- [Casey] "Oklahoma Gardening" is a production of the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service as part of the land grant mission of the Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Oklahoma State University.

Dedicated to improving the quality of life of the citizens of Oklahoma through research-based information.

Underwriting assistance for our program is provided by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, helping to keep Oklahoma green and growing.

Tis the season for pecans.

Today on "Oklahoma Gardening" we take a look back at Oklahoma's pecan crop.

We start out in the orchard looking at pecan flowers.

Becky Carroll then shares with us about native pecans.

We then take a look further at the difference between an orchard and a grove.

And finally we close the show as we see the processing of the pecan harvest.

(gentle guitar music) - Those look like an ombre of sunset colors.

(gentle guitar music) It's not the flowers right?

(gentle guitar music) (plant thudding) (both laughing) (gentle guitar music) - Today we are back out here at the Cimarron Valley Research Station and we are standing in the pecan orchard.

And some might say we're standing in a field of flowers, but Becky, I don't see any flowers.

Can you help me out here?

(laughs) - There's flowers everywhere, if you take a look into these trees.

If we'll pull down this branch right here, all these things that are hanging down, these are called catkins.

They're the male flowers.

- Okay.

- And then the female flowers are a little bit harder to see, but they're at the end of the current season's growth.

That's the female flower or the pistillate flower.

- [Casey] So that kind of bright limey green color - Yep.

- is where- - [Becky] There's just little, little stigmas that are exposed right there.

And just recently, since probably Monday these started to be visible where you could see them.

- [Casey] Oh, okay, so all the male pollen has to find its way onto that female pollen in order to get our pecans each season, correct?

- Yes.

And so we wanna have our pollen source within about 150 yards of the tree that we are wanting to be pollinated.

- Okay.

- So if you're planting trees you need to make sure that they're planted close enough.

Unless you're around native trees where they might have a pollen source that might come in.

But still about 150 yards is ideal.

- Okay, well I know people that just maybe have one pecan tree in their backyard, and if it's got the male in the female, why does that not work?

Why do we need something different?

- Pecans are kind of different.

They are, they're a monoecious plant so they have male and female flowers on the same tree.

So monoecious means I think same house or something like that.

And so we have both the male and female flowers but they are a little bit different than things like peach or apple where we have a complete flower.

- Right.

- These are separate flowers.

And so, and the thing about pecans is that they have dichogamous flowering where the, the male flowers and the female flowers they are not sexually mature at the same time.

- Oh.

- So the female flowers may be receptive before the male flowers which that would be a protogynous type of, of flower.

And so I always think of protogynous, it has Jen in the middle, so Jenny, the female flowers are receptive first.

And then if the male flowers are sending out pollen before the females are receptive, those are called protandrous.

And so I think of Andy or Andrew in the middle.

And so the male flowers are sending out pollen before the females are ready to be pollinated.

- Okay, so you want one of both - Yes if you've got pecans so that they can make sure that you've got pollen when the females are ready - Yep.

and vice versa.

- Yes, you wanna have an early pollen shed and a late pollen shed.

Sometimes they're called type one and type two.

- Okay.

- Sometimes protandrous and protogynous.

(laughs) So it's kind of a mouthful there, but you need one of each.

- Okay.

- And to get good fruit set.

- So is this more important on cultivars?

Because I know cultivars are, you know, genetically all the same, right?

- Right.

- If you get one particular cultivar - Right.

- The next one over is exactly the same.

- That's right.

So when we're, when we're laying out an orchard in a, in a commercial setting, we wanna have about every fourth row as a, as a pollinator.

- Oh.

- And so we want to make sure that we're setting that up properly during the planting time.

And then also think about way down the road when we're thinning the orchard, that we're not gonna be removing all the pollinators in year 20 or so.

- Okay.

- [Becky] So you have to set it up properly.

- [Casey] Yeah, 'cause initially an orchard is over planted, Right?

- Right, correct.

- [Casey] But then as those trees grow you have to go out, - You have to thin them.

and thin out in your trees.

- Right.

- In a native grove each native tree is genetically different.

So you're gonna have good pollination with, with those trees.

They're gonna be protandrous and protogynous out in that same area.

- All right, so that's one of the benefits of having a native tree - Right.

over a cultivar.

- Right.

- Sure.

- Okay.

Well it's, it's, you've thrown a lot of fancy words at us (both laughing) - During this segment.

- I know.

I know.

- But it is interesting to know.

