Do pecan trees require pruning?
Young pecan trees must be trained during the early phases of development. If left untrained, they will naturally produce scaffold limbs with narrow crotches. As these limbs grow to become the dominant scaffold limbs of a mature tree, they will eventually split off in wind and under heavy crop loads.
The angle of scaffold branches can be controlled, since the angle of the branch depends upon the position of the bud from which it emerges. Pecan usually have 3 or more buds at a node. The top bud is the primary bud. It is dominant and tends to grow almost straight up. This bud should be used to establish the central leader. However, scaffold limbs should develop from secondary buds during the 1st and 2nd years. These buds should only be allowed to develop after the tree is over 6 feet tall.
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RAYMOND, Miss. -- This year, Julie Bounds was expecting a bumper crop of blueberries. What she could not anticipate was the excess amount of rainfall her family’s blueberry farm would receive. This untimely rain has been the biggest challenge for growers across the state.
Fruit production requires considerable effort, and some fruits require much more care than others -- facts specialists with the Mississippi State University Extension Service keep in mind as they provide research and information support to the industry.
MSU has ongoing blueberry research at the South Mississippi Branch Experiment Station in Poplarville and the Beaumont Horticultural Unit, and muscadine research at Beaumont and the McNeill Research Unit. MSU also has trials and research on blackberries, wine grapes, elderberries, passion fruit and strawberries.
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