The two things you probably need most are scab resistance and early maturity. Kanza is scab resistant, early maturing, and has a very nice smallish nut. Of all the nuts I've cracked it probably shells out perfect halves better than any other. Caddo isn't really that early and has somewhat less scab resistance.

Varieties with high scab resistance that are early include Lucas 36, Osage 31, Posey 18, and Major 15. The numbers are days before Stuart. Kanza is about the same maturity as Posey and Caddo 7-10 days later.

I haven't grown Lucas, Posey, or Major. But do know that Kanza is a much nicer nut than Osage. Lucas is a very small nut.

You could do a lot worse than Kanza and Caddo for a humid northern area.

Scott,

I've got a couple of trees, but they haven't fruited yet. I chose Kanza and Major.

Kanza because it is a favorite of my wife's uncle (owns an 80 acre grove in Coffeyville KS). He says it's very scab res. and their most productive pecan (good flavor too).

Major because Lucky said it's tops for flavor in KY and has some scab res. I think our growing season here is long enough to mature Major which harvests after Kanza. I'm not sure about MD.

I'd also like to put in a Pawnee, but don't have the room. It's a very large and early maturing nut w/ some scab res. Another favorite of my wife's uncle. It's also a compliment pollenizer to Kanza.

Pecan casebearer is their biggest insect issue, but I don't know that you would have a problem. I think Lucky raises lots of pecans w/ no spray. I expect he will chime in w/ his own observations, if he sees this thread.

Here I am. Sorry I'm late to the party.
Scott, you *might* do OK with some of the newer Southern varieties suggested for home/low-input planting. I'm trialing some here, and have gotten a few nuts, but the jury is still out.
http://www.aces.edu/timelyinfo/Horticulture/2002/January/RecHomeLow.pdf
But, the northern/midwestern varieties should be a sure bet for you, if you don't want to 'roll the dice'.

"Major", for sure. Small nut(60-80/lb), but produces the very top quality kernel, heavy bearing, and good resistance to scab. USDA pecan breeding program has used it extensively in developing new varieties for the northern/midwestern pecan belt. It's the female parent of Kanza, Osage, and the Yates series - as well as a number of lesser-known selections common in KY & IN.
Was selected out of a 400-acre block of native pecans in the Green River delta between Owensboro & Henderson KY over 100 years ago, and the 'experts' still recommend that it comprise over 50% of any commercial planting in this part of the country.
HEAVY producer of early pollen, but it needs a late to very late pollen source to set full nut crops; Chetopa is a very late pollen source, but nut quality is not as good as some other late pollen producers.
The 'Converse Major' originated from a limb sport on a Major tree at Paducah that produces nuts about 10% larger than the norm(Cliff England probably offers the Converse selection).

Kanza (MajorXShoshoni)- good early variety, excellent quality kernel, good disease resistance, should work OK as a pollenizer for Major, and Major will pollenize it. It's a good choice. Several of the KS growers I'm familiar with like it a lot; I've seen some recommendations for Kanza as a good early variety for northern AL growers, to capture the early market. I'm still waiting on my young grafts of it to bear.

I like Pawnee - a lot - big nut, good kernel quality - but does scab worse than some others, worse some years than others.

Posey produces one of the largest nuts of any of the northern/midwestern cultivars, has a very thin shell, and decent scab resistance, but IMO the kernel is inferior to Major, GreenRiver, Pawnee, etc.
I have access to a grafted selection - ID unknown; sort of resembles Busseron, but nuts are larger than Busseron nuts I remember seeing in the past; comparable to Posey in size, with an excellent 'golden' kernel.

Lots of info available - and photos of some cultivars - at the USDA site below.

Here is a link that might be useful: USDA Pecan Breeding & Genetics

I've planted some of the ultra hardy northern pecans this year. I'm hoping that if they will grow in Ohio, they can survive here.

The pest that is known to affect pecans in this area is codling moth. So, I'll just add them to the same spray program as the apples.

