Winter Pecan Harvest

I began picking up pecans that fell to the ground in early November. Wind, birds, and the ripening process caused enough pecans to fall that I had gathered about 40 gallons of pecans before Christmas. On January 13th the "pecan tree shaker" came and shook my three Mahan trees. I gathered 75 gallons of pecans from this shaking. I estimate another 10 gallons of pecans did not come down with the shaking, and are left to the birds and the squirrels.

In early fall, before the pecans had ripened, a hard wind blew off a good 30 gallons of large, beautiful pecans in the husk. But the pecans had not matured, so there was nothing to harvest. Other pecans have come down, blown down, or been eaten or damaged by the birds. I have calculated that all totaled, I got about 200 gallons of pecans off these three trees. Only about 125 gallons were usable and became part of the harvest.

The ratio of shell to meat on the pecan is about 50/50. So we will get about 60 gallons of shelled pecans from this year's harvest. A gallon of shelled pecans weighs about 3 1/2 pounds. So we will harvest about 210 pounds of pecans.

Crows, ravens, woodpeckers, starlings, doves, and blue birds, all come into the trees and eat the pecans. They do little damage while the pecans are still in the husk, but once the husk opens up, the birds peck into the shell and eat out some of the meat and waste the rest. Many of these nuts fall to the ground and are of no value. The squirrels also harvest pecans that fall to the ground, and are lost. Still, the harvest is so abundant, and I pick them off the ground so quickly, that the birds and squirrels don't actually take a significant number of the nuts.

Pecans are best when picked off the ground as soon as they fall, or harvested as soon as they open up. Commercial growers shake the trees early and place the nuts, in or out of the husk, on concrete floors for a few days to dry. I did this with the early pecans that dropped. Three to four days on the floor and they were ready to crack and extract the meat.

Some locals believe the pecan leaves are too acidic and should not be tilled into garden areas. But according to the National Gardeners Association, only walnut leaves should not be tilled into gardens, Pecan leaves are fine. I also till in the husks and the broken shells after I crack the nuts. Mowed up pecan leaves, husks, shells, and grass make a great mulch for the garden.

Nutritional Composition of One Ounce of Pecans
15 Vitamins, including significant amounts of Vitamin A, Vitamin E, and Folate
10 Minerals, including significant amounts of Potassium, Phosphorus, Calcium and Magnesium
Pecans have no sodium, are cholesterol free, fiber rich, and significant protein

Late Fall Planting Report

In mid-November I planted lettuce, peas, onions, beets, and carrots. I got a good germination for all. In mid-December we got 13 inches of snow, which covered these young sprouts for three weeks. We had temperatures down to 19 degrees this winter, and freezing temperatures almost every night since the snow in December.

Only the peas and lettuce survived the cold and snow cover. The peas did the best, and are actually growing right now (end of January). Not all the lettuce survived, but some did. I suspect that had I planted in October, and these sprouts gotten better established, they would have done better. All should have survived the winter.

I know from past experience that lettuce, peas and carrots will winter over, under snow, in much colder temperatures than we have here. And established onions don't freeze. So it was the tenderness of these young sprouts that was the problem. I knew it was late to plant, but thought I'd try anyway.

I didn't plant any fall spinach, but my neighbor did, and says she has harvested it all winter, and it's the best spinach she's ever had. Fall and Winter is a great time to garden. Many gardeners ignore this time of year, but there are no pests, no diseases, and no weeds.

Fall Soil Preparation

This fall I determined to delay planting a fall garden to allow for time to till in compost and leaves into the soil. I have tilled in a truck load of compost from the fairgrounds, all my pecan shells, pecan husks, and leaves. I tilled in leaves I brought from my daughters place in Springville, leaves I bagged from the church, and leaves from my neighbors. I also tilled in late lawn clippings, which included fallen leaves and pecan husks. The lawnmower does a nice job of cutting the grass, leaves and pecan husks into small pieces, insuring they will compost more quickly.

With the fall rains, and repeated tilling of the ground, the leaves and material are already decomposing nicely. On Monday, December 15th, snow fell, a total of 9 inches in Toquerville. The snow cover, freezing temperatures, and the recently tilled soil will all contribute to a nice decomposition of the leaves and other material. By planting time in the spring, the soil will be ready for production.

I cannot emphasize enough, the necessity of composting leaves and other organic material into the garden every year, it is essential. I also throw in some commercial nitrogen when tilling in composting material, it expedites the decomposition process and adds nitrogen to the soil.

Still, in early November, I planted peas, lettuce, onions, carrots and beets. I'll see how they winter over. We've already had temperatures as low as 21 degrees.

Crenshaw Melons

These Crenshaw melons were impressive, sweet, mild flavor; large, firm melons. Harvested on September 15, 2008

Ambrosia Cantaloupes

This is clearly the largest cantaloupe I've ever grown and probably the largest I've ever seen. This melon has a circumference of 25 inches! Wow! These are not specialty melons, it is an Ambrosia Cantaloupe, without question the best tasting cantaloupe in existence. These melons are soft, sweet, juicy and will change your taste for cantaloupe forever.

Why so big? Last fall I tilled in liberal amounts of mulch from the fairgrounds in Hurricane, then this spring I tilled in a little more and added monoammonioum phosphate before planting, and several times throughout the growing season. Watering was as frequent as weather and temperature required; sometimes every three days, sometimes every two days, sometimes everyday--mostly overhead sprinklers. Garden is in full sun.

Ambrosia cantaloupes

I have never grown better looking cantaloupe plants than I have this year in Toquerville. Dark, healthy, growthy plants with large developing cantaloupes. If you have never grown Ambrosia cantaloupes, I can't recommend them more highly. They are simply the best variety you will ever grow (I grow no other variety). You will never get these in the grocery story because they don't have a long shelf life (the primary consideration for grocery store produce), but if you ever eat one of those tasty, tender, juicy, flavor filled melons, you will never grow another Hale's Best, Heart of Gold, or any other variety. I planted in May, but with the cool spring they didn't really take off until early July. I tilled in compost from the Washington County Fairgrounds in November, and added monoamonium phosphate (water soluble) after plants were up and well established.

Mid summer garden

After a slow start, a cold and windy spring, my summer garden has taken off. The corn is doing great, ate our first serving tonight, my Ambrosia Cantaloupe is growing and looking very impressive, my summer squash, zucchini, crookneck, butternut (actually a winter squash) are all looking great and producing excellent produce.

I have begun harvesting one of my best onion crops ever (sweet spanish), and my tomatoes are still looking well and producing better than earlier this summer. My fall corn crop is about a foot tall, and my green beans are just sprouting. In the past, my mid summer garden was an ugly thing with the heat stressing most plants out of production and into the ugly stage. But in Toquerville, my mid-summer garden is very exciting and bounteous. It's fun to garden in the summer again.