Hopefully there is a horticulturist here that can help me....

My Peacan tree is losing his nuts[sm=smiley19.gif]..He's about 12 years old and looks healthy and flurishing. I started him from a single Peacan nut...He has matured from adolescents into manhood about 3 years ago and has been producing a bountiful amount of nuts each year since..This year during the long HOT dry spell, I kept his roots irrigated with a deep root watering probe, fertilized and ironated and applied some Malathion to keep the tent worms at bay as the usual treatment every year, he show no signs of heat stress whats so ever...But all of a sudden since the hot weather ebbed and things are cooling off and the rains have returned some, he started to lose a lot of his nuts..not all, but a least half of them have fallen...Any ideas as to what is going on?[sm=dontgetit.gif]

 

it makes me nervous to reply to a thread with this topic, but lemme give it a shot. i would think that the sudden change in climate has made the tree think that fall is here. have you noticed the leaves falling as well, or just the fruits? and are the ones on the ground ripe, or still growing? i'll send an email to a friend, who's wife is a horticulturalist with Sac county parks. she may be able to shed some light on it. i have 3 pecan trees, but the only thing the nuts are used for is ammo - the squirrels sit above the dog run and bombard the dogs with them.

 

Thanks for the reply..what you said does make sense..

No the tree's foliage is bright a vibrant..no leaf loss either or browning of the tips..The nuts are about 3/4 ripe and still growning, as the husks are still thin...Usually around here they are fully ripend around November when the tree starts to sheds it's leaves.

 

i sent off the question, i'll let you know once i get a response. personally, i'd like to trim mine with the chainsaw, about 1" below grade, but i'm not allowed. that's what i get for marrying a treehugger.

 

Ya know, now that I'm a moderator, it would be inappropriate to say what I REALLY want to say, so I won't I just had to say THAT much though

 

i'm not - and since he's married, we know he lost those a long time ago. [sm=bicker.gif]

 

[sm=exactly.gif]

 

Mike if you are going to be funny anymore give up the moderator gig!

[sm=happybounce.gif]

 

OK OK I'll say it!

I heard that loosing your nuts comes with old age.....

There I said it ;-)

 

you don't lose em with old age, wait till you and your wife close on the mortgage....shortly after that she will hold yours just like our wifes hold ours