And of course, the female flowers are out on the end.

And so, - Right.

You can see we have these shucks here.

So that's where we're gonna find our pecans later in the season also.

- Right, and whenever we start getting, you know, pecans are one of the last thing to start budding out in the spring.

You can always tell pecan orchard, or you're driving down the road and you see a native grove because they're very late to start breaking bud.

- And, but whenever they start breaking or opening up those buds, the catkins will be developing on that last year's wood.

- [Interviewer] Okay.

- [Becky] And so we'll have catkin development and the shoot development on last year's wood, which is right here.

And so you can see they're all coming directly off of that last year's growth.

- [Interviewer] It's got kind of that grayer bark too.

Right.

- And that current season's growth is going to be, it'll have primary buds.

We can't see them right now.

But when this gets to be mature, we'll be able to see primary buds.

And then the female flowers, they are born on the current season's growth.

So we'll have this new shoot development and this is where the female flowers are developed.

So the catkins are directly on last year's growth and the female flowers are on this year's growth.

So a little bit different.

And these are usually not visible until early May, but you can pull your limbs down and see if there's a potential crop even early before they're pollinated.

Now, even if you see flowers, that doesn't mean we will have pecans in the fall, 'cause a lot of things can happen between now and October or November when we're harvesting.

But you can also check to see if your pollen source is active just by shaking some of these tassels and seeing some of that yellow pollen being released, or looking at your flowers, and they'll get kind of a sticky substance on there.

- And that's just signaling that they are ready to be pollinated.

- Okay.

And they are wind pollinated?

Is that correct?

- They are wind pollinated.

Yes.

Insects are not involved in the pollination.

And so if we have a tree that doesn't have a pollen source, it's just out there by itself, it may have flowers, but it doesn't get pollinated, or it may be self-pollinated.

There are some that will actually pollinate themselves but they'll lose maybe three quarters of that crop, and the quality is not as good.

So we would rather have cross-pollination if possible.

Some trees won't pollinate each other, the same or themselves at all, but others may have a slight window where they can pollinate each other.

- [Interviewer] Okay, so unless you have native, you definitely wanna get more than one different types.

- And if these don't pollinate properly, we'll have a lot of pecans dropping on the ground in June.

And so we watch for June drop, and that's, usually, there was some problem with our pollination at that time.

So they didn't get fertilized and they dropped to the ground.

- All right, well, thanks for sharing this information - Sure.

- with us, Becky.

And definitely we are in a field of flowers.

- Oh, definitely.

- I know why my eyes are starting to water now.

(Becky laughing) Thank you, Becky.

- Sure.

(laughs) (bright music) Most people associate the three sister crops like bean, corn and squash with the Native American tribes here in the United States.

But there's actually a crop that's grown in Oklahoma that may have even a longer history with the indigenous people of the United States.

And that's pecans.

Pecans are found in the wild.

Native pecans are found from Wisconsin down through Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, a little bit of Arkansas, but mainly Oklahoma and Texas.

And those pecans are growing wild.

They're native to the area.

They're grown in riparian type of soils, very deep and rich river bottoms, and they are spread along those creeks and tributaries.

And so that's where you find a lot of our native pecan trees and native pecan groves in the state of Oklahoma.

And so all the trees that are grown in other states like Georgia or New Mexico, Arizona and California, those have all been planted.

So we have something special here in the state that we need to recognize, and know a little bit more about the benefits of native pecans.

So I have some examples of some native pecans that were selected from different parts of the state.

Some of them are too small to really be useful for production, but then, you can see that they are quite different in size and shape.

Each native pecan tree is gonna be genetically different from the others.

And so that's why we see a lot of differences in quality as well.

And so for native pecan growers, whenever they are managing their orchards, they need to worry about things like thinning the trees to get enough sunlight into the trees, and then, look at fertilization which can be done by using clovers or conventional fertilizers, but also managing for pests like pecan casebearer or pecan weevil.

But most of the time, if one of their native trees may have issues with scab or other problems, that might be one that they would think about removing in their thinning process rather than trying to spray consistently to keep the disease at bay.

There, a lot of different native pecans may have very thin shells.

Most people think of a native as being very hard shell, very thick and very little meat, but really, there's a lot of them that have thinner shells.

People talk about a paper shell pecan, and a paper shell just is kind of a descriptive word for how thick the shell is.

It doesn't mean that it's been grafted or it's an improved variety, it just means that the shell is thinner.

