Another Wichita died (of scab/drought) after doing quite well, and a Ukulinga died because of being planted on the edge of an embankment and not being properly irrigated.
Moore (small nuts) further away, Barton (larger nuts) closer to the camera.
They're just starting to bud, and you can see the catkins on the Barton already developing.
This behaviour is what makes cultivating pecans so interesting - sometimes the catkins have dropped all their pollen before the female flowers that set into nuts have properly developed. Having two different cultivars helps as the timing of the emergence of catkins and female flowers is diff

Show track
Speed  Zoom on track
Latest Photos My Fleets Any Vieerent between types. The Moore drops catkins early, the Barton has a reasonable overlap.
The Barton, again.
Update 2015/11/02:
Update 2015/11/27:
Reasonable turnout of pollinated nuts. These will be ready by the start of April next year. This is the Barton.

Update 2016/02/26:
Nuts from the Wichita, which were fine up until a week ago. The usual problem - mildew of some sort. This sort of makes the tree a waste of space.
Update 2016/04/10:
That time of year - the Moore was on schedule, the first few hulls opened on the 1st of April, and now most are open. The Barton is only really starting to open up now.
Some of the Moore husks open.
A cluster of Bartons.
Barton's opening.
Barton popped from it's husk. The surface of a freshly popped nut seems photo-sensitive and is very pale at first, then darkens after a few minutes exposure to light and air. Could also be a moisture/drying out sort of thing? Nuts that deop from their hulls by themselves are nicely darkened.
Newly harvested nuts are inedible - they're soft, white and creamy and tasteless. They need to cure for a few weeks, and old orange pockets work well for this, allowing air flow. If you keep the nuts in a bowl, they'll get mouldy and go off.
A nice big cluster of Bartons. Not open yet.
Antigone "helping" look for pecans. The lower branches, being nearly horizontal, are ideal for agile cats to amble about on.
When the lower nuts have been harvested, you have to wait for the ones higher up to drop out of the husks by themselves. Daily scrabbling about in the grass at the bottom of the trees is necessary, and goes on for a couple of weeks.
Right at the end of the season, the undropped nuts high in the tree and any ungathered nuts on the ground attract hornbills, which have been making an appearance the last three years or so,
Pickings after a few minutes at the trees - Moore at the top, Barton at the bottom.
Start of this years harvest hanging behind the kitchen door - Moore on the left, Barton on the right - in half pockets.
Remnants of last years harvest of Barton, having shelled about a third of a pocket last week. That's probably three large Consol bottles and a few buggered up thumbs worth. Or six pies.
Remnants of last years harvest of Moore. Have given away two orange pockets of these. We use these when we run out of the Barton - very tasty, but reward/effort ratio is not high.
Enough of last years shelled Barton for another pie (next Sunday). The first half of the bottle went into the pie below. The raw nuts are delicious, but two year old nuts start getting a bit rancid.
The schlepp, as usual, is in shelling these things. My right thumb is in recovery mode after prying cracked shells apart last week. The effort is worth it, as it resulted in:
Remnants of a truly delicious pecan nut pie made yesterday by long suffering youngest daughter...
No comments:
Post a Comment