AboutJim Hyland Expertise I am an expert in Forestry, Forest Entomology, Forest Pest Control, and Forest Health. Extensive knowledge in Identification of insects and diseases of trees. Expert on Bark beetles and other insects that attack forests. Also a Registrated Forester with extensive knowledge in the management and care of forests.
Experience 34 years as State Pest Management Chief in a Southern state. Extensive knowledge in Forestry.
BS with major in Forest Management and Entomology Registered Forester Certified Pesticide Appicator
Question Will a hybrid pecan nut produce a fruit bearing tree of the same nut?
Answer The nut from a seedling grown from a nut may not be the same as the parent tree. It is best to plant a seeding that has been grafted and the nut production will be sooner and more reliable.
The pecan tree commercial production today is classified into two categories by buyers: seedling and cultivar. The seedling market brings a lower market price than the cultivar, because the kernel shell out is so unpredictable to the shelling plant buyer. The quality and shell thinness is also very variable for seedling pecan tree production.
Technically, the cultivar is actually a pecan seedling, but it is an outstanding seedling that is grafted or budded so that a large orchard of pecan trees can be grown with the nuts having a predictable outcome of the nut size, nut quality, disease resistance, thinness of shells, and many other desirable characteristics.
If a pecan tree is grown from a seed, regardless of whether the nut planted was a pecan seedling or a named pecan cultivar such as Stuart, Desirable, or Elliot, the pecan tree that grows from that seed will be unpredictable, insofar as the resulting pecan crop that is produced. The tree grown from such a sprouting seed may even be ultimately sterile and incapable of producing nuts at all. Pecan growers generally agree that only a grafted pecan tree should be planted in commercial orchards.