Thanks guys, great information. I settled on the Kanza as my favorite but had a hard time finding a pollenizer for it. Olpea do you think Major works? According to the U GA pollen timing chart (see link below) they don't overlap. I liked Caddo primarily because it looked to have good overlap with Kanza. I wonder if I need more than two varieties for good pollination.

Lucky I looked for those new Alabama varieties and could not find them anywhere.

Scott

Here is a link that might be useful: U GA pecans

Scott,
Not sure if on the Alabama introductions you could not find the tree or info on them Below is a link with some info, It lists some sources, but I did not try them. It seems as well I recall Bill Goff of Auburn University posting here about them. I have no experience with them, and I have no trees producing yet, with some Northern Pecan seedlings planted in 1998 and Pawnee, Elliot, and Stuart planted 2-3 years ago.

Here is a link that might be useful: Alabama Pecan recommendations

Scott,
Major will do fine as a pollenizer for Kanza - and any other protogynous(Type II) variety; it's a HEAVY producer of early to mid-season pollen.
One of the biggest drawbacks encountered with Major, when it was 'moved' out of its native pecan forest(grafted elsewhere, the ortet was not moved) was finding a suitable late to very late pollenizer to set full crops on it. Kanza should get that job done adequately, but if you've got room - or can convince a nearby neighbor to plant some pecans, Chetopa may help further increase crops on your Major tree, as it is a very late pollen producer. And yes, more pecan trees in the vicinity increase pollen availability, and hence, bigger crops of nuts.
There's a long-running post on the Southeast Coastal Gardening forum, with at least one appearance from Dr. Bill Goff; I've linked it below. Seems like I've heard, in the last couple of years, that they've backed off a bit on their recommendation for 'Jenkins', but I don't remember exactly why(and I could be mistaken).

Here is a link that might be useful: Pecans- SE Coastal Gardening

Scott,

I when I planted my pecans, I didn't get very sophisticated about pollination. All the charts showed Kanza as type II and Major as type I. For some reason, I had trouble pulling up the link you posted, but I'm pretty comfortable taking Lucky's advice that they'll pollenize each other.

I also just noticed that Major harvests only a couple days after Kanza. For some reason, I thought Major was quite a bit later, but both should mature just fine in MD.

Ooops, I was getting Major mixed up with another variety. Sounds like Major and Kanza are the way I will go for starters.

Scott

Any recommendations for good pecan nurseries? I know Nolin has a good selection, but didn't know of many others. Are they the best choice for pecan trees in the
Southeast?

http://www.burntridgenursery.com/nutTrees/index_product.asp?dept=59&parent=

They have a few N varieties.

djofnelson,
My friends at NRNTN and England's Orchard & Nursery(www.nuttrees.net) offer a good selection of nut/minor fruit trees, including pecans. Most of their pecan offerings are best suited for zone 6-4; mostly varieties that originated in or have been proven to be good producers and hardy in the 'northern/midwestern' pecan belt(KY/IN/IL/MO/KS, etc.).
While some of those 'northern' varieties will perform well in zone 7 and warmer, I'm not sure that most will compete favorably in warm climate/long growing season areas, which are favorably suited for the Southern pecan varieties.

Womack's Nursery, in DeLeon TX has a good reputation for quality plant materials, and I was impressed with their pecan cultivar inventory, when I looked at it a few years ago. Might be a good choice of varieties suitable for warm Southern/Eastern areas.

Dr. Bill Goff, extension pecan specialist at Auburn University(my alma mater and hometown) has been a past president of the Southern Pecan Growers Assn., and one of the foremost pecan researchers in the country, listed the following sources in one of his posts in the SE Coastal Gardening thread, linked earlier:
"A few nurseries are starting to hear us and catering to small-scale orchards and homeowners. These nurseries include Underwood Nursery, Foley, AL 334-943-8056; Dellwood Nursery, Foley, AL 334-943-8693: and Southern Heritage Nursery (container trees), Bastrop, LA 318-281-0681. Don't expect to buy any of the recommended trees without reserving them a year in advance."

