[Music]
hi everybody welcome back to Stark
Brothers we are in our pecan Scion
orchard today and we were just walking
around out here and noticed that the
pecans are really getting fully ripe and
they're ready to harvest and some of
them are falling on the ground so I
thought we would grab Terry stark who's
one of our growers here at Stark
brothers to give us the whole scoop on
pecans she's gonna talk to us about what
you might expect if you're growing a
pecan and once you have big beautiful
trees like these how to harvest them so
Terry thanks for coming out today
welcome awesome so what do you have here
so this is actually a Pawnee pecan which
is a very good seller it's a very big
nice it has a nice big nut to it so when
you're gonna get your tree you're gonna
get you can either get it depending on
the time of the year you're gonna get it
with leaves on it or it will be dormant
and that would mean all of this growth
would be off and it's still gonna be
when you get it in this spring or in the
fall and it's due foliated it will come
out nice in the spring but it's an easy
easy start I'm gonna pull it out of the
pot here and as you can see it's it's
full of roots and you're forming a lot
more hair roots and you don't have that
long tap root to have to contend with
digging a real deep hole or cutting part
of it off
this you don't have to all you have to
do is score the roots around the pot
break up the root a little bit so it
acclimates into its surroundings and it
will take off now if you had a bare root
tree and you are planting it you would
have to go and prune it back at least a
third of the way this one you get a
potted tree like this there's no pruning
to it when you're when you're planting
it so when I get it at home I take it
out I score the roots lightly with some
with a knife and then I don't have to
worry about any kind of pruning at all
in the ground it goes yep and and I can
eventually expect to get something 75 to
100 feet tall like these awesome so when
I'm considering growing pecans one of
the things that I need to think about in
terms of my zone
do they need multiple pollinators what
give me kind of a scoop on choosing
pecans okay so
know your zone of course if you know
there's southern varieties of northern
varieties they're more geared through
seven seven to nine zone or five to six
zones
stark in southern giant which this is is
zoned for zone six so as you can see
they're doing very well no your space
limitations they get seventy five foot
tall so space requirements are forty to
seventy foot apart so if you're doing
planting a variety you need a type one
and a type two so the type one in the
type two pecan trees have opposite
flowering processes and the opposite
flowering process allows you to get even
more pecans than what you could just
from a single tree and I also learned to
that they're wind pollinated so they're
wind pollinated instead of by your
typical bee pollination so it's a little
less to worry about there but if you get
two different types when we and we make
it really clear on our website what's a
type one what's a type two and what are
great pollinators for each other so once
you figure out your space and how many
you have room for you can go and pick
from the pollinators that will best suit
your your climate in your condition okay
so when you're planning this tree don't
fertilize it for at least 30 days and
then you can fertilize it with a
nitrogen rich fertilizer don't fertilize
after July because you don't want that
fresh growth going into the winter
months also once they start bearing in
that bearing stage then you want to
start putting some zinc sulfate into the
incorporating that too that'll keep the
tree nice and healthy and green and it
will ensure that you're getting a good
meat into year your in your nut and as
they're establishing I read that you
should water a pecan about once a week
that they're they definitely require a
lot of water to get established right
they need a lot of water to get
established and also they're pretty heat
tolerant they like that long growing
season like those long nice summer
months but if it's going into a really
drought period you need to water them
because that helps ensure that you're
getting a filled nut other if you keep
it
if it's too dry and it goes through long
drought then it's not gonna fill that
nut so Terry will one question before
they get to the point where they're
actually harvesting how long does it
take all of our customers want to know I
asked hypothyroid customer service
manager what is the most common question
you get about pecans and she said how
long till they harvest so tell us what's
the number it can be anywhere depending
on the variety between three to nine
years so be patient but it's well worth
the wait and when they get to the age
like this they're just producing tons
and tons of a nuts and then then you're
glad you made that initial environment
so Terry when do you know when it's time
to harvest your pecans
okay so pecans can you can harvest them
anywhere from September to November kind
of depends on where you are and the zone
and the variety if they're starting drop
on the ground of course that's a sure
sign and if as you can see it's starting
to open up the hole is opening up and
you can see that nice pecan inside there
that one you can go and pick right now
there's all kinds of nutcrackers out on
the market yeah I do believe that we
have one off in our catalog I was doing
this earlier and they were laughing at
me how do you crack it Terry when you're
hungry and you really want to akan use
your teeth that's right okay there's a
little bit white yeah just I don't think
it's quite got the card okay can we see
of mine yeah let's see if yours is right
I just won it's got a little bit more
time to go
so there are a lot of work but they're
well worth it because they're delicious
mm-hmm and there's you know a wide wide
use for them in any recipe
they're very health healthy for you mhm
you know you just can't go wrong with a
good pecan certainly not do you have a
favorite pecan variety Pawnee and cons
are very good yeah yeah
so hopefully you learned a little bit of
something I always learned something
whenever I have a chance to spend time
with Terry so Terry thank you for being
with us and order your pecan trees
you're definitely gonna watch some of my
youth
I see this in a turtle right now look at
that he's a turtle candy mmm a beautiful
delicious
thanks so much to them