- And a lot of people use it interchangeably for improved varieties.

But if we look at some of the different types of pecans that we use in some of our orchards in Oklahoma and other parts of the country, some of these were selected as natives.

So they were grown like the Mount.

It is a pecan that was in a native grove around Beggs, Oklahoma on the Mount Ranch.

And so it was a consistent producer, had good quality, and so the Mount family selected that pecan, started taking graft wood, sharing it with others, and so now we have that improved variety called Mount.

And so some of the others that are listed on here, like Kanza, Lakota, Pawnee, Choctaw with the Native American names, those were all released from the USDA.

And so they went through a breeding process to develop those cultivars.

But like Maramec pecan, it was actually a seedling that was found in Maramec, Oklahoma, and it was growing just next to a house there in Maramec.

It was probably a Mahan seedling, but we know that when you plant a nut, the tree that's produced from that nut is not gonna produce identical pecans to the original tree.

So you can see there's a lot of different choices in size and shape and even how they taste.

Some of these taste much better than others.

I personally like the smaller pecans.

They usually have a higher oil content.

Like our natives, they have much higher oil content.

And right now they're doing some research to look at the health benefits of native pecans versus improved varieties.

So some of the varieties like Pawnee or Choctaw, some of the larger nuts will require irrigation.

And so if you don't have enough water to produce these pecans and fill them out properly, then growers need to be thinking about growing something smaller, like a Kanza.

And so availability of water is a big issue.

And then also a Pawnee versus Kanza, the Pawnee is gonna have much more fungicide applications needed versus a Kanza.

And then a Kanza may also even fit into a native grove, where sometimes they can graft a Kanza or some of these other smaller nuts into a native grove, and they will be easily fit into that production system, but boost the kernel percentage a little bit on those overall production of those nuts.

If you look at what I said about kernel percentage, that means the amount of kernel to shell or packing material.

So something that's got a very thin shell, something like a Peruque has a very thin shell, it may be like 60% nut meat, or 60% kernel is what we call it, whereas some of the natives, like these very small ones, or some that have very thick shells may have a 30 or to 35% kernel.

So you have less nut meat per pound versus one of these with a thin shell.

I'm excited about native pecans in Oklahoma, and I hope you have the opportunity to try a native pecan and see the differences between it and an improved variety.

Check with your local pecan grower in your area.

Ask them if they have some.

Or you can forage some for yourself in a park or near a creek bank or somewhere in the fall.

(upbeat music) - Today we are here at a pecan orchard just outside of Skiatook, and joining me is Chad Selman with Selman Farms.

Chad, a lot of people might think that a pecan orchard is a pecan orchard, but you, who are an expert, know there's differences.

- Tell us a little bit about the two different types of orchards we have behind us here.

- Yeah, so we have an orchard to grove, and a orchard is in rows.

- [Host] Okay.

- [Chad] And a grove is sporadic.

- [Host] Okay, we're all pecans, right?

- [Chad] Yep, they're all pecans.

Now, the ones in rows are going to be primarily Pawnees, which is an improved variety.

- [Host] Okay.

- [Chad] And what we did is we planted those trees.

It came up as a seedling or a native tree, and then we grafted that tree, took a limb off of another tree, grafted it to that tree that was growing.

- [Host] Okay.

- [Chad] And then made it a cultivar.

- So they have native root stock, so they do well in the soil here and are adjusted, but yet they have an improved- - An improved variety on top.

- Variety, yeah.

- On top, okay.

- Growing on top of the tree.

- But then the grove behind you, tell me a little bit about what that is.

- So it's 90% native trees.

- [Host] Okay, all the way.

(laughs) Top to bottom.

- All the way, top to bottom.

So those ones we didn't graft.

They're just there naturally.

All we did was cleaned up a block of woods around 'em and left the pecan trees.

- [Host] All right.

- [Chad] But, you know, the nut, the difference between the improved varieties and the natives are the natives are a much smaller nut.

- [Host] Okay.

- [Chad] And the improved varieties are much larger.

So primarily what you're always seeing are improved varieties at the stores and- - [Host] Especially when you're wanting those big kernels, right?

- Yes, yes, yes, exactly.

- So is one better than the other or what?

What's the differences, I guess?

Is there a flavor difference?

- Yeah, there's always a great debate between pecan growers which one is better than the other, but... - In reality, the one with a higher oil content has a higher flavor value to it.

- Okay.

- And so most of the time, it's generally the smaller nuts have the higher oil content than rather than the bigger ones.

