Pecans are the fruit of a walnut tree native to the Mississippi floodplain. Pecans are widely grown in the United States in southeastern parts and northern Texas and Mexico - and in any soil with rich soil, warm, long summers, and temperate winters. Pecans are popular with bakers. and pastry chefs, especially during the fall and holiday season.
Harvesting pecans after they've fallen to the ground can be a tedious and tedious job, but, with a little preparation and the right tools, hand picking pecans can actually be quite fun especially on a cool day. Autumn.
Steps
Step 1. Look at the pecan trees to see if the nuts are ready to fall
Pecans can begin to fall from early September to November and preparation for harvesting should be done before the walnuts fall, but only a short time before to avoid the preparation work being rendered useless by weather and weather conditions..
Step 2. Let it be a fact to you that the nuts in your tree are worth the work you put into harvesting
Some pecan trees will produce low quality nuts, either as a result of either a bad season, poor quality soil with few nutrients, or simply a product with a poor genetic component. The following are some examples of the elements that affect the quality of nuts:
- Non-hybridized trees produce seedlings that often yield nuts no larger than small oak acorns, with incredibly hard shells, from which it is nearly impossible to extract nuts. A poor genetic component can also be found in hybrid trees where the gene pool has become depleted.
- The bad season can result from a dry spring and summer climate that do not allow trees to produce a good harvest, especially when irrigation is not used, and soils have inadequate moisture retention.
- Low levels of critical nutrients, especially nitrogen and trace minerals / elements such as zinc, iron and manganese can substantially reduce the quality of nuts.
- Insect infestations such as caterpillars, worms, and pecan weevils can also have a serious impact on the health of the tree and nuts.
- Late frosts or frost in general can damage the flowers and buds of the pecan tree, reducing the amount of nuts during or after the flowering period.
Step 3. Look at the tree for indications on the walnut harvest, both for quality and quantity
By the end of the summer, the pecans will have reached their full size, including the shells, so you can get an accurate idea of how big the nuts will be after the husk dries and peels off. Note that the shells account for about 25-30% of the total pecan mass, so a pecan that appears large when it has shells can be incredibly small when it loses its shells.
Step 4. Check the shells for when they start to crack
When a relevant part of the shell has split and opened, it's time to clean under the tree. Raking up all residual materials under the tree and possibly leveling the ground may be all that needs to be done in this situation, however for trees with grass or forage, or even weeds under the canopy of branches and leaves, further work will be required..
Step 5. Mow the lawn below around the trees, starting as close to the trunk as possible and keeping the cut away from it
This will allow you to push the mowing and any other debris away from the tree. Continue mowing to at least 3-4.5 meters beyond the tree canopy so that the nuts that fall near the edge are visible and can be harvested. Strong winds can push nuts a surprising distance from the tree if they are not held back.
Step 6. Collect pecans as soon as they begin to fall, as rainy weather can be bad for the nuts, and wildlife can take advantage of it if they stay on the ground
Crows and squirrels are particularly fond of nuts, as are deer and other wildlife.
Step 7. Rake the leaves away or blow them away using a leaf blower if possible, as finding pecans in a sea of similarly colored leaves will make the task even more difficult
Step 8. Harvest pecans using an appropriate method based on the extent of cultivation
-
Bend over and collect the pecans. If the first few pecans are not enough to justify the use of technological means to harvest them, you can simply bend over and pick the pecans one by one, walking under the tree. Use a container, such as an empty five-gallon plastic bucket, to fill with the crop. For those strong and energetic, this is an efficient technique for picking nuts under one or two trees. Some argue that walking on your knees is a good way to harvest nuts.
Harvest Pecans Step 8Bullet1 -
Use a pecan binder if walking on your knees or bent over (bending over) is too much effort for you. There are several types of bins that fit short arms, however most have a metal coil spring with a small nut binder. The spring is pressed on the nut, which stretches the coils allowing it to slide between them, and therefore to be captured by the collector. Empty the binder often into a bucket or other container to avoid dropping the pecans.
Harvest Pecans Step 8Bullet2 -
Use a manually operated roller binder. These are simple machines that operate like a roller-type lawn mower, catching nuts through flexible rollers or fingers and depositing them in a container. Most of these tools collect a significant amount of debris, so keeping the soil clean under the tree is key to reducing the work required.
