Pecan Farm Update

 Well it has been an interesting year so far.  It is hard to judge the pecan crop at this point.  We had two later frosts that nipped at the leaves some, perhaps this decreased our nut set this year.  Our most popular nut last year, Gloria Grande, seems to be having a very light year.  Stuarts are better though the best tree has been picked clean by the squirrels.  The nice early nuts from Pawnee are near the woods and have been picked clean also.  A very large Pawnee fell over a few months ago.  Just a few years ago we had hoped to have trees touching over our driveway soon, now we may never see this.  Our planting errors from years ago are coming to haunt us.  Another older tree also went over.  Crow control is okay, bluejays tougher, squirrels are diminishing in population...  We will soon gear up for sizing, cracking, and shelling of nuts.  We grafted lots of trees this year, most of them failed.  My techniques are amateur thus far, including using tools that just plain old don't work.  Later grafts after frosts seem to survive better.  The airblast sprayer likely blew over some weak survivors, note to self to take it easy in the future.  The grafting success is encouraging though.  THe homebuilt and purchased squirrelanator traps are ineffective thus far.  Enjoy the photos in following posts.