Pecan cultivar recommendations for Southeast - 2013 update

摘要

Major advances in pecan cultivar development and selection have occurred in the past few years, requiring extensive evaluations and frequent updating of recommendations. Because the Alabama pecan industry has smaller growers, often without the equipment or economic incentive to spray intensively with large air-blast sprayers, we have focused on pest-resistance to reduce spray requirements. We have evaluated many selections under heavy incidence of pests, especially scab, but also aphids and mites, with no sprays applied at all in replicated tests. This has enabled us to identify susceptibility to scab that escapes other researchers with standard methods for years. On the other hand, our methods lead us to ruling out some good cultivars that perhapscould be grown with a very intensive spray program. To enable evaluation of highly susceptible cultivars, which some may wish to grow despite the risks, we have added a test site with very intensive management and spraying, including crop thinning, hedging and fertilizer banding.