Pecan Tree Spacing Calculator for Orchard Design

When designing a pecan orchard, one of the first requirement is that you must plan for the size of the pecan trees when they are fully mature. The size of pecan trees when they are young will always be less than when they are fully grown, so it would not make sense to base the orchard design based off the size of young pecan trees. If you design the orchard with insufficient space between each pecan tree, the tree’s crown will overlap.

These overlapping pecan trees will prevent the lower limb of the pecan trees from receiving sufficient sunlight to perform photosynthesis, which is required for the growth of pecans. As a result of the lack of sunlight for the lower limbs of the trees, those lower limbs may die back, which will lead to a decrease in the total number of pecans that each pecan tree produces. Thus, an understanding of the size of pecan trees when mature will allow for the balancing of the number of pecan trees within the orchard with the requirements of those pecan trees for sunlight and air circulation.

How to Plan a Pecan Orchard

In addition to the size of the pecan trees, another consideration is the space that is required for operating machinery within the orchard. Many people wants to build their pecan orchard as close to the lines of their property as possible in order to maximize the number of pecan trees within the orchard. However, if pecan trees are planted too close to the edges of the orchard, it will be difficult to turn the machinery necessary to maintain those orchards.

Therefore, another consideration is to include an area within the orchard that is dedicated to machinery and that the pecan trees in that portion will not impact the operations of the orchard’s machinery. In this way, the orchard can remain functional and not crush the outer limbs of the border pecan trees. The type of pecan tree that you plant will determine the amount of space that each pecan tree require in the orchard.

For example, pecan trees of the Stuart cultivar tend to have wide crowns that spread out from the trees, while pecan trees of the Pawnee cultivar are more compact in size. Thus, different space requirement will apply to these two different types of pecan trees. Each cultivar of pecan trees will have different requirements, so the decision to plant pecan trees of that certain cultivar will require an understanding of those requirements for the orchard design.

Some cultivars of pecan trees are bred to allow for high density of pecan trees within the orchard, while other cultivars may not do well if there is too many pecan trees of that same cultivar within the orchard. In planning for nut production by the pecan trees, it is necessary to consider how the pecan trees require pollination to produce pecans. Pecan trees are not self-sufficient in that each pecan tree will not be able to produce pecans without another pecan tree to provide the pollen required to create pecans.

Therefore, if only pecan trees of one clone are planted within the orchard, there will be a lack of pollinators to provide the necessary pecan pollen for the production of pecans. Therefore, you must plant pollinator pecan trees of the same clone throughout the orchard. These pollinator pecan trees will allow the wind to carry the pecan pollen from the pollinator pecan trees onto the flowering branches of the pecan trees that are intended to produce pecans.

Therefore, there must be an appropriate number of pollinator pecan trees within the orchard. Another consideration to take into account is tree mortality. Some pecan trees will die within the orchard due to factors outside of the orchard design, such as infestations of pests, drought conditions, or other environmental factors.

Therefore, it is necessary to account for tree mortality in the number of pecan trees that are ordered for the orchard. By accounting for the mortality of pecan trees within the orchard design, there will be an understanding of how many pecan trees should of been planted to ensure that there are enough pecan trees to provide for the budget of the orchard. Finally, the age of pecan trees will impact the yield of pecans from each orchard.

Young pecan trees will focus on establishing their roots and growing their pecan tree trunks, so there will be few pecans produce during this phase of the life of pecan trees. After reaching a certain age, though, pecan trees will begin to produce pecans, and will reach their full bearing capacity. Thus, the age of pecan trees within an orchard will impact the total yield of pecans that the orchard produces.

However, by ensuring that the design of the orchard accounts for the mature size of pecan trees, the requirements of machinery within the orchard, and the age of pecan trees, those who establish pecan orchards can avoid many of the problems that is associated with each of these considerations.