety 'Kanza' and I expect it to begin producing nuts within a few years.