Written by We have been busy preparing for spring 2023
We figured that the best time for marcotting pecans is mid-summer after the fruit has matured. The tree still has adequate time before becoming dormant for the winter. Pecan trees seem to grow well in Gauteng Province and many other provinces too. Mpumalanga, Western Cape and Kwa-Zulu Natal also produce good pecans.
We potted our propagated pecan trees at the end of July 2023. It was an extremely cold winter, which pecan trees generally prefer.
After simple air-layering our branches developed very strong roots and the swollen buds burst into a rich growth of leaves. Both of our trees have male flowers and will soon produce female flowers. It is our aim to transplant both trees into huge into huge pots and see how they produce in this restricted space. We have already planted a fig tree in a clay pot and it seems to be doing well.
The way we propagate our pecan trees
The mother tree is 30 and a few years old. Our reasoning is that the tree would have been two years with the producer and at least 6 months with the nursery.
That gives us 32.5 years. When trees are marcotted (air-layered), which is a system of propagating a clone from a suitable branch of the parent tree, they inherit all the characteristics from the parent and are identical. This fact makes marcotting a preferred method. Essentially all the trees that we produce will have the same fruit as the parent tree; they will also start out at the same age as the parent tree.
The pecan trees that we produce are bearing trees. With adequate nutrition, supplements, and especially zinc nitrate foliar feed, the tree should thrive. Soil is an important issue which we can address in a separate post.
This is the variety of pecan nut produced by our tree.
