186 Pecan-Growing 



rosette. Some authorities ' treat it as a chloratic disease and 

 class it with the infectious mosaics ; others "" place it with the 

 non-infectious diseases arising from malnutrition. In either 

 case, proper soil management will largely overcome the trouble. 



Early stages of the rosette may be detected by the small, 

 wrinkled, mottled leaves near the ends of the branches. The 

 disturbance may affect the whole tree, but it is more likely 

 to appear first on one or more branches. The affected branches 

 fail to grow full length, causing the leaves and lateral branches 

 to form in a mass, which gives a rosette effect. In severe cases 

 the twigs die back several inches from the terminals, this 

 usually occurring in late summer. The following spring the 

 buds below the dead portion of the twig start a growth which 

 appears to be healthy and normal, but by midsummer the 

 growth is again shortened and rosettes formed as in the pre- 

 vious year. Unless the tree recovers, as it sometimes does, this 

 putting out of new gi^owth and dying back continues year 

 after year until the tree develops a bushy top badly disfigured 

 with many dead terminals. Pecan trees very seldom die as 

 a direct result of rosette. However, affected trees bear very 

 few nuts, and having been weakened by rosette, may readily 

 succumb to other maladies. 



The rapid spread of the pecan industry and the general 

 lack of knowledge of what the trees require have led many 

 growers to plant orchards on soils totally unsuited to the 

 crop. As a result, rosette is found in the pecan orchards of 

 the southeastern states in varying degrees, probably ranging 

 from 10 to 20 per cent of the total planted. Applications of 



^Rand, Pecan Rosette, V. S. Dept. Agr. BuH., No. 1038. 

 ^Mc^Iiirran, Pecan Rosette in Relation to Soil Deficiency, U. S. 

 Dept. Agr. Farmers' Bull., No. 756. 



