Pecan Crop 2010

The pecans have been a big disappointment over the past 3 years - through no fault of their own. First we had the extreme drought that caused the trees to have no production in 2009 and 2008. In 2010 they received some rains, but not at the right times. The trees really need a of of water in August, or the "water stage" for pecans. This allows them to grow rapidly and fill out.

We had a decent crop this year, but because it was not a bumper crop, we felt we could not justify renting the 60' boom machine we use to thrash the trees from. My sister, Susan, came and thrashed the lower limbs of several trees that had a fair amount of pecans on them, but it was really slow going doing it from the ground. The trees have grown so tall, she could reach only the lowest limbs, and 90% of the pecans were in the higher limbs.

Nature has a way of taking care of things. The birds REALLY enjoyed the pecans this year! Not the crows as you might expect, but medium sized black birds - grackles, I assume. They came by the thousands! They would feed off the ground, then fill the branches of a tree. I had seen and heard them - very noisy with that number of birds!, but I didn't really think they were large enough to eat the pecans. Then I saw them in the trees in profile with a whole pecan held in their beaks. We drove through the orchard yesterday and I saw only 3 or 4 trees with many pecans left on them. The good thing with the birds, they took the hulls and pecans off at the same time, so the trees look nice and clean.

They ate many pounds of acorns from the trees around the house this fall. I thought someone was trying to tear up the metal roof on the warehouse one day. I quit working in the yard to walk over and check. It was the same medium size black birds, hopping on the small limbs and branches, eating the clusters of acorns.

Hopefully we will have a normal weather year next year as far as rain goes, and the trees can get back into a regular routine and cycle of production. All of our freezers say we need them!

A History of the Pecan Bottom at C. P. Montague's Farm

After mama and daddy bought their dream place, my brother went to Tarlton University and talked to them about putting in a pecan orchard. He told mama and daddy about it and they decided to use about 20 acres in the river bottom that had deep "made" soil. This was rich, fertile soil that had been deposited in the bottom through many previous floods.

By this time, Mr. Barho had purchased his place across the river and it had many huge native pecan trees. That fall we picked up hundreds of pounds of pecans to use as our seed. Daddy totally cleared the 20 acres and we planted the orchard. This was done by someone sitting on the back of the tractor just above the ground and dropping the individual pecans into the furrows one at a time! My dad drove the tractor, insuring that he had straight rows.

My brother's wife, Lou, was very pregnant at the time with their daughter, Tamra, and we've got a picture of her riding on the back of the tractor. Thus the pecan orchard was "born"!