Nut tree crops, like other crops, are dependent on heat, light and
moisture in proper amount at the right time to produce a crop of nuts of
normal quality; soil conditions also to be taken into consideration.
These conditions are probably more essential to a nut crop than most of
us have realized; even the weather of the preceding season of late
summer and fall may affect or determine next seasons nut crop.
The size of the nut depends on the weather in Spring and early Summer,
for when the shell is once formed and hardened little more growth can be
expected under any conditions, while plumpness of kernel depends on
favorable conditions in late Summer and Fall.
After the shell is formed it fills with water which gradually changes to
kernel, beginning at outer part next to shell, and unless there is
plenty of heat, light, and moisture, kernel may not be filled, which
will cause kernel to shrink, and not be plump, neither will it have
normal germinating vitality, flavor, or weight.
In the past there have been seasons when nuts were not up to normal
quality, but I did not realize then just what caused this condition,
until a few years ago, I heard a party remark that a dry season was an
indication of a good nut crop the following year.
Recalling back several seasons this, as a rule, has been true,
especially where there was no unusually early Fall freezes, and Spring
weather was favorable.
The season of 1944 here was one of the driest on record. Up until the
middle of August, nut trees were showing signs of going dormant. Late in
June, sap was getting so low that I did all my budding late in June, a
month earlier than usual.
This early dry weather caused the nuts that year to be very small,
especially on trees growing under less favorable conditions. Trees that
were well cultivated produced nearer normal sized nuts.
About the middle of August rains began, and these nuts were well filled.
The rains of August brought new life into the trees causing them to hold
their foliage unusually late, and not being thoroughly dormant before
cold weather, at which time no doubt many of the fruit buds were killed,
with the result that a very light crop of nuts was set in Spring of
1945.
Spring opened very early with a bright warm March starting growth before
usual time, even some trees set Pistillate bloom by the first of April;
then later in April it began raining, and rains continued most of the
Summer with much cool, cloudy weather with the result that most of the
nuts failed to properly fill, or mature. This was true of hickory nuts,
walnuts and pecans of both the named varieties and native seedlings.
While the 1945 nut crop was very light of both pecans and walnuts, I had
a few trees with fair crops, though none of the nuts had well filled
plump kernels.
Some of the first nuts to ripen seemed to have fairly well filled
kernels after gathering and kernels got dried out, they shriveled and
lacked flavor.
Walnuts seemed to suffer even worse than the pecans. I was not able to
find a walnut tree in this section that produced good planting nuts;
even farm crops suffered, especially corn of which much of the crop was
not of normal quality.
The spring of 1946 began very much as in 1945 with a very warm March,
again causing trees to start growth unusually early, and this spring,
pistillate bloom was visible on some pecan trees in the last days of
March. This weather condition remained until about the middle of April
when cool rainy weather set in lasting for a month with frosts and light
freezes as late as May 10th, which took all the nut crop in this section
with the exception of a very few walnuts, and these were of very poor
quality.
Another very peculiar thing happened in Spring of 1946. The Posey and
Giles varieties, both of which are usually heavy bloomers of Stamen
bloom, failed to set a single catkin this spring, while trees of other
varieties growing near them set heavy crops of catkin bloom.
The behavior of nut trees in this section in the past two years, both of
which have been unusual seasons, is evidence that nut crops are subject
to weather conditions, not only of the present, but of previous season
as well.