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.