- [Casey] Oh.

- But everybody likes to see likes the bigger ones because they look nice, big, and very pretty.

And that's okay.

- So it's a little bit of the cherry red apple versus the taste of that apple.

- Yeah, exactly, exactly.

- Okay.

Yeah.

So maybe the smaller ones actually have a better flavor for us.

- Yeah.

Which a lot of the, I mean, all the natives are really used for confectionary purposes.

- Okay.

- So they're not really, you're not going to see that many of them at your farmer's markets and stuff like that.

So- - Okay.

Well, what about the maintenance?

So obviously these are, the cultivars are in nice rows, but your natives are kind of, like you said, sporadically planted by nature.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- How does that play with the maintenance on the two?

- Yeah, so on the maintenance, we're spraying for the insects, they're going to be the same insects that feed on them both.

Now the difference is the natives are more scab resistant, and most improved varieties are susceptible to pecan scab.

There are some that are more resistant that USDAs come out with OSU, and some other people have came out with and researched.

- [Casey] Okay.

- [Chad] These are Pawnees, which they're very susceptible to scab.

And so we'll have to come in and spray these during the summer.

We'll spray in about every two weeks, starting after bud break and finish all the way into August.

- All right.

So that kind of plays with your costs of production.

- Yes.

Yes.

- And also if somebody's looking for something that maybe has had less input on it, they might look for a native pecan.

- Yeah, a native pecan.

Or there's some, like I said, there's other resistant varieties out there that people are planting now rather than Pawnee.

A lot of guys are planting, like one around here and Oklahoma is very popular is a Kanza.

- Okay.

- And that's really growing.

It's a great nut.

It has a great flavor profile.

It's not going to be your great big giant nut, you know, as it's not one of the biggest ones, but it is a very good nut, very productive nut.

- Okay.

- And it's easier to grow.

- So tell me, I know there's a lot to the set up and layout of an orchard that you plant a lot of trees, and then later on have to go thin out those trees.

Do you thin the natives ever, or what is that process?

- Yeah, so on, on the improved varieties, you know, we're planning generally on 35 foot spacing.

Some of them are doing 40s and 45s.

After about 20 years, they're going to be starting to grow where they start getting too much shade, and they're shading each other out.

- [Casey] Mmm hmm.

- [Chad] So what we do is we go into those rows, and we take out every other tree.

So we're going to take out 50% of those trees, and you're really not going to see much of a production difference between one one year and that next year because that sunlight is hitting those other trees so much, and those other trees are going to produce that much more.

- [Casey] Okay.

- [Chad] Because if you didn't, your production will decline, and once you take them out, your production goes up, you are on those same trees.

- [Casey] Right.

- [Chad] Same way with the natives.

- [Casey] Okay.

- [Chad] That works both ways.

So a good rule of of thumb is, if you can't grow Bermuda in your pecan grove, it's too tight.

- [Casey] Okay.

(laughing) - [Chad] And if you look at noon, you want 50% shade, 50% sunlight.

- All right.

Speaking of kind of what's underneath pecans, I know there's a lot of people that are grazing under pecans now too.

Tell us a little bit, can you graze with cattle under both native and improved as well?

- Yeah, so you can.

There are guys that do both, and some guys that really just graze natives and non improved.

- Okay.

- But because the improved varieties, you know, we're taking care of them, have a lot more inputs on them, so we want them to produce their fullest potential.

- Mmhmm - There's also chemicals for scab and stuff that have grazing restrictions and stuff like that on there.

So it's a little harder to deal with.

- [Casey] Okay.

- [Chad] Than the native orchard.

Also, I would suggest maybe pulling them out before you harvest, especially on improved varieties because the cattle are going to stomp them in the ground and they might eat a handful of them too.

So- - Yeah.

Everybody loves the pecans.

- Yeah, yeah.

And the you know, the value per pound is more on an improved variety as well than the native.

- Oh, okay.

- And so that's one of the primary reasons for doing so.

- Okay.

Well, and if you don't know which way to go you just go with both, right?

- Yeah, that's right.

- Excellent.

Thank you so much, Chad, for sharing both of these, both the orchard and the grove with us.

- Thank you.

(upbeat music) - All season long we've been following the Oklahoma pecan crop, and today we are here to see how that pecan goes from the tree to our store shelves.

As we enter the holiday season, I know a lot of people are going to be looking for pecans.

