Pecan Canopy - what goes well underneath

Looking at a potential property that is a working pecan farm with several acres of trees.

I really like the idea of having the nuts as an oil/protein source, but being just the canopy layer it sure seems like a lot of wasted space that permaculture could take advantage of.  Any ideas how I could incorporate more food forest layers and yet still allow harvesting equipment through?

Zone 7b, by the way.

Also, I have had walnuts in the past and they do mean things to the soil composition underneath.  Do pecans do something similar?

Yes, pecans are known to produce juglone, the same as walnut, although I believe to a slightly lesser extent than the black walnut (juglans nigra), maybe more along the lines of juglans regia (the European walnut) which isn't quite as aggressive.

Although I am still trying to get pecans and pawpaws going in my part of the world (I'd never heard of the latter till last year!), I have seen a number of people state unequivocally that pawpaw (asimina triloba) grows very happily in the understory of walnuts etc. and even likes a bit of shade, so I think that would be the first thing I try. Check out Sean on the EdibleAcres channel, he has a number of videos discussing the issue (as regards black walnut), including this one, where he mentions pawpaw, autumn olives, raspberries, plus black locust and some others: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLvrhuaF3Xs - if you trawl through his more recent videos on permaculture guilds you will probably find more examples.

what kind of harvesting equipment do you need to plan for? like the big tree-shakers? that could definitely limit what else you can do. i can confirm that pawpaws are totally happy cohabitating with walnuts. persimmons too.

greg mosser wrote:what kind of harvesting equipment do you need to plan for? like the big tree-shakers? that could definitely limit what else you can do.

This is exactly what I was going to ask.

If you purchase this property how do you plan to harvest all the pecans?

I live in pecan country where pecan are one of the biggest money-making operations.

Commercial pecan orchards use large, mechanized shakers. These machines grab the tree trunk and literally shake the tree free of its pecans, which fall to the ground. A harvester scoops the pecans from the ground and collects them into a bin. After collection, the pecans must be dried to prevent spoilage and processed to ready them for sale.

https://texashillcountry.com/harvesting-pecans-texas-hill-country/

I like the idea of using polyculture to plant with nut trees though I just don't feel it is logical if a person plans to make money from the orchard.

Great info, all!

I'm not sure about the specific equipment details (haven't even called on the property yet).

There appears to be a rolling cage tractor attachment to pick nuts off the ground and then these things, which your guess is as good as a million times better than mine.

Hey all,

Some additional thoughts around juglone guilds in the South- I'm in North Texas, and here's what I've seen work:

Black Walnut (canopy)
Pecan (canopy)
Texas Walnut (understory)
Mulberry (understory/edge)
Pawpaw (understory)
Cherry (edges)
Elderberry (understory)
Goumi Berry (understory)
Russian Olive (bush/edge)
Goumi Berry (bush/edge)
Nettles (herbaceous layer)
Nightshades (herbaceous layer)
Catalpa bignonioides (edge)
Golden leadball tree, Leucaena retusa, (understory)
Black locust (canopy)
Honey locust (understory/edge)
American Persimmon (understory/edge)
Comfrey (herbaceous layer)
Mint (herbaceous layer)
Rosemary (herbaceous layer)
Daffodils (bulbs)
Daylilies (bulbs)
Mustang grape, Vitis mustangensis (vine)
Trumper creeper, Campsis radicans (vine)

My trees aren’t quite that large yet, but chickens and sheep seem to be doing well under them.