Why is it that no matter what type of weather farmers get, it
always seems the opposite
of what they need at the time?
"Our crop looks strong right now, but we need a lot of
sunshine for the nuts to
fill out," said Tom Crocker, a pecan horticulturist with
the University of Georgia
Extension Service.
"We sure don’t want a hurricane clouding over south
Georgia," he said as the
season for tropical storms entered its peak. "That would
prevent the nut growth we
need for a good crop."
Crocker pointed out the problem that would cause for pecan
growers while recognizing
peanut and cotton farmers’ great need for the rain a tropical
system might provide.
This year’s pecan crop started a long time ago — last fall,
actually. After farmers
harvested the 1995 crop, the trees set the buds that formed this
year’s nuts. The weather
last October and November were nearly perfect, Crocker said, for
a good crop this year.
The latest estimates place the Georgia crop at 115 million
pounds. That’s about 42
percent of the U.S. crop.
Georgia pecans are famous around the world. But most pecan
lovers can’t name a single
variety. Pecans just aren’t marketed that way. "We just
sell them as ‘pecans,’"
Crocker said.
Through the spring, most pecan orchards got enough rain to
produce nuts from those buds
set last fall. "Some areas got more than enough rain,"
he said, "and nuts
are splitting open.
The rain can create another problem for pecan farmers.
"The water helped the trees
produce large nuts," he said. "But now we need
sunshine and more water for the
trees to fill those nuts."
When rain becomes scarce in pecan orchards, most growers can
create their own.
Irrigation systems water more than 60 percent of the Georgia
crop. That allows farmers to
water when the crop needs it most.
But sunshine is a little harder to create.
"We’re
looking for bright, drier conditions now, when many other
farmers want rain," Crocker
said. "It’s
a difficult situation for farmers with pecans and other crops.
They have to hope for rain
or sun on specific acres."
