By Robert Burns
Texas A&M AgriLife
Heavy rains in many parts of the state may have damaged some crops, but for this year’s pecan crop, it was “just what the doctor ordered,” said a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service specialist.
Comprehensive reports of damages to row crops and structures such as fences and roads are not in yet, but in most cases the rains and cooler weather couldn’t have come at a better time for pecans, said Dr. Larry Stein, AgriLife Extension horticulturist at Uvalde.
“Pawnee, the earliest commercial pecan variety, has been harvested, and most people were working on Wichita and starting in on Cheyenne pecans,” said Stein. “But some of these varieties have a ways to go. They weren’t totally full. So this rain we just received was very beneficial to finishing out the kernel and causing the shucks to open on the trees.”
Far West Texas pecan growers anticipate dry weather during the growing season and typically have enough irrigation capacity to see the crop through a drought, he said.
Pecan growers in other parts of the state usually do not have adequate irrigation systems for their orchards. If they do, their systems may have only enough capacity to supplement the crop’s water needs, not offset months of drought, he said.
“And make no mistake about it, irrigation is just not as good as rain,” Stein said.
The main effect of water stress is for the nuts not to completely fill out, he said.
“Typically, then the nuts have trouble opening up, and when they have trouble opening up, then there’s a chance for the nuts to sprout and the shuck to stick tight to the nut itself,” he said.
The cooler weather accompanying the storms was also ideal for the crop.
“The cooler weather actually causes the maturing to go faster,” Stein said. “Out west, they hope for freeze to knock the leaves off the tree and help open up the shucks.”
There might be instances where the rains were too much, too fast, such as where 10, 12 or 18 inches of rain fell.
“Too much rain can cause the nuts to sprout, depending upon the stage of maturity,” he said. “But I don’t expect that to be a common problem this year.”
And there were instances of hail storms severely damaging pecan orchards this year in El Paso County, but that is a risk growers face every year, Stein said.
Climatologists posted the first hurricane watch early in the morning of Oct. 21, just six hours after Patricia was named a tropical storm, said Dr. John Nielsen-Gammon, state climatologist and Regents Professor at Texas A&M University, College Station.
“The median rainfall total for the event across all reporting gauges in the state, partially adjusted for data coverage, was 3.95 inches,” he said. “The biggest surprise to forecasters with this event was that the rain was concentrated in Texas rather than spread over a wider area. For northern Oklahoma and central and eastern Kansas, which were also expecting lots of rain from this event, it was a complete bust.”