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Impact Report

For plan Plant Management Systems: Urban Horticulture (Otero County)
Date October 23, 2009, 4:47 pm
For Objective Short-term Show short-term objectives
Impact Report Otero County Pecan Field Day As with Pistachios, southern New Mexico’s climate is particularly suited for Pecan trees enabling more and more people to plant a tree in their landscape that not only provides shade and beauty but produces a highly desirable nut. The Otero Cooperative Extension Service office receives a considerable amount of calls from people who have planted pecan trees but need some help in their management. With large orchards being in proximity to home landscape pecan trees it is just as important to educate growers with one or two trees as it is to educate larger growers. To meet this need the Otero County Pecan Growers Field Day was presented and attended by forty-three Otero County pecan growers (25% of which were "backyard growers") where specialists from New Mexico State University and the Agricultural agent spoke on “Soils for Pecan Trees”, “Minerals and Nutrients” for Pecan Trees”, “Irrigation and Water Requirements of Pecan Trees”, “Insects of Pecan Trees”, and “Pruning Pecan Trees” (Otero County CES Agricultural Agent). Pecan tree growers in Otero County will now know: how to test their soils to find out what type and the nutrient profile of soil they have, when, what type, and how much fertilizer to apply to their pecan trees, what the signs of nutrient deficiencies look like in their pecan trees and how to correct them, when to irrigate and how much water to apply, which insects are beneficial and which are detrimental to pecans and the integrated pest management plans to control damaging pecan tree insects, how to collect, submit, and interpret the results of a soil sample from their orchard or landscape, and how to train and prune young trees, mature trees, and home landscape pecan trees. As a result of this program, 90% of the participants responding to the evaluation agreed the field day increased or enhanced their knowledge of the topic discussed and 85 % said they expected to use the information presented in their orchards or landscapes.