With three months of the growing season in the books and four months before harvest, I’m pleased to report that the 2024 crop is looking stellar.

If you’ve followed my periodic crop reports here in the past you know that a good start to any production season is essential. Many timely practices must be performed in, well….  a timely manner. 

Take, for example, foliar application of zinc and other micronutrients like boron, cobalt, copper, manganese, molybdenum, and iron. What’s a micronutrient? Those are elemental nutrients that plants need in very small quantities…..micro quantities. That doesn’t make them any less essential, however. 

Zinc goes a long way in producing leaflets that are longer and wider; making bigger “solar panels” for the trees to capture sunlight to drive that magical mechanism called photosynthesis. 

The other micronutrients help produce more chlorophyll (that’s what makes green leaves green), aid in the production of enzymes, root cell elongation and resistance to root pathogens. They aid in water movement throughout the plant and a whole host of other metabolic processes that make the trees healthy and happy. 

We spray the tree canopies with zinc and micros, all 13,000 tree canopies, every two weeks from the first of April to the end of June with our big airblast sprayers. 

Also, I think it is noteworthy to point out that spring in this part of the world is usually wet. Lots of periodic, regular rain events provide much-needed water for the massive vegetative growth that’s going on. From April 1 to June 30 we have received 16 inches of rain spread pretty evenly across the months. 

Now we are entering the dry season, but the trees still need lots of water for fruit sizing and kernel fill. We are blessed to have lots of water in the aquifers under the farm that provide irrigation water during this critical developmental period. Consequently, we have spent the last three months repairing and preparing the irrigation system for the time ahead.

So, that’s what we have been doing here on the farm for the last three months. Feeding the trees and preparing for the dry summer ahead. When the cool fall arrives, we will be pleased to once again offer you high quality pecans you have come to expect from Royalty Pecan Farm. 

I love answering your questions about pecans so feel free to write to info@royaltypecans.com. Your questions will be forwarded to me.

- Andy Sherrod
Orchard Manager