Trying to grow pecans can drive you nuts

Trying to grow pecans in Utah may make you nuts — literally.

Over the past decade I have fielded many questions from gardeners asking about growing these nuts in northern Utah. In a column I wrote 10 years ago, I said, "Pecan trees are large and beautiful specimens reaching 100 feet in height. Pecans grow in Salt Lake Valley, but nut production is low most years. Pollinators are required, so plant two of these giants. Nuts must be shaken down or allowed to fall and be picked up regularly. Remove meats from the hulls as soon as possible."

Yet once in a while I come across someone who is — or more correctly their tree is — defying the odds.

Wayne Bott has lived in his Murray home for 55 years, and for the past 20-25 years a pecan tree has graced his front landscape.

This tree produces a small but regular crop of nuts. Bott originally ordered the tree from Western Garden Center but doesn't remember the variety.

When I asked him why he planted a pecan, he said a friend had planted one in his yard, and he thought it was a pretty tree. "I liked the idea of getting something back from the tree," he said.

While the production from Bott's tree hasn't provided him with a second income, he still enjoys it. Bott said it's a rather carefree tree; he did not do anything to it for the first 15 years, but now he has it pruned every five to six years. He also has a nearby maple and flowering pear cut back to give the pecan more growing room.

"I sometimes get a little dripping from the pruning cuts (typical of walnuts and pecans) but not much else," he said.

While he has no problem with what might be one of the worst pests — squirrels — he does admit that "the ravens are the worst problem, and some years they take most of the crop."

Two other birds are also troublesome.

"The magpies and the jays routinely steal nuts and bury them around the yard, and then I get pecan trees growing everywhere," he said.

The pecan is Carya illinoinensis — or Illinois nuts. European settlers found this native North American nut growing along the tributaries of the Mississippi River. The trees are long-lived. (Some that George Washington planted at Mount Vernon are still there today.)