Re: prunning pecan trees
6868@aol.com
Sat, 16 Aug 1997 11:02:56 -0500
There is no simple one word answer to your question,but I'd like to try. First of all,what do you want ? Stronger trees. More fruit ,more shade or overall healthier trees? Is this a pecan farm ? Are these trees protected from wind at all? Generally there are two ways to skin a cat,and more ways to trim a tree ,it has more variiables.I don't own a tree farm, but if I did ,I would go to a farm for a show and tell lles
son before I spent any money. I'm in W Central Fl. where the pecans are few and far between so I'm limited in practice,something that the ISA seems to have difficulty relating to so far. But,there are still a number of things I would like to point out. During the normal planning stage of any Crop whether it's a farm or badkyard situation , harvesting is a significaant factor, especially with trees. If triming a pecan to lower the canopy didn't interfere with health or production I would love to do a 20 year study on a couple. My memory cllearly shows miles of tall pecan groves N of here, indicatring a strong reccomendation not to trim on a plantation Prior to repair any damaged wood, a visual inspection is pre requisite. Generally any decay should be removed first even if that means taking out some good wood,unless t he
damage was minimal, les
s than 10% of the branch diamiter. fIn some cases this % can fluctuate depending on the size of the tree, if the damage is high up the tree or if it involves heavy wood high up there is a greater need to remove the damage. If the damage is minimal thin out any conflicting wood and revisit at 6 to 12 month intervals untill the scars disappear, and enjoy. Just guessing but I would put the pecan somewhere in between citrus and live oak for it's strength and ability to heal or compartmentalize itself which is very high overall among other trees.