Walnuts, Almonds and Pecans

16 years ago

I know that Pecans grow well here but I was wondering if anyone here has first hand knowledge of what is the best Pecan tree to plant and if there are any problems with growing pecans.

Another thing is that I was thinking of planting a dwarf Garden Prince Almond tree or two. They are supposed to be self fruitful and do ok here. The thing is that the chill hours seem to be kind of iffy for the Phoenix area. If any of you have these trees, do they produce almonds for you?

Lastly, a walnut tree that I have heard that has low enough chill hour requirements to grow and produce nuts here is Pedro. It is supposed to get 2/3rds the size of a standard walnut tree. Any experiences with this tree?

Thanks in advance.

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Comments (9)

User
16 years ago
Not all pecans are self-fertilizing ... make sure you don't need to have two varieties. Aside from that, they do well here, as water-guzzling plants.

Almonds do not do very well in Phoenix - as you noticed, the winter chill requirement is a bit high for us.

I have no experience with the walnut.
User
16 years ago
A mature pecan tree in production needs 6 acre feet of water to thrive. That's a heck of a lot of water and also why successful commercial pecan groves like to flood irrigate. What's that slurping sound?
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agility_mom
Original Author
16 years ago
Wow! I guess I'll keep buying my pecans at the store since I don't have flood irrigation at my house.
Thanks for the info.
tracydr
16 years ago
Man, I should get some to soak up my excess irrigation! No wonder mine liked the flood area in OK when I lived there!
aztreelvr
16 years ago
There are several varieties of nuts that will do well here, if they get enough water of course.

Take a look at Deciduous Fruits and Nuts for the Low Desert, a publication from the University of Arizona. Just click on the "Fruits and Nuts" link from the web address below. Trees that are sold bare root are the least expensive and should be available in December or January.

Here is a link that might be useful: Deciduous Fruits and Nuts
softmentor
15 years ago
Mahan Pecan is a good choice for low desert. It has a superior quality nut too.
Garden Prince Almond is a good choice and is probably the lowest chill requirement of any almond. Since it is a natural dwarf, it will be a good back yard tree too. But don't let that fool you, it's still a good size tree like a peach.
Walnut is the hardest one for the desert. Pedro would be the one to try. Excellent nut and it's said to need only 400 hours chill, which is still a stretch but maybe. It's also a naturaly smaller Walnut, so good for yards.
agility_mom
Original Author
15 years ago
I did pick up Garden Prince Almond trees at Lowes the other day at 1/2 price since the leaves were a bit browned around the edges. Hopefully, I can keep them at around 8 to 10 feet in size. Now that it has cooled down, I will be planting them in the next couple of days.
There is a low area that runs parallel to a small wash in our yard and I plan on putting these 2 along with some dwarf cherry trees in this area hoping to get a little more chill hours.
pkpdjh
11 years ago
Hey Agility_Mom, how did it go with the Garden Prince Almonds? Did you keep them 8 to 10 feet? Are they getting enough chill hours?
agility_mom
Original Author
11 years ago
Yes they did get enough chill hours, I got almonds (although not a lot) one season but I had a big tree fall over in a storm that crushed them.
They were easy to keep pruned to size while I had them.
So, I just planted another Garden Prince in a different location as well as an All-in-one.