Well, Eric Stafne is a pecan specialist for Oklahoma State University.
He joins us here in our CareerTech studios.
Well, first of all, give us just some idea of how important Oklahoma's
pecan crop is.
Eric Stafne: Oklahoma's pecan crop is extremely important from year to year.
It's really a part of the Oklahoma social fabric.
Everybody's making pecan pies.
There's a lot of different people who are dependent on it for their
livelihood.
So, even though from year to year we have a large variation in the yield and
the value of the crop, it's something that people depend on quite a bit.
Rob: Now, I've been told that pecan trees, typically, they do really
well one year and then the following year, not so well.
Stafne: That's typically called alternate bearing, there are other names for
that, but essentially the tree itself uses up a lot of energy in producing
that crop and it needs to recover for a year or maybe two years period
before it can put on another significant crop.
Rob: Now, as we just saw, you know, a good crop down south, not so good up in
the northeast where they had the freeze; when you have a freeze like that,
can that do permanent damage to a tree?
Stafne: In some areas it can do permanent damage, especially, you know we
still don't know the full effects.
There are certain areas in Oklahoma, maybe around Grove and Delaware County,
that area; it got down to 17 degrees.
So, in that situation, you can have wood damage to the tree, and that's a
permanent type of situation.
I don't expect in most of the state that we'll see anything like that, but it
can have damage for this year on certain parts of
the tree, but it should recover.
Rob: Now, Mike mentioned a couple of different varieties of pecans; tell
us a little bit, I'm assuming there are several
varieties here in the state.
Stafne: Yeah, there's many different varieties in the state, there's a lot.
But, we kind of try and steer people toward what to grow depending on their
area of the state.
So, some do better in the northern part where it's a little bit colder, and
some do better in the southern part and the western part.
We have different disease pressures and some
are more susceptible than others.
So, a lot of the ones that we're recommending now are like Kanza and Pawnee, and
Maramec is one that's from Oklahoma that a lot of people still grow.
There are many acres out there still of Stuart and Burkett, and some of the
other ones that aren't as good and haven't been replaced, but folks still
want to grow those.
Rob: A lot of people I talked to say pecans are an easy crop to grow, but
there is some financial, and I guess, some time investment here.
Stafne: Sure.
When you start growing pecans, if you're going to put in an orchard, it can
take up to 6 to 10 years perhaps to start getting a crop.
So that's a substantial amount of time and investment you're putting
in before you're ever seeing any dollars back on that.
The level of management also varies.
If you're putting in larger pecans, something like a Maramec or a Mahan;
those would have significantly more needs, like water especially, so
irrigation, disease sprays, zinc sprays, all kinds of things like that
would be an important part of that.
Now if you're growing natives or mostly natives, the disease pressure tends
to be less; the nuts tend to be smaller, so you can get away with a little bit
less management.
Rob: All right, Eric, we certainly appreciate you coming here.
Stafne: Thank you.
Rob: And we continue our conversation with Dr. Stafne on our website;
just go to OkHorizon.com and click on value added.