Thread: How to Top Work a Pecan Tree to Change It's Variety

This is a picture of a Pecan, very shaded, that I grafted last year. I grafted it over to Excel, I bought several of the pecan trees and when this tree was damaged in a storm and I had to cut it to the stump like the other, I grafted one of the shoots back to the original variety.



You can see how the both Scions took in the graft and how each Bud turned into a Limb.

Lots of work going on here all over the property. I walked by the recently Top Worked Pecan Tree and noticed new growth had popped up all over the tree. This growth can not be allowed to remain as we need energy sent to the 2 scion I grafted into the bark. Here is a picture of the amount of growth I removed and the new limbs emerging from the scions.



New limbs are forming, soon leaves will pop too.

Looking good.

A true Renaissance Man.

From Desoto County, MS tree give away I got 5 saplings labeled as Native Pecan last year. My son planted them along the wood line about 30 ft apart. Other trees will be removed for firewood as needed. Not knowing what a Native pecan is like I have found Stuart and Mahan trees to graft from when they get larger.

I know growing up in that area we would go pick up pecans. A lot of times you would find a tree that produced small nuts. Most of the time those were the richest best flavored pecans you could find.

Originally Posted by canebreaker

From Desoto County, MS tree give away I got 5 saplings labeled as Native Pecan last year. My son planted them along the wood line about 30 ft apart. Other trees will be removed for firewood as needed. Not knowing what a Native pecan is like I have found Stuart and Mahan trees to graft from when they get larger.

So what you planted is a rootstock. For it to produce a decent pecan you would need to graft it exactly like the example here. Needing to know what is around is important for pollination. Mainly if you have Type I or Type II pecan trees close by. All my trees have both so they pollinate themselves. You only want to graft a highly resistant to pecan scab variety. Very important in north MS. Pecan Scab there is very bad. The Desirable pecan variety is the worst. Orchards up there constantly have to fog fungicides on rotation. I have Gafford, McMillan, Headquarters, Excel, Desirable, & Syrup Mill here. All low input Yard Pecan trees except Desirable. Zinc them in spring along with some fertilizer and they make nuts. Gafford is the fastest to produce in my opinion. I can mail you Scion wood when the collection time comes. Excel I can not send due to patents on it. You can put a Type I & Type II on the same trunk stock. I also place my grafts a little higher up so the steam from the ground when wet does not promote fungus growth. I paid $250 for my original scion wood (small cigar box full) and worked several years on my trees due to tropical storms damaging them constantly.

Originally Posted by DockShootinJack

I know growing up in that area we would go pick up pecans. A lot of times you would find a tree that produced small nuts. Most of the time those were the richest best flavored pecans you could find.

Yes, you are talking about the native seed pecan. Same tree canebreaker planted. Very oily, always hard to shell due to the tight packing (the bitter stuff) development. Fine rootstock though for here. Elliot is a popular rootstock but I think the native pecan is a tougher tree all the way around.