Pecan Trees

lmnde · #1 02/17/12, 12:01 PM

Sorry for cross posting - but I'm not sure where I get more exposure to these questions...

I am looking at a property with multiple mature pecan trees [part of a previous pecan orchard].

How many # of pecans can you expect to harvest from a healthy mature tree, and what is the market sales value for these in-shell and shelled? Is there a private demand/market for pecans?

At what age does production peter out and the trees become worthless for nutty income [now there is a new word!]?

Is anybody here who sells to wholesellers who can enlighten me about that aspect?

What equipment is needed to get the nuts out of the tree or up from the ground other than hard knee + back labor?

Can you graze animals in the orchard during the times there are no nuts ripening? Or is is similar to walnuts, etc that it is not healthy?

Sorry for making this so short, any info you guys can share is greatly appreciated, or anything else I have not thought about - pls bring it to my attention...

Thanks, Lmnde

Old Vet · #2 02/17/12, 06:59 PM

I used to grow pecans and sell them to wholesalers. If you get everything right you can have 400 to 500 pounds for pecans from one tree. But that only happens when the weather is good and you don't have problems like Worms or a blight in the trees. To combat these things you need a Tree Sprayer that looks like a silage blower on a trailer with a motor to make it go up and down. You then spray the trees with an insecticide and a anti fungal every 10 days for 30 days. When the nuts are ripe you then must shake the tree either by hand or by machine. Then you can pick up the pecans either by hand or by machine. I grew over a 1000 trees so I used both methods. I payed 15 cents per pound to pick up pecans on the first picking. Or when I used machines to pick up the nuts it went a lot quicker. Once you use a machine you then must use a cleaner to get the bad ones out and to get out the leaves and sticks. Miss any one of the things and you will not have a good crop.I found out that the trees have a good crop every 4 years and it varies which year it is for different trees. In the 10 years that I fooled with pecans I never had a good crop from every tree. The average crop would be between 200 pounds to 400 pounds. I soled to wholesalers for $1.50 cents per pound but that was 20 years ago I think it is about $2.50 per pound now and remember to get cash from the wholesalers . You can make good money from pecans but don't think you will pay any mortgage with the crop. Things like a late frost or rain during the time they are pollinates will cause you not to have any crop.

oregon woodsmok · #3 02/17/12, 07:14 PM

I heard that pecans are selling really high this year.

I've got 10 pecan trees, but have to wait another 20 years before they are old enough to produce nuts.

oregon woodsmok · #4 02/17/12, 07:15 PM

If the processor want to pay me $1.50 a pound, I'd be bypassing him and selling on-line.

Alice In TX/MO · #5 02/17/12, 07:42 PM

Hubby planted 300 pecan trees years ago. We haven't made any money yet, and the accountant says NO ONE makes money on pecans in the long term.

Weather, bugs, drought, hail storms, fungus, etc etc.

Hubby is spending money on herbicides, pesticides, equipment, etc. It keeps him out of the honkey tonks. (JOKE!)

We do have lots of pecans for home use and gifts.

Old Vet · #6 02/17/12, 09:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oregon woodsmok

If the processor want to pay me $1.50 a pound, I'd be bypassing him and selling on-line.

That would be hard 20 years ago. All I had was a Commodore 64 and much of the internet wasn't invented then also. You couldn't go to E-Bay and sell anything.

lmnde · #7 02/18/12, 01:09 PM

I checked on ebay = seems average price for shelled pecans is about $6-7 per pound, which is not bad at all, that is if you can move them in volume at this price. In shell prices vary from $2-3 per pound.

Is there any home made equipment for shelling and cleaning pecans? I've counted 22 huge trees yesterday [still not sure about actually buying the property - just playing around with numbers in my head for profitability]. They may be overaged, and they certainly did not look like they had been taken care off. When I look at some of the pecan orchards in our area while driving - they seem to be better balanced and branched out - so I am not sure that these trees would actually make a noticeable difference as far as income would be concerned. Also wondering about the actual labor of picking up and harvesting them...

blufford · #8 02/18/12, 06:07 PM

Here is an interesting link.

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/ag81.html

From this link...

"If major pruning is planned, it should be done over a period of at least three years."

GrannyG · #9 02/18/12, 06:31 PM

My girlfriend and her hubby have an orchard, but work in town. They planned on the sale of pecans for Holiday money...they came in to find the illegals had picked them all.....they could not catch them, they had the nuts in gunny sacks and put them over the fence...Sad....our pecans did not produce because of the drought this year, another friend has a huge orchard, but they only had a few to sell, and people who work for him were not hired this year...you cannot count on anything...

lmnde · #10 02/18/12, 07:27 PM

blufford - I read this earlier. These trees would need professional pruning - my guess is they are easily 60-70' tall - they are huge and old and look like they have been there forever. This would surely be a longterm effort to bring them back up to good production, if at all. Right now they are leafless still, I cannot imagine what this place looks like with the trees fully leaved out, as I am not familiar with how much new wood they sprout each year. I guess that would give a better idea of how much they would carry then...

