It’s a shaky year for Texas pecan growers

Between the drought, an untimely freeze and heavy rain in early fall, pecan growers in Texas faced challenges this year that will keep the holidays from being as cheerful as they might have been. “We were going to have a real good crop and everything went wrong with it,” said Kenneth Pape with Pape Pecan House in Seguin.

His own orchards produced about 30 percent of an average crop. “First not enough rain, then too much rain,” he said. Growers in South Texas may have experienced the worst problems because they harvested earliest when rains were the heaviest.

Central and West Texas growers weren’t spared rain problems, either, and many dealt with a spring freeze that weakened early-maturing varieties. Still, officials said irrigation practices and quality control efforts have kept the pecan count in Texas decent.

The USDA says Texas will produce 60 million pounds this year, 14 percent less than two years ago, the last “on year” in the alternating production cycle.

Source: chron.com