Yesterday was a red letter day! We got two of our four pecan trees placed on the Homestead. While the process was going on, I was able to video them. See the progress here:
Preparing the Hole:
Planting the Tree (1st Tree):
Planting the Second Tree:
For more information about transplanting mature pecan trees, check out our previous posts on Mature Pecan Trees and Pecan Trees for the Homestead.
Now that the trees are planted, we know we need to be very diligent about watering them heavily until they are very well established. Initially, we plan to fill up the water wells around the trees about four times/day. After they are well established, deep watering about every 6 days is sufficient for good production. New Mexico pecan farmers are known for harvesting very heavy crops. Brandon told about local farmers producing about 3000 lbs (in the shell) per acre (which means our four trees — about 1/10 acre — have the potential to yield 300 lbs/yr for us). This is very high relative to Texas farmers, who generally yield closer to 1500 lbs/acre.
Brandon Kuykendall, owner of Tree Digger LLC in Roswell, NM took care of the whole process for us. You can contact them at bktreedigger@yahoo.com or by phone at (575) 317-8536. Great people… we highly recommend working with them. They can transplant other types of trees, too…