And joining me today is Jared Miller with Miller Pecan Company.

Jared, thanks so much for having us today.

- Oh, thank you for coming.

- Yeah.

So we're here up in Afton.

- Yes.

- At your storefront, but you guys have a lot of product that you sell.

Tell us a little bit about how those pecans get from the tree to you guys.

- So we have to, we have relationships with growers and everything, and we'll go out to the growers and purchase pecans there and bring them into here.

And that's where the real process starts of trying to get them put into the bag.

So when we bring the super sacks in, the first thing we'll do, we'll size them.

We'll size them down to the 16th of an inch diameter, so we can get the optimal crack.

We're trying to make as many halves as we can because halves are sought after more than pieces.

Once we size them- - They'll go to a sanitizer kill any kind of bacteria, e.coli, anything.

- [Host] And so that's just a large vat that they get dipped in?

- Yeah.

Just a large hot water bin and we submerse 'em down in there for a period of time and to make sure everything is killed.

- [Host] Okay.

- And when we bring 'em out of there, they'll go straight to the crackers and start the cracking process.

- Well, I know a lot of times pecans have to be dried down.

So let's talk a little bit about the moisture and if you're dripping 'em water, how does that affect them?

- So when we do submerse 'em in the water, that will increase the moisture, which we want to increase it a little bit to crack 'em, to try to get more halves.

And afterwards, after they, before they go to the inspection room for final inspection we have to dry them on down and get 'em down to 4% so they don't mold in a box or a bag or on a shelf.

- [Host] Okay.

All right.

So then it's off to cracking.

Tell me a little bit about what that process is.

- So the cracking is really cool machines, they run off air and electricity both.

And the air is actually what cracks the pecans.

- Oh.

- And when the pecans get to a certain rotation in the machine a little big burst of air will hit a little metal pocket and just crack the pecan.

- [Host] Okay.

And so the whole point is to just crack the shell, not the actual nut right?

- Yes.

- [Host] You want as large a nut as possible.

- We wanna set those crackers just right.

- [Host] Okay.

All right.

So it, it kind of will divide all of those pieces up then?

- After they go through the crackers they'll go up through a sheller and it's a round turret that's beating the shell off the- - [Host] Okay.

- Off the halves.

And then they drop down into a sizer, which will size 'em into all different sizes, pieces, and halves.

- Okay.

And in that process, what's happening to all the shells?

How do they get out of there?

- The shells are getting sucked away by air, a little bit at each stage.

And then we get the remainder of the shells with eye machines, using infrared technology.

And finally, they'll go across an inspection table.

And still today a human eye still looks at all of them.

- Okay.

- Before they go in the box.

- [Host] That's, and I know even some of those processes, you still have a little bit of shell, so it keeps getting finer and finer tuned right?

- Yes.

- Is that the process?

- Yeah, we're just try to get a little shell out at each step.

Otherwise you, if you try to take too much shell then you're gonna be wasting a lot of you're good nut meat.

- Right.

And even some of the pieces that might have a little bad, do you try to get as much good off of that as possible?

- We do.

We try to recoup everything we can.

- Okay.

I mean, you can't get everything.

You still have mill loss.

- Right.

- But you try to get it all.

- But that's how you go from a whole, to a whole half, to some of these pieces right?

- Yes, yes.

- Which are still little tasty as ever.

- Yes.

- So, okay.

Well thank you so much.

And basically then at that point they go into packaging?

- Yes.

We'll either package in one pound bags, in ours, we package in other, you know, clear bags for other people, we also, our main is 30 pound cases.

We sell from one pound to one semi load.

- Oh, wow.

- At a time.

- So tell us a little bit about your distribution.

I mean, you're not just selling to locals here in Afton right?

- No.

Probably 90, 98, 99% of everything we do is wholesale and we're supplying a lot of big confectioneries and other retailers and stuff, and grocery stores.

- Well, thank you so much for sharing this process, and if anybody's not near Afton, make sure you check your grocery store for some Miller Pecan.

Thank you Jared.

- Well, thank you for coming.

(upbeat fiddle music) - Next week.

School may be out for the holidays but we've got another great Oklahoma Gardening Show, full of fun educational segments.

(upbeat guitar music) To find out more information about show topics as well as recipes, videos, articles, fact sheets, and other resources, including a directory of local extension offices, be sure to visit our website at oklahomagardening.okstate.edu.

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Oklahoma Gardening is produced by the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service, as part of the division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Oklahoma State University.

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