Can i pick pecans off the tree early?

Question

whenever we wait for them to fall of the squirels get them first or they rot. so could i pick them before they are ripe and just set them on the counter till they dry?

Answer 1

It might be just a little to early, I'm waiting too.

Harvesting Pecans

Pecans are usually harvested from mid-October through November when the shuck loosens from the shell or splits. The trees in commercial production are harvested with trunk or limb shakers that literally shake the nuts off the tree to be collected by various means.

Homeowners usually use a long cane pole to whap the nuts down or find some 10-year-old kids willing to spend an entire afternoon throwing baseball gloves or old sneakers up into the tree to knock nuts down. That's how my mother got hickory nuts for cakes and cookies many years ago. Wait to pick up the nuts that fall to the ground naturally, and you're competing with the wiley squirrel-and may well lose.

Squirrels can be a real barrier to successful back yard pecan growing. It has been estimated that a single squirrel can consume about 50 pounds of pecans in a single season-the total production of two trees. Nuts can be stored in their shells for about four months at room temperature before becoming rancid. They'll last up to nine months in the refrigerator and a year or two when stored in the freezer.