I’ve seen a number of orchards of many varieties in the last few weeks in which the trees are carrying a pretty heavy crop load. If you have over 60% of the terminals bearing fruit, the trees will benefit from thinning. This will improve quality this year and generate a better return crop next year. Early to mid October harvest varieties should be about ready for thinning next week. A full description and photos are found at the link below. Most of our varieties should respond when thinning next week and at least the first half of the following week. Sumner possibly even a little later. To know exactly when to thin you will have to slice nuts open and look at the development of the ovule inside the nut. See previous blog post for details on how and when to thin here.
We also have an instructional DVD on mechanical fruit thinning of pecan available here.
