52 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
SOME FACTS CONCERNING THE PROPAGATION OF 
PECAN TREES FOR PLANTING IN THE NORTH 
By W. N. ROPER, Petersburg, Va. 
FROM REPORT OF NORTHERN NUT GROWERS ASSOCIATION 
Pecan trees for successful culture in the North must be 
of hardy, early-maturing varieties, budded on stocks from 
northern pecans and grown in nursery under suitable climatic 
conditions. These are requisites indieated by practical, 
experimental work and observations extending over several 
years. 
The successful production of large southern pecans in far 
northern climates can hardly be looked for except under the 
most favorable conditions of soil, location, and season. 
There seems no good reason for planting southern peeans 
in the far North, except in an experimental way; for there 
are northern varieties now being propagated that are the 
equal of most of the standard southern sorts in quality and 
very little below them in size. They will prove to be as 
large or larger in the North than the southern varieties 
grown in the same locality, and much more apt to bear 
regularly. 
The method used in propagating the hardy types is 
important. Budding and root-grafting each has its advo¬ 
cates among pecan growers in the South, and this would 
indicate that there is no great difference between the trees 
propagated by these two methods when they are planted 
in that section. But based on results with several hundred 
specimens, root-grafted pecan trees are not desirable for 
planting in northern climates. 
Experience in Virginia 
During the past six years there have been grown in a 
nursery in the eastern part of Virginia, near Petersburg, 
about 2,000 root-grafted trees of eight southern varieties 
of pecans and one Virginia variety, including Stuart, Van 
Deman, Moneymaker, and Mantura. All these trees are 
worthless. None of them, though they have been cared for, 
has ever been considered by the grower fit to dig and trans¬ 
plant. Most of these trees suffer winter injury each year, 
many of them being killed back to the graft union. Those 
that do not die below the ground grow out the following 
summer, only to be killed back again the next winter or 
spring. Those damaged only a part of the way down the 
trunks, even when not badly injured, do not recover prompt¬ 
ly. Several hundred budded trees grown during the same 
period in adjoining rows have been entirely free from winter 
injury. The grafts and buds were inserted on stocks from 
northern and southern nuts. 
A thousand budded and root-grafted trees received from 
six southern nurserymen were planted in orchards in the 
same locality. A very large pereentage of the root-grafted 
trees died; only a small pereentage of the budded trees died. 
Many of the root-grafted trees that survived are making 
poor growth; most of the budded trees are strong and 
vigorous. The only trees of the Virginia varieties ever 
reported winter-killed were root-grafts. 
Southern Stocks Unsuited to the North ' 
No root-grafts of the northern types on northern stocks 
have been made in Virginia, but root-grafts of Indiana 
varieties on southern stocks transplanted there winter-kill 
badly. Several Indiana trees root-grafted on southern stoeks 
and in their seeond years’ growth in the nursery winter- 
killed in Florida last season. Not a single budded Indiana 
tree in Virginia suffered any winter injury whatever, although 
the buds were grown on southern as well as on northern 
stocks. All the root-grafted Indiana trees transplanted at 
Petersburg during the past two years have died from winter 
injury. 
Northern types root-grafted on northern stocks not hav¬ 
ing been tested, no definite information can be given, of 
course; but with all southern varieties winter-killing in the 
North, when root-grafted on either northern or southern 
stocks, and the Virginia variety winter-killing when root- 
grafted on southern or northern stocks, and the Indiana 
varieties winter-killing both in the North and in the South 
when root-grafted on southern stocks, it seems reasonable 
to presume that the northern varieties root-grafted on 
northern stocks will also winter-kill. The stocks of the 
root-grafted trees are seldom injured. They send up sprouts 
except in eases where the graft union is so far beneath the 
surface of the soil that after the grafted part is killed the 
stoek is too deep to grow out. 
Not a single tree out of a total of 40,000 seedlings in 
Virginia grown from northern nuts planted during a period of 
six years has ever been found affeeted by winter injury; 
practically all the trees out of 50,000 or more grown in the 
same loeality from southern nuts planted during the same 
years had their tops affected by winter injury the first, 
and most of them the second season of their growth; but 
no injury after the second season has been noted. 
With the view of making southern varieties better 
adapted to planting in northern area, experiments have 
been made in propagating them on stocks from northern 
nuts. This stock has thus far proved unsatisfaetory for 
southern varieties either budded or root-grafted. The trees 
from northern nuts go dormant earlier in the fall and remain 
dormant later in the spring than trees from southern nuts. 
Northern trees in the nursery rows in early spring, in a 
perfectly dormant condition, are in striking contrast with 
'he southern trees and their fresh, green foliage. Though 
the growing period in the North is nearly a fourth shorter 
for the northern than for the southern varieties, the native 
trees in the North make equal growth with the Southern 
