About seven years ago, we planted two pecan trees. The catalog we ordered from promised cross-pollination. But here it is, year seven, and where are the nuts?
Research to the rescue. Soooo…two different kinds of pecan trees are needed to cross-pollinate. Oops.
And I should be fertilizing the trees every month from March to June. Double oops.
And there’s a spray with zinc sulfate I should be using. Ouch. Slap my face. I had no idea.
I called an online nursery to find out which trees I should plant for cross-pollination and learned of two varieties that will work, Cape Fear and Elliot. Both will grow in Zone 6–never mind that we had a Zone 5 winter last year. The rep I chatted with was nice enough to offer me free shipping.
Except. They’re out of both varieties of pecans, at least until spring.
So I’m off to find those trees elsewhere. For the same price or near enough. Probably without free shipping. Gosh darn it.
Same thing I did with my pear trees. I gave up the search!
Oh no. Well, the end of the story came AFTER I posted the blog. The company called me and said they’d found two pecan trees to send me, free shipping, and would I be their customer forever. Hmm. Maybe. We’ll see what happens next. Hope your planting season is going well.