From The Telegraph, October 22, 2014
A couple of major crops in Middle Georgia that aren’t so beholden to rainfall are pecans and peaches. Those two together are the largest crops in Peach and Taylor counties, where Jeff Cook is the extension agent for both. The two counties have about 11,000 acres of pecan trees and 10,000 of peaches, and both have turned out well.
Chop Evans, who farms 7,000 acres of pecans in Peach, Houston and several other Middle Georgia counties, said his trees are 100 percent irrigated. He is better off without rain because irrigating trees from the ground reduces the need to spray for certain diseases.
A wet spring meant pecan trees had to be sprayed for fungus. Cook said if homeowners aren’t seeing many pecans from their backyard tree, that’s probably why. There’s nothing they could have done about it, he said, because it’s not practical for a homeowner to spray a large tree.
Evans said he has just started harvesting, and the crop is looking above average with good quality. Prices are also good due to a continuing high demand from Asian countries, particularly China.
“The demand for the crop is very good,” he said.
Read the whole story HERE.