No pecans this year?

I live in Houston and have 2 huge pecan trees in my backyard that are producing like crazy. I don't know what to do with them all.

And not sure if this is normal, but my two dogs love to sit in the backyard and munch on pecans all day

They also drop limbs like a son of a bitch. If a slight breeze comes through I'm picking up limbs for an hour

quote:

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They also drop limbs like a son of a bitch. If a slight breeze comes through I'm picking up limbs for an hour

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yep

I thought I would love my pecan trees but I have grown to despise those limb dropping bastards

and the fact that normally everyone wants me to give them pecans, and then some have the nerve to complain when they are not shelled

ungrateful bastards

mine have produced the past 3 years...

but I was unaware that they would skip a year

Pecans, like other fruit and nut trees,
exhibit a characteristic called alternate bearing. This is when
trees produce an abundant crop one year and the following
year relatively few fruits/nuts. The third year yields will
be abundant once more. The fourth year will produce small
yields. This cycle continues for the life of the pecan tree..


https://extension.arizona.edu/sites/extension.arizona.edu/files/pubs/az1400.pdf


We had pecan trees when I was younger, lots of them. I remember my Dad teaching me about them only producing every 3rd year. I think soil, climate, and nutrition play a part on the cycle. The link above is a pretty cool read about pecan trees.

Big L's on the money with that one. Lots of nut bearing trees will skip a yr or
so. Never did research but noticed from lots of time in the woods.

It's pretty common for them to skip years

my Granddad had several pecan trees at his house. Typically the ones out front would produce when the ones in the back wouldnt and vice versa. We always had pecans, and on years both sets of trees produced you would have so many you coudlnt store them all.

so the past 3 years were just an anomaly?

Just like oak trees, some years are bumper crops and other are total failures. But most are somewhere in between. It's not uncommon to have 2 or 3 good years in a row. That's why biologists do mast surveys each year to determine how much will be available for the wildlife and how much supplemental feed will be required.

Eta. We don't have pecan trees on our land in Simsboro, but the acorn crop looks mighty slim this year.