Thank you all for sharing your information.

Old Vet · #11 02/18/12, 10:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lmnde

blufford - I read this earlier. These trees would need professional pruning - my guess is they are easily 60-70' tall - they are huge and old and look like they have been there forever. This would surely be a longterm effort to bring them back up to good production, if at all. Right now they are leafless still, I cannot imagine what this place looks like with the trees fully leaved out, as I am not familiar with how much new wood they sprout each year. I guess that would give a better idea of how much they would carry then...

Thank you all for sharing your information.

Pecans are self pruning most of the time but you can help them along. Pruning pecans will help the the ones that are not producing well. A pecan tree usually produces over a 100 years old and pruning them will increase that to 200 years. With 24 trees you will be able to buy a cracker and sell them for much more. Like others have said watch out for thieves they will get most of them. When the pecans ripen and start to fall never go a day without checking on them at least 2 times per day. In over the years you may want to get a shaker and equipment to pick them up with a little at a time. That way you will not be involved in picking them up for at least 2 or 3 months. There are two types of shake one is a pole that hooked to the front end of a tractor and shakes one branch at a time or the other one is a vibrator shaker that hooked on the 3 point hitch and shakes the whole tree.
There are also two types of machines to pick up the pecans one is a vacuum cleaner that is mounted on a tractor the other is like a square baler and has rubber figures that pick up the pecans. Both work but the one that picks up the pecans with fingers doesn't get all the leaves and branches that you will always have. I used the vibratory shaker and the one machine that picked up the pecans with rubber fingers. Be sure that the tractor that shakes trees has a canopy or cab on it because the pecans hurt when the fall on you and you never know then a limb will fall.
Here are pictures of pecans cracker, http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=...M=IGRE#x0y2052
here ar pictures of pecan shakers. http://www.bing.com/search?q=pecan+s..._date=20111224
and here are pecan harvesters. http://www.bing.com/search?q=pecan+h..._date=20111224

texican · #12 02/19/12, 12:08 AM

Well, I wouldn't go and buy a new truck or tractor with the expected profits. Costs are involved... fertilizer, foliar treatments, insecticides, labor. If you haven't spent all day picking pecans and end up with less than a 100lbs, you haven't lived (or had a sore back at the end of the day). If your time is worth anything, you'd soon price your pecans high.
Weather, insects, crows, all take their share... some years you might get nothing, the next, a bumper crop.

Mind you, I'd rather have the trees, than not.... just wouldn't go thinking about profits, at least for a few years, till I saw how much inputs were needed to get them into shelled meat baggies and in the freezer...

Jenn · #13 02/19/12, 07:10 AM

Around here only the old and very poor people seem to be out picking up their pecans- but everyone has signs under easily accessed trees that they are private property. At the feed store or the pecan plant in season it seems like the old folks only get enough money for them to pay their gas money into town and buy some cigarettes- but maybe those ones come in every day in season. I put in pecans so I'll have something for gas money when I'm older.

Old Vet · #14 02/19/12, 03:48 PM

What kind of trees are we talking about. Native trees only produce the small pecans and are much more value. Money Makers and stewards are the next best value. Native trees are the best because you can sell them to candy and pie makers. Money Makers and stewards are the ones that can be soled to individuals to eat. Paper shells are the hardest to grow and the crows will get many of them. Each kind has a different value and if cracked are more value. I used to have a Meyer cracker and it would run by it self it only takes looking after in 30 minuets increments.

Jolly · #15 02/19/12, 05:53 PM

China is driving the upswing in pecan prices, and I see no let up. Folks down here were getting just under $2/lb to a bit over, depending on the time of the season.

Some good friends of mine own this business:

http://www.louisianapecans.com/default.asp

By doing the value-added approach, they make a good deal more money from their pecans than just selling them on the market.

Forty Acres · #16 02/20/12, 07:01 AM

Small pecan harvesters.

http://baganut.com/nut-harvesters/pecans/

Alice In TX/MO · #17 02/20/12, 08:25 AM

Texican is right. Hubby has spent every evening for MONTHS shelling pecans. He bought a used cracker ($600) and is now going to fix up a building (more unnamed expense) and buy a sheller, too.

Total sales last year was $100. I think we might be closing in on $200 in sales this year.

No profit in sight.

ronbre · #18 02/20/12, 09:29 AM

don't know but I love pecans and live in the North so it is really iffy to grow them here, would LOVE to have a source to get pecans from..so jot down my name and let me know when you get ready to harvest them next year so I can get some..OK?

DebM · #19 02/20/12, 05:04 PM

Are the pecan trees/farm in the draught-stricken area?

Alice In TX/MO · #20 02/20/12, 05:45 PM

If you are talking about mine, yes, this was a drought area, but he has a very large irrigation system, and they were watered all summer. It was the hail storm in 2011 that eliminated the 2011/2012 crop.

Just normal natural disasters.