Commercial Fruit and Nuts
Pecans
Mississippi contains between 14,000 and 16,000 acres of pecan orchards and thousands of yard trees. Orchards range in size from 25 to 500 acres. The average state production is 6.5 million pounds. Commercial orchards planted on good sites utilizing disease resistant varieties and under good management systems can average 750 lb. of pecans per acre. The average state-wide production, including the small home orchards under very little management, is more likely to be less than 250 lb. per acre. Pecans are sold directly to consumers, accumulators, or marketed by mail-order. Intense management, irrigation, proper insect and disease control, timely harvest, and proper marketing are all necessary to make pecan production profitable. During the past 5 years, pecans have been valued from $.50 to $2.00 per pound depending on regional production.Presently, the major commercial varieties being recommended are: Owens, Kiowa, Forkert, Cape Fear, and Choctaw in north Mississippi, and Kiowa, Cape Fear, Melrose, and Sumner in south Mississippi.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What can I do to improve the quality of my pecans?
- What varieties should I plant?
- Can I make money growing pecans in Mississippi?
- How quickly will they come into production?
- Is my soil good enough for pecans?
- How can I kill the weeds around my pecan tree?
- How frequently and how much should I irrigate?
- Why do my pecans not produce every year?
- How far apart should I plant my pecan trees?
- Do pecan trees require pruning?
- What method should be used to graft pecans?
Small Fruit
Small fruit are grown throughout Mississippi. Currently, there are 1,600 acres of blueberries, 400 acres of muscadines, 100 acres of strawberries and scattered acres of blackberries and other small fruits.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What varieties of blueberries should be grown in Mississippi?
- What varieties of muscadines should be grown in Mississippi?
Tree Fruit in Mississippi
Mississippi has approximately 1000 acres of peaches and 250 acres of apples. Orchards range in size from 5-50 acres. Because of unusually late freezes, only 10 to 15 percent of the peach acreage produced fruit in recent years. Primarily due to irregular markets, wholesale prices have declined 15-20 percent. Because there was no crop, routine maintenance has been curtailed allowing insect and disease pressure to increase. Peaches and apples are primarily sold in fresh markets. Intense management, irrigation, proper insect and disease control, timely harvest, and proper marketing are all necessary to make fruit production profitable.
Frequently Asked Questions
Publications
News
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.
RAYMOND, Miss. -- A statewide citrus quarantine was issued recently for Mississippi after one of the most serious citrus plant diseases in the world was detected in the state. Citrus greening, also known as Huanglongbing or HLB, was confirmed earlier this year, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, or USDA APHIS. There is no cure for the disease, which is caused by a bacterial infection spread by the Asian citrus psyllid, a gnat-sized insect. Infected trees die within a few years.
Success Stories
Many Clay Countians know Art Sanders as the man who brought an abandoned pecan orchard back to life.
