Ty Ty, GA |

Pecan growers from across Georgia recently gathered for their annual Fall Field Day, an event designed to foster connection, share research updates, and provide expert insights essential to the future of the state’s pecan industry.

“With the research being done here, they don’t get to see this facility but every three years,” says Mary Bruorton, Executive Director of the Georgia Pecan Growers Association. “So this is a new opportunity for new growers and existing growers to see what research has been done… what new varieties are being worked on, and different disease protection as well.”

Among the speakers was Dr. Lenny Wells, Extension Pecan Specialist with the University of Georgia, who offered a crop update and highlighted one of this year’s biggest challenges: rain.

“With pecans, most of the varieties that we grow… they’re susceptible to a disease called pecan scab,” says Wells. “The more rainfall you get, the more disease pressure there’s going to be. You have to spray more. In years like this one, it rains so often that especially growers with a large acreage, they really can’t get over their acreage before it rains again. It drives up the cost of production considerably.”

For producers already operating on thin margins, those increased costs can be significant—which is why having reliable, science-based guidance is more important than ever.

“In general, farmers tend to focus on production—on how many pounds they make of whatever crop they’re looking at,” Wells explains. “But probably a more important figure to look at is the net return. And that goes back to the cost of production. So we’re always looking for ways that we can cut costs without hurting the yield.”

Despite the rain and the lingering effects of Hurricane Helene from last fall, Wells says the crop has shown resilience. In fact, many trees damaged by the storm unexpectedly produced a crop this year.

“We’ve seen something very surprising,” says Wells. “A lot of the trees that were left actually came back with some crop this year… Normally what we see after these hurricanes is that they completely take that next year off… but this year something was different.”

While it may not be a record-setting harvest, Wells says the fact that growers have a crop at all—especially in previously storm-damaged orchards—is a positive sign moving forward.

By: John Holcomb