Georgia's dry summer helped save its pecan crop, according to University of Georgia Extension horticulture specialist Lenny Wells. A wet spring and increased scab disease pressure had Wells and other pecan experts pessimistic about this year's pecan crop. However, a lack of rain in June and July spared Georgia's pecan farmers from worsening scab disease. The result is a pecan crop that's expected to reach 85-90 million pounds, Wells estimated. "We had all that scab inoculum built up from last year, and then we started off wet this year, with a lot of early leaf scab in the spring. Luckily, about the time that the nuts really started to size, which is when they're most susceptible to scab, it really dried off and let everybody catch up with fungicide protection," Wells said. "Even where there was a lot of scab pressure, our famers did a really good job of keeping the scab to a minimum, I think." Another encouraging factor in the early pecan ...
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