🌰 Pecan
Carya illinoinensis
The only major tree nut native to North America, and it knows it.
Sun
Full sun
Days to harvest
6–10 years to bearing (start the 401k now)
Spacing
40–60 feet apart
Soil pH
6.0–7.0
How to grow
Pecans are Panhandle-and-north trees — they need chill and space, lots of both. Plant grafted varieties ('Elliott,' 'Sumner') in deep, well-drained soil, and give them room: a mature pecan is 100 feet of commitment. Zinc deficiency is endemic in Florida soils, so foliar-feed zinc or watch the leaves go rosette.
Water & feeding
Deep watering during nut fill (late summer) — drought then means empty shells and heartbreak.
Common problems
- Pecan scab — the big one in humid Florida; choose resistant varieties
- Zinc deficiency — little yellow rosetted leaves; foliar zinc fixes it
- Webworms — ugly tents, rarely fatal; prune out or ignore with dignity
Harvest
Nuts drop when ripe in fall — harvest promptly before the squirrels file their claim. Cure two weeks in a dry spot before cracking.
Nerdy fact: Pecan is an Algonquian word meaning 'a nut requiring a stone to crack.' Ten thousand years of humans agreed: worth the effort.