History

Pecan (Carya illinoinensis) is native to North America and originates from the well-drained bottomland ridges along the Mississippi River and its tributary streams from Iowa (42 degrees N latitude) south to the Gulf of Mexico and in the streams and rivers of Central and East Texas south to Oaxaca, Mexico (17 degrees N latitude). This wide native range demonstrates the degree to which pecans have adapted to highly variable climatic conditions, lending itself a rich genetic diversity from which to draw.

Pecans have been used by Native Americans for centuries. Early European settlers often used pecans as a trade item. Cultivation of pecans began in the early 1800s. Many of these early plantings began from planted seed. Those planting pecans soon realized that pecans were not true to type, meaning the seeds grew into trees which were very different from their parent tree in many ways---growth habit, tree structure, morphology, precocity, volume of nuts produced, consistency of production, nut size, nut quality, etc. Due to this lack of uniformity, pecans were not significantly developed as a crop until the late 1800’s-early 1900s, when vegetative propagation techniques were developed.

In 1846, a slave gardener at what is today known as Oak Alley Plantation in St. James Parrish, Louisiana became the first person to propagate pecan trees by grafting. His grafts developed into the trees that became the first recognized pecan cultivar, ‘Centennial’. In the late 1800s-early 1900s nurserymen in Texas and Mississippi expanded on Antoine’s techniques and began propagating pecan trees in earnest. This led to the development of a number of foundational cultivars which allowed for rapid growth and expansion of the commercial pecan industry in the United States through the early and mid 20th Century.

There are now over 1000 recognized pecan cultivars. Most of these, including common cultivars like ‘Stuart’ and ‘Western Schley’ arose as chance seedlings which were propagated by nurserymen and planted into commercial orchards. The first pecan breeding program was developed by Dr. Louis D. Romberg at the USDA Pecan Field Station in Brownwood, Texas. The first cultivar released from the USDA program was ‘Barton’ in 1953. Since that time, under the direction of Romberg and later, Dr. Tommy Thompson, 25 cultivars have been released from the program, including ‘Wichita’, ‘Pawnee’, ‘Caddo’, ‘Creek’, ‘Shoshoni’, ‘Kiowa’, and ‘Oconee’.

The University of Georgia began a pecan breeding program under the direction of Dr. Patrick Conner in 1998. The goal of the UGA breeding program is to develop pecan cultivars adapted for use in the humid southeastern U.S. Conner’s focus is the development of cultivars with large nut size, good cracking and shelling characteristics, early nut maturity, light-colored kernels, and a cluster size small enough to ensure adequate filling. Resistance or tolerance to major insect and disease pests, especially pecan scab, are major goals.

Today, pecans are produced on every continent except Antarctica. The United States and Mexico are the two largest producers of pecans in the world, each generating about 300 million lbs per year. Significant commercial production is also found in South Africa, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Peru.