Berry’s Picks

2020 Central Region Pecan Show and Chill Hours

The Central Region pecan show for the 2020 crop year was judged on January 13th at the G. Rollie White Visitors Center in College Station, Texas. Numbers were down, but we still had ninety-six samples from ten counties recorded as participants. Thirty-seven individual pecan producers were represented in the entries. The number of variety awards by county is as follows: Bell-3, Comanche-14, Eastland-2, Gillespie-6, Kerr-1, Kimble-1, Llano-2, Medina-1, Palo Pinto-4, San Saba 22 and Williamson-7.

Despite a tough growing year, Comanche County producers had some good pecans this year. Here is a list of top placing Comanche County pecans: Grissom Farms 1st place Burkett, Paul Muhle 1st place Caddo, Sorrells Farms 1st place Cape Fear, Sorrells Farms 1st place Kanza, Sorrells Farms 2nd place Kiowa, Keaton Braim 1st place Lightest Pecan, Paul Muhle 1st place Maramec, Sorrells Farms 1st place native, Carol Teich 2nd place native, Paul Muhle 1st place Oconee, Paul Muhle 1st place Other Varieties “Biggs”, Sorrells Farms 2nd place Wichita. Grand and reserve champions at the show were as follows: Steve Stifflemire from San Saba County won the Grand Champion Commercial Pecan with his Hopi entry. The Reserve Champion for Commercial pecan varieties went to Paul Muhle, Comanche County with his Oconee. In the Classic & New Division, the Grand Champion pecan was a Comanche variety, entered by Eddie Holland of Llano County. The Reserve Champion went to Paul Muhle, of Comanche County, for Biggs, an entry in Other Varieties. The Grand Champion Native pecan in the Central Region was won by Sorrell’s Farm, Comanche County, and the Reserve Native was won by Carol Teich, also of Comanche County. The heaviest pecan sample in the show was a Waco variety, entered by Pat Tondre of Medina County, weighing 34.84 per pound. The lightest pecan, weighing 667 per pound, was entered by Keaton Braim of Comanche County.

The judges for the show were Mr. Bill Ree, Extension Entomologist-Retired, and Mr. Stephen Janak, Extension Program Specialist, Dept. of Horticulture with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension. The show was coordinated and managed by Dr. Monte Nesbitt, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, College Station. Ribbons and plaques for the winners are sponsored by the Texas Pecan Growers Association.

All 1st and 2nd place pecans will move on to the State Pecan Show that is held at the Texas pecan Growers Annual Conference. As you can see Comanche County pecan producers grow a high-quality product, I cannot encourage everyone enough to go out and purchase some good local Comanche County pecans.

Chill Hours for Fruit Production

Occasionally we have a year where we have a hard time getting enough chill hours for good fruit tree production, right now we are at about 652 hours.

Most of the peach trees planted in our area require 600 to 800 chill hours for good fruit production. Chilling hours for plums, pears and other fruit trees can vary, but most are 700 hours or less.

Most vineyards only require 150 chill hours. We are on track to reach our required hours this year for most fruit production. This is good news for farmers in the area.