Harvest Pecans Step 8Bullet3 -
Rent a pecan harvester for large walnut groves. Pecan harvesters use tractor-mounted machines that rake the walnut grove to collect the nuts. When used in conjunction with shakers, this is the least labor-intensive and most efficient way to harvest pecans, but it is beyond the scope of this article.
Harvest Pecans Step 8Bullet4
Step 9. Eliminate any deformed or damaged nuts when you are finished harvesting
Unless you decide to mash and shell the pecans yourself, it will end up paying for eliminating these nuts. If you plan to sell pecans, having poor or useless fruit will cause the buyer to offer a lower price than for high-quality pecans. This is especially true if you are selling to a wholesaler, who carefully categorizes their purchases to ensure the quality of their product. These are some things to consider to help establish the quality of your pecan:
- Coloring. A good pecan should be uniform in color. Some varieties, such as Stuart and Donaldson, are streaked near the bud ends, and a good distinction between the color of the streaks (usually black) and the shells (light brown) is indicative of a good nut.
- Shell shape. Pecans are formed inside the shell thanks to the nutrients passed through its veins, then through the still soft shell, and are filled from the end of the sprout to the end. If the dry climate, the depletion of soil nutrients, or the damage caused by insects to the skin interrupt this feeding system, the walnut thins at the final end, indicating that the kernel has not completed the growth process.
- Sound. This may sound unusual, but pecans, when rattled or dropped together, have an unmistakable sound. Pecans that have a fake sound are likely hollow, while good, full pecans make a consistent sound, even if just rattled in your hands. When you harvest pecans, beat them and break some with a suspicious sound, and you will soon hear the sound of a good, full pecan.
- Weight. Although individual pecans weigh very little, an experienced forager, especially when harvesting or selecting by hand, immediately notices a marked difference in the weight of full walnuts, compared to those of lesser quality.
Step 10. Bag the pecan for storage
Typically, pecans can be stored in wide cloth bags, in a cool, dry place for several weeks after harvest. Walnuts will actually improve in quality, especially those picked early, as they age. Do not skip the curing phase. Pecan that is not properly seasoned will not crack and is difficult to shell. Freezing stops the curing process, so make sure the nuts are cured before freezing them. Freezing will allow you to keep the nuts even longer, with hardly any effect on their quality. Remember that nature has provided the nuts with sturdy shells, a near-perfect container.
Step 11. Shell the walnuts
If you're lucky enough to have a pecan processing facility nearby, you can bring your own nuts, and have them machine shelled. If you want to peel them yourself, you can purchase a pecan nutcracker.
Advice
- Have fun with the process. Avoid working too hard and for so long that you feel depressed. Of course you will want to harvest as quickly and efficiently as possible, but enjoy the fresh autumn air as you work.
- Be careful, when the nuts start to fall. Often, you will find that some branches have more nuts, or that they fall at slightly different times, so it will be more convenient to focus your efforts on certain areas under a tree.
- An early harvest will usually pay you more if you plan on selling it. Most pecans sold in retail outlets in the United States are bought to be roasted during the holidays, and early market prices are usually the highest in a year.
- Keeping nuts from different trees separate, especially if they are of different varieties, will make it easier to sell (or shell) them, as they can vary greatly in size. Automatic shelling machines, and even semi-automatic ones, often have to be set up for a specific size of nuts, so if they treat too small or too large together, they will not work properly.
- The elderly use the shirt flaps as an apron to hold the nuts, some even tie them to form a kind of pouch to accumulate the nuts until it is time to spill them into a bucket or sack.
- Keeping the soil under the trees clean is one of the most important steps in making pecan harvesting a fun job. Brambles, weeds and debris make finding and collecting well-camouflaged nuts a real feat.
Warnings
- Use common sense when starting the harvest. Bending over for long periods of time to pick pecans can have traumatizing consequences on your back.
- Check for pesky bugs as you work. Red ants are annoying pests, which feed on pecans split by animals after falling. Learn about possible allergies to ants and bees before shaking the walnut grove to harvest pecans.
