Pecans for the north

How well do pecans preform in the far north? I purchased some seedlings collected from trees growing in the northern part of their natural range and I'm wondering what kind of future they have. Should I try the hybrid crosses of hickory and pecans to get something more hardy?

David, we grow native pecans here in zone 5, but you're up there in polar bear land. Can you find out the length of your typical frost-free season, and compare that with central Illinois? If it's anywhere close, you should be able to get crops at least in good years.

Or, just ask Mr. PecanHead (Lucky)!

Guy S.

Guy, the Vermont polar bears starved last winter due to no ice forming and the lack of ice fishermen to feed on.

I'm going to say that our growing season is about 135 days or so. How many frost free days do you have in your area?

....and how many rain-free days, Guy?

Also important for Pecans, how many days above 30°C? They need I'd guess to be in AHS heat zone 6 (over 45 days with temperatures above 30°C) or above to mature the nuts.

Heat zone map (pdf file)
http://www.ahs.org/pdfs/05_heat_map.pdf

Resin

I have pecan trees. Native seed from Iowa along the Mississippi. Planted in rich, moist soil in a little valley in the early 1980's, they are certainly large enough to bear nuts. But none yet. Never observed any winter damage, even at -35 F. The trees are just south of Minneapolis.

Rick

Ooooh, Kneevin is asking for a scud missile right in the middle of his deer-proof viburnum garden! Or maybe we'll just cut a few deer-openings in that fence of his and let in the four-legged eating/rubbing machines!

I think our growing season is about 160 days. But Rick makes a good point -- pecans are hardy much farther north than they can mature fruit, so if you just want shade trees don't worry about the frost-free season or the heat.

Guy S.

My pecan trees are loaded with nuts this year. Now all I need is a hurricane to blow them all off.

Evilalbizia will now be glad to see that I now have a nickname, courtesy of Mr. Wunnerful.
Very fitting.

David,
The 88th Annual Report of the NNGA has a couple of articles - one each by John H. Gordon, Jr.(Amherst, NY) and Doug Campbell (Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON) on their experiences with growing northern & ultra-northern pecans in a short growing season.
Many of these were selected out of productive native pecan populations in the Bellevue, IA area.
If you don't have that issue, D- or e-mail me, and I'll photocopy & snailmail them to you.

The 'far-northern' pecan varieties have much smaller nuts than the Southern or northern/midwestern selections - they tend to run in the 90-120/lb range.
For extremely short seasons, 'Snag', 'Snaps Early', Cornfield, 'Best's Early', and Carlson #3 are your best bets, according to D.Campbell. John Gordon has a short discussion on the ultra-northern pecans at his website, and has some other selections that have worked OK for him there; be sure to check out the linked page on Growing Degree Days.
http://www.geocities.com/nuttreegordon/0Kgordon.htm

The hicans(hickoryXpecan hybrids) have the reputation of being 'shy' bearers; I'm still waiting for the first of my grafted hicans, planted in '95, to show any indication of gearing up to begin blooming or bearing; they're growing well, but no sign of being ready to fruit yet.

'Abbott', a hybrid of bitternut hickory and pecan, may be your best bet in the hican class - the nuts are small-medium(about the size of 'Peruque' pecan, here), have a thin shell, and pecan flavor, without the astringency I've encountered in some bitternut hybrids; the tree - and seedlings I've grown - look like bitternut, with its sulfur-yellow buds. 'Henke' hican might also be a contender.

Thank you Lucky for all this great information.