Carya illinoinensis
Pecan
Common names: Pecan tree, Hickory nut
At a glance
- Light
- Full sun
- Hardiness
- Hardy down to −26 °C
- Pruning
- Jan–Feb
- Harvest
- Oct–Nov
- Spacing
- 1000 cm, rows 1200 cm
- Water need
- Medium
Photo: James St. John · CC BY 2.0 · Source
This description was machine-translated.
Description
The pecan is a close relative of the walnut from the southern United States, whose elongated kernels taste sweet and oil-rich. It requires a long, warm growing season, so in Germany it only fully ripens in the mildest wine-growing areas. The tree becomes large and bears fruit only after several years of patience.
Care instructions
Choose the warmest, full-sun location with deep, moist, well-drained soil. Plant in spring (April, week 15) so the tree establishes before the first winter, and water thoroughly during dry periods. Harvest the nuts late in October or November (week 44) when the shells split.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Garden year
HarvestOct–Nov
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
loamy, humus-rich, well-drained, nutrient-rich, moist
Plant the pecan in deep, humus-rich, evenly fresh to moist loamy soil. It forms a strong taproot and needs plenty of loose, rootable depth. It does not tolerate waterlogging, nor permanent dryness; sandy or shallow soils are ruled out. It grows best in the slightly acidic to neutral range (pH 6 to 7); if the pH rises well above 7, zinc becomes hard to access and deficiency leaves appear. On the lime-rich soils of the Central European lowlands, therefore, keep it rather low in lime and rich in humus.
Feeding
Heavy feeder
Months
Mar–May
Feed in early spring, shortly before bud break (March/April): work mature compost and horn shavings shallowly in around the drip line. In May you can add a second organic nitrogen dose (e.g. well-rotted farmyard manure or horn meal), because demand is highest during shoot growth and nut filling. From summer no more nitrogen-heavy feeding, because late shoots do not ripen and freeze. In spring watch the leaves: pale, small leaves point to zinc deficiency, which you prevent with humus-rich soil that is not too lime-rich.
Pruning
Prune the pecan only a little, and mainly as formative pruning onto a central leader in the first years, best in late winter (January/February, weeks 2 to 8), while the tree is dormant. Unlike the walnut, the pecan bleeds hardly to a problematic degree; on young trees you can also shorten soft shoot tips in summer to curb excessive branching.
Overwintering
Established pecan trees survive normal winters of the Central European lowlands outdoors, but young trees are frost-sensitive in the first two to three years: cover the root zone thickly with leaves, bark mulch or brushwood and wrap the trunk in horticultural fleece or hessian. Choose a sunny, wind-sheltered site.
Propagation
Methods
- From seed
- Grafting
- Layering
The most reliable way to propagate pecans true to type is grafting: first raise rootstocks from pecan nuts. The nuts are cold-stratification seeds: harvest them in autumn and stratify them moist (in sand or moist substrate) for 90 to 120 days at 1 to 5 °C, then sow from March. Once the seedlings have reached a trunk diameter of about 8 to 10 mm, usually after 2 to 3 years in place, graft them in late winter (February to early/mid-March), while the rootstock is still dormant. Veneer grafting, or whip and bark grafting, are the typical techniques for pecans; cleft grafting with a scion of the desired variety also works. Keep the graft union tightly closed with grafting tape and protect the young shoot from drying out. Grafting shortens the juvenile phase considerably; grafted trees often bear after just a few years.
For sowing as a method in its own right (e.g. to obtain new rootstocks or seedlings for cropping), place fresh nuts directly 5 to 8 cm deep outdoors in autumn, or stratify them for 90 to 120 days in the fridge and sow in spring. Expect seedlings to bear fruit after 10 to 15 years at the earliest and not to come true to type.
Air layering works on strong young shoots in early summer: ring the bark about 3 to 4 cm wide, wrap the wound tightly with moist sphagnum moss and seal the whole thing airtight with film. Roots form after about 6 to 10 weeks; separate the layer only when it is strongly rooted. Separating too early is the most common reason for failure. This method is more laborious than grafting, but needs no special materials.
Cuttings are not recommended for the home garden: wood of adult pecan trees roots only poorly, and reliable rooting succeeds only under controlled conditions with rooting aids, which is not practical for hobby gardeners.
Companion planting
Companion planting is partly traditional gardening lore. Where the reason is known, it is given.
For your garden
Grow Pecan yourself
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