Edible Landscaping in VA has offered a few containerized grafted pecan selections in the past - I've not looked recently to see what they have.
But by all means, avoid the nursery at TyTy - and any or all of its incarnations(Aaron's, Patrick's, etc.) like the plague.

Englands had the two I was looking for (Nolin is sold out of Kanza) and are shipping them out next week.

Scott

Thanks for all the responses. I planted a Kanza (from Burnt Ridge) and a Pawnee (from Edible Landscaping) last year. Based on the above postings, I'll definitely add a Major. I'm also considering picking up a Peruque and giving Womack a try next year to experiment with some southern varieties.

djofnelson,
Peruque is a sweet little nut - may be one of the tastiest of all, and has a very thin shell. BUT! It's TINY! I'd hazard a guess that most years, here, it probably runs 100/lb or smaller; with irrigation, it'd be larger, but still very small.
It's perhaps the most susceptible to pecan weevil infestation of any cultivar I've encountered - most years, the weevils damage well over 50% of the crop. Better have a weevil-control program in place, or plan to spray for 'em.
It's very early, maturing here in early to mid-September - and as a result, bird depredation is a major problem; jays and crows really work it over - some years they get most of the non-weevil-infested nuts. Early maturation may make it a good selection for real short-season growers, and weevils may be less of a problem in zones 4 & 5 than they are here.
It really is a sweetheart of a nut, but unless you've got plenty of space, I'd pick another variety. I have one Peruque tree, but I won't be grafting any more - and I have plenty of room.

Lucky, thanks for all the advice. I'm not limited by space (although I sometimes wish I was) and I don't plan on spraying my pecans, so it sounds like I should choose another variety. Any recommendations for a 4th (and maybe 5th) northern variety in addition to Kanza, Pawnee, and Major? Maybe Posey or Greenriver based on your comments above? Would you consider James or Colby (both offered by Edible) to be good choices?

dj,
Posey & Greenriver are two good varieties that excel here in KY & southern IN/IL. You couldn't go wrong with either.

Posey produces one of the largest nuts of the northern/midwestern varieties, has a thin shell, and good scab resistance. Many years, it doesn't seem to 'fill' its kernels well, but they're really good this year, even though we had significant drought conditions. Because of shell thinness, it sustains more weevil damage here than Major or Greenriver, but much less than Peruque.

Greenriver originated in the same KY native pecan forest that produced Major and several other good varieties - nut is similar to Major - excellent quality; may take longer to come into bearing, and is later-maturing than Major - but that shouldn't be a problem in z 7.
I'm seeing glowing reports on Mandan, a recent release from the USDA breeding program, and it's probably the next one on my list to obtain; might be worth considering.
I have access to a grafted tree that I've not been able to identify yet - looks sort of like Busseron; large nut with nice light creamy kernels with yellow nutmeat; may be my #2 favorite, behind Major.

Colby is generally considered as a 'far northern' variety - and may produce one of the largest nuts of that group. Seems like I've seen comments about its kernels having some astringency; don't know that I can specifically recall sampling any Colby nuts.
James came out of the Brunswick, MO area, and I'd be inclined to suspect that it's a small northern/far-northern selection - and if I recall correctly, it was selected, as a limb sport, for its ornamental qualities - lots of large dark green foliage. Nut description sounds good, but I've not seen it.

Descriptions and nut photos of many of the pecan varieties can be viewed at the USDA Pecan Breeding site I linked earlier in this thread.

I love pecans!

Made lots of extra cash as a kid shaking pecan trees. Would travel the neighborhood for those with trees and offer 50/50 to shake and pickup there pecans. Worked great for both parties, while leaving them till they could pick them up would leave them to the squirls and this would grab them while the getting was good.

Love those "Pecan Pies"!!

Here is a link that might be useful: Pecan Nut Cracker