From the Fields - Theresa Jeffreys Bright

Colusa County pecan and tomato farmer

I started pecan harvest Nov. 10 or 12. The trees have been shook, and I have the nuts swept. I got 3,000 to 5,000 pounds picked up right before Thanksgiving. Then the rain came, and I haven’t been able to get back out there. I am waiting for the nuts to dry. Everybody was scrambling trying to get everything done before the rain, so I didn’t have anyone to run my pickup machine. I’ve been out there every day picking up buckets by hand just to try to fill my holiday orders.

The crop was fairly decent. It was an average “on” year for pecans because they’re alternate bearing. Considering that I only watered them three times this year, I feel really fortunate. I wasn’t putting a whole lot of water on my pecans because I had a large acreage of cannery tomatoes. That was very successful. I had probably my highest payout for tomatoes. I had great yields, so I made the right choice there.

On watering the pecans, it’s really about timing, not so much the volume of water. I did my first watering in mid- to late July. Then I watered them in about two weeks and again in about four weeks. That was all the water they got, but they really did well. Some of the nuts were small, but that was more to do with the individual tree genetics and other nutrients. I have one tree that is by a leaky valve, so it got all the water it needed, and those nuts weren’t substantially larger than the nuts out in the middle of the orchard. I plan on working with our county ag extension to share this information—how vital (irrigation) timing is. I determined that by cutting open the nuts. If they were starting to shrivel, I knew I needed to get water on them quick.