Thread: Fruit, Nut, and Vine Grafting, Tree Propagation, Tree Care

Pecan Scab is a National menace. It is the disease which turns the leaflets black, turns part or all of the shuck black, stunting the growth and eliminating all nut production. Many that have yard Pecan trees that bare no more have seen these symptoms. By treating your trees in a timely manner with Zinc Sulfate the disease can be reduced but not eliminated. I have successfully eliminated it here thru Topworking the trees, topping off the variety susceptible to Scab and also over treating my trees with the Zinc solution. Today I just want to show pictures of trees here on my place that are in various ages after Topworking.



This Desirable variety Pecan tree is a full 15 years old. Look at its size. Most would think by trunk diameter 5 years at best. Well Desirable is one of the worst varieties for Scab resistance. Planted all throughout the South, 46 nuts to the pound, little packing (the bitter stuff), and over 50% halves mechanical cracked. Once Scab evolved to attack the Desirable orchards suffered substantially. There are fungicides thru rotation the Scab can be kept in check but none available to the Homeowner. Enter - Topworking. This particular tree has been so weakened this is the third time I cut out my work and re-grafted the Scions on the trunk. A Scion is a middle section of a branch from last years growth that has been selected and harvested by the Grafter in February and stored in the refrigerator till needed. I don't have pictures on hand to show you now but later posts will have examples. I collect them from my trees every year because I have highly resistant pecan trees here now through Topworking. You can see the buds growing out of the Scion, the 1x2 screwed to the tree is a bird perch, someplace a bird can land hopefully not on the tender new growth. Last year I Topworked a 120 tree orchard in 2 days, it took me a week to recover from each day, I was slinging steel and wood.



All the sprouting buds below the graft must be removed constantly. You leave one limb normally, on this tree I left 2 because it is so weak. I cut them off and graft a pollinator once the graft is the dominant growth.



Here another tree of the same age had a problem above the original graft. I cut the tree down in winter after it stored enough Sap to push new shoots the following year. One of the shoots I grafted a piece of Excel variety in case the Excel tree I bought dies I will have a Scion to grow another. This is a one year old graft, a recent storm broke one side above the new graft but it is budded back out nicely.



This Stump was handled the same but was a much stronger root system. A neighbors large pine tree fell on to our property grazing the side of this tree killing over 1/2 the tree. As you can see only one sprout is allowed to be dominant, the others although cut back are still left to help produce energy pushing the dominant shoot to 10-12ft this year. I will cut it back leaving a limb below the graft then graft Gafford variety (the best in my book) turning this tree into a producer with 3-4 years. Gafford really starts bearing early.





This is a 4 way Pecan grafted tree I did 4 years ago (we are in the 5th growing season) varieties include Gafford, Headquarters, Desirable, Syrup Mill. A close-up shot is following.



In the morning I will expand on this post with more examples and explanations. I would hate if someone fell asleep trying to read a too long post.