THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
295 
PROBLEMS IN COMMERCIAL PECAN ORCHARDING 
By JOHN CRAIG 
Before Georgia-FIorida Pecan Growers 
Allow me to congratulate the members of the Georgia- 
FIorida Pecan Growers’ Association on the organization of 
this sectional society. I am sure that it is needed, and I am 
certain that it will act as a strong stimulation and co-opera¬ 
tive agent in promoting pecan culture. We are especially 
in need of co-operative influences in this day and age, and I 
am sure that your society will vastly more than justify its 
existence in furthering a sane and conservative propagandist 
movement making for pecan orchard development. We 
represent the vanguard of a great and important movement. 
Pecan culture cannot be regarded as a demonstrated com¬ 
mercial industry. We are and shall be for some years in the 
experimental phases of pecan orcharding. It is accurate to 
say that we are better supplied 
with faith than experience, but if, 
using an Americanism, we stay with 
the game, the latter, experience, will 
co’me just as surely as old age and 
the tax collector. Again, experience 
is gathered rapidly or slowly, in 
proportion as we cooperate and 
compare notes. We, or rather you, 
are taking the shortest cut towards 
the experience goal. Let us all aid 
in adding to the sum of our knowl¬ 
edge in this subject in which we are 
so keenly interested. 
SOME OF THE PROBLEMS 
Possibly the following may not 
be regarded as problems by the 
older and more experienced pecan 
propagators and orchardists, but 
from my standpoint they loom up 
as very live questions, not all, of 
course, of equal importance. 
I. Which are the best stocks, 
western, northern, or southern? An 
answer to the question can hardly be given ofl-hand, be¬ 
cause it can only be solved in the light of actual experience, 
and of experience which will cover more than a single 
season. The culture of pomes and drupes is very much 
older than that of nuts, but the question is still a live one in 
the case of the apple, for instance, where opinions among 
propagators differ radically as to the merits of French and 
American grown stocks. In the absence of exact data, I 
am disposed to regard that affinities which are developed 
through the action of similar environmental conditions should 
be the safest guide until we know better Translating this, 
I would say that Texas stocks for Texas scions are probably 
better than Florida or more northerly grown stocks, and vice 
versa. I hope that this suggestion will provoke some dis¬ 
cussion, and give rise to the citation of direct experiences on 
this point. 
2. How should a strong two-year root graft be pruned at 
planting? We will suppose that it is five to six feet. Is it 
best to cut it back to three feet, or should we let it go, sup¬ 
posing, of course, that it has been carefully dug? My own 
opinion is that the less pruning we do the better. Adventi¬ 
tious buds do not develop readily from the older wood, and I 
am inclined to think we can cut back a young tree more se¬ 
verely than it will be safe to cut back an older tree at trans¬ 
planting. Of course, the case is quite different when the two 
trees are established. 
3. How high should we head, or how low should we head? 
Years ago, in apple growing, the high head was the rule. 
Few people thought of heading below fovu and one-half feet 
in the East, at least; but the Mid¬ 
dle West and the Northwest has 
shown us the advantage of the low 
head, and the orcharding custom of 
.the Northeast is falling into line. 
There is no doubt that the head is 
sure to go up. In this respect, the 
pecan differs from man, whose head 
usually comes down with advancing 
years ; and further, the lower 
branches and older branches are the 
ones which naturally give us first 
fruit. My recommendation is to 
save these by pruning lightly. On 
the matter of height of head, I 
would err on the low side rather 
than the high. It is much easier to 
raise the head than to lower it. 
4. Fertilizing. Here comes the 
main rub. How much to push the 
tree by the use of nitrogenous ferti¬ 
lizers ; how much to depend on the 
leguminous crop for this nitrogen; 
what is the role of potash and phos¬ 
phoric acid in the early life period of 
the tree ; what is its importance in the latter and fruit¬ 
bearing age; these and many other questions all need inves¬ 
tigation and answer. Through cooperation we can arrive at 
answers very much more quickly than is possible by indi¬ 
vidual study. 
I believe in the general principle of attempting to secure 
nitrogen from leguminous crops. Not only do we obtain 
nitrogen itself in this way, but the physical makeup of the soil 
is vastly improved and its productivity largely increased. 
The fertilizer bills are exceedingly important ones. They 
grow more rapidly than the trees, and it behooves us to con¬ 
sider these causes of expenditure with the most careful crit¬ 
icism. 
5. Enemies. Thus far the pecan grower is in a reasonably 
comfortable state and condition in reference to the enemies 
which attack his crops. The arch-enemies of the peach, the 
Heading back old Peach Trees 
