Planting pecans can be an excellent long-term, fruitful investment for your property. Pecans are often slow to mature, taking five to 10 years to enter production, but yield bountiful crops once they hit their stride. One of the most critical points to consider before getting started is what pecan cultivar or variety you want to establish. Ideally you want a cultivar with both great longevity and disease resistance that can thrive in a homeowner setting without too much extra maintenance. Additionally, there are several cultural practices that can help pecans be fruitful earlier and more productive over the life of the tree.

Pecan cultivar or variety is the number one consideration when thinking about getting started. A pecan’s ability to thrive in homeowner conditions, where regular fungicide and insecticide applications are not practical, is the biggest factor that determines whether it will be productive. Some selections that worked well in the past are no longer recommended since they have lost their scab resistance.

Pecan scab is the main disease limiting pecan cultivation in low-input or organic conditions. It can affect leaf, stem and fruit tissues of the plant. In most cases it can be noticed by black spots that occur on those tissues but in extreme cases or sensitive varieties it can turn pecan shucks mostly black. When this occurs early in the season, it can result in a total crop loss. When it happens later, they can still develop but often at reduced quality. You want to plant something that has a proven track record of resistance or tolerance to pecan scab in small-scale orchard or residential settings to avoid any costly preventive measures.

I have spent the past few years traveling across the state and documenting what pecan cultivars are doing well and which ones are not in many different growing environments. Since the majority of those wanting to plant new pecans are wanting to do so in residential or low maintenance environments, I have been paying close attention to trees that have been productive with fewer inputs. I would not venture as far as saying I have found any that thrive on neglect, but I have found some vigorous selections that can shine in home gardens.

The cultivar Elliot is a trusted standby for pecan production in Louisiana. It makes a small, slightly teardrop shaped pecan with great flavor that shells out nicely into halves fairly easily. It has maintained superior scab resistance in our growing environments. In south Louisiana, it does have a tendency to lose its leaves earlier in the season due to a separate fungal complex but that can be usually controlled by those that can spray once or twice a season. Even if you cannot spray it, it tends to be productive but may be more prone to falling into an alternate bearing pattern. Alternate bearing is something common in pecans where they will have a crop one year followed by a reduced or no crop the following year. This natural tendency in pecan can usually be ameliorated by good cultural practices including weed management, watering and fertilization. However, this can still happen even when best management practices have been adopted.

Kanza is a great cultivar to plant with Elliot since they have similar characteristics. Kanza’s kernels and tree vigor resemble Elliot and have the advantage of having slightly better cold tolerance and a slightly earlier harvest date as well.