Soil Depth

Hi everybody,

I am searching for a piece of land in south Brazil to grow pecans. As I just found an affordable land, I am questioning myself the depth of the soil? There is a "popular" saying around here to avoid places where people used to grow cassava if you want to grow trees, as if rain would wash the soil through decades of harvesting the root. As it is almost impossible to be sure the history of the land, can anyone give a hand on soil depth?

Thanks

Pecans will develop their own soil as the orchard becomes established. They have a very long tap root, so they are able to drill down far deeper than cassava to obtain their necessary nutrients. They are able to grow in compacted clay and caliche, so that should give you some idea of the strength of the tap root.

One thing that can help with getting them established is to have a leguminous cover crop like alfalfa or clover that will provide them with nitrogen. Are you going to start them from nuts, or from bare root seedlings?

Yes, I will start from bare root seedlings and my plan is to grow between the pecan rows Bracatinga (Mimosa scabrella) a medium size leguminous tree that grows fast, is a native tree, and around the 2 world war, use to be the preferred fuel for trains around this area. It will be a 10 hectare orchard plus 4,2 hectare of native forest. Different cultures will be considered in the future according to the local economy.

Sounds like a good plan. When you get your seedlings, make sure that the tap root hasn't been crowded. Here in the U.S., pecan seedlings are sold in extra deep plastic pots, sometimes 3 times the depth of pots other seedling trees are sold in. This is so that the tap root is not compromised in the first two years of life. As a consequence, when you dig a hole to plant the pecan, you have to dig extra deep to accommodate that tap root.

You may want to try starting some from nuts as well. I have all sorts of volunteer pecans coming up in my garden, courtesy of my neighbor and the neighborhood squirrels, and if I don't get them out in the first year, then it is very difficult to keep them from coming back year after year.

Thanks Elliot,

The ideal would be to at least grow 10% from nuts, as I live in a really expensive country (mostly because of taxes), I am still not sure if it will be 2 to 3% of the total orchard. I heard that in the US you guys have pretty good nuts, do you know any good source of nuts for plantations? Cheers

When I look at this article (click on the author names), it seems like there is a big research effort on pecans at the University of Santa Catarina in Florianopolis. You may want to contact them, as they would have quite a bit of experience with that tree in that area.

When I wanted to plant an orchard with black walnuts, I looked around and found that there was a research effort at Purdue University, and the leader of the effort was very happy to sell me 1-year seedlings at a very good price. When you deal with a university, they are less concerned with turning a profit and more in giving you the best science to solve your immediate problem.

Will check that out! Thanks a lot.