im ken. m wife and i currently live in chicago, we have a son and daughter in law, and daughter. 2 wonderful grandsons , 4 and 3. built a house in lithia florida (outside brandon) to retire to in a couple years. i hunt on a friends land outside of pekin illinois spent summers on the family farm in central wisconsin where i learned to love the outdoors!
Hi folks. Retired veterinary pathologist, grew up, deer hunting, in east-central Alabama, practiced veterinary medicine in southern middle TN, did a pathology residency at UofMO, have been here in southern west-central KY (Christian Co.), about 70 miles NW of Nashville TN, for the past 27 years. Have 190 acres... 110 open pasture/cropland/80 mixed hardwood. Sold the beef cowherd in fall 2019. Have been collecting and propagating woody edibles for 25 years. Pecans & hickories have been my passion ( 30+ varieties of pecan, and a similar number of hickory clones grafted & growing here), after getting my start grafting apples & pears, but I've also dabbled with grafting oaks, chestnuts, persimmons, and mulberries. Haven't had much time in the past 25 years to hunt, but my hobby of propagating woody edibles like oaks, persimmons, mulberries, pears... in addition to the pecans and hickories... has added somewhat to habitat improvement for deer. Plant a few foodplots for the deer and turkeys around the farm every fall, and we're surrounded by a lot of corn/soybean ground. Been seeing 20-30 deer every evening this fall/winter in our wheat/rye fields within sight of the house.
Thanks for the welcome. Mennoniteman -There are northern/ultra-northern pecan varieties that are grown as far north as Michigan, Iowa, even into portions of southern Canada(Ontario) - and, yes, many of them will do well in PA. In general, most produce smaller nuts than the Southern pecan varieties most are acquainted with, as they have to mature in a shorter growing season with fewer heat units/growing-degree days. By and large, these northern pecan varieties tend to have higher oil content, in my experience, than many of the Southern varieties. One of the northern pecan varieties, 'Major', which originated 90 miles or so north of me in native pecan forest of the Green River delta, has been used extensively by the USDA pecan breeding program as a source of pecan scab resistance, in addition to superior kernel quality - 'Major' is a parent of 'Kanza', 'Lakota', 'Osage', among others. Recent genomic analysis of 'Major' indicates that it is actually a complex hican, with gene markers suggesting that it has both bitternut and shagbark hickory close up in its ancestry... possibly with a pecanX(bitternutXshagbark) cross a generation or two back. Dr. Bill Reid, who recently retired as pecan specialist for KS & MO, has a very good Northern Pecan Blog, here: http://northernpecans.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html
Now you've got me interested. Do you have a variety recommendation for Pennsylvania? I'm all ready to plant some!
Started a thread in the Fruit Trees section on northern pecans, hickories. Be glad to discuss other nut trees, if anyone is interested.
Welcome Lucky_P. I'm looking forward to learning more about nuts. Hickory trees are our number one forage nut here in my area of northern New York. Though we are in zone 5 our temps hit minus 25 to 35 on occasion. I'm presuming that pecans haven't been hybridized to handle that yet, let us know if and when that happens.
After the QDMA forums went belly up, I picked Habitat-talk as a replacement. I only had enough time to do justice to one forum but I've been lurking here from time to time as time permits. I'll be retiring soon and should have a bit more time, so I finally established an account here (thanks to Cutman). Most of you already know me from QDMA forums and/or Habitat-Talk. I'm using the same username and avatar here. Thanks, Jack
Welcome. I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to say about deer, and just about anything else of interest.
Thanks guys. My entry here will be slow. I established the account in preparation for retirement. Things will be busy for the next year or so. We are hoping to do a controlled burn this weekend. I just finished building a barn on our retirement property which is about 15 minutes from the pine farm where I manage for deer and turkey and hunt. I have several things new for this year. 1) I bought a used JD 35g mini-excavator for logging road maintenance and habitat work. Just getting the hang of it. 2) I bought a smokeless muzzleloader on an Encore frame from Jeff Hankins and am learning a lot about smokeless. 3) I got a Burris Oracle X ranging scope for my Mission Sub-one lite. For anyone who happens to be on Habitat-talk, I have threads on these over there, but will be happy to address any questions here as time permits. Over the next 18 months, we hope to get our current home ready and sell it, move all our stuff into the new barn for storage, and move into a tiny 530 sq ft living space in the barn as we retire. We then hope to build a retirement home next to the barn using the living space in the barn as guest bedrooms. I'm hoping to do all this while also working about 3/4 time and continuing my hunting, wildlife management, and Hunter Education activities. Thanks again for the kind welcome! Jack
