From lonrom@hevanet.com Wed Jul 28 00:01:07 1999 Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1999 12:21:22 -0700 From: Lon J. Rombough To: NAFEX List , Tucker Hill , New Crops , SANET , AGRISYNERGY Subject: FW: New Pecan Tree Bears Fruit Every Year ---------- From: "ARS News Service" To: "ARS News List" Subject: New Pecan Tree Bears Fruit Every Year Date: Tue, Jul 27, 1999, 8:19 AM STORY LEAD: New Pecan Tree Bears Fruit Every Year ----------- ARS News Service Agricultural Research Service, USDA Linda McGraw, (309) 681-6530, lmcgraw@asrr.arsusda.gov July 27, 1999 ----------- Pecan lovers will appreciate the fruits of a new pecan variety that produces large nuts with halves that stay intact during shelling. Named "Hopi," the new variety was developed by U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers and the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station. Researchers with USDA's Agricultural Research Service developed Hopi from a cross between Schley, a commercially popular variety, and McCulley, a central Texas native variety. ARS is the chief research agency of USDA. Hopi's performance has been extensively tested and evaluated for 45 years. Yields from Hopi tree plantings are equal to Kanza and Creek, which were previously developed and released by ARS and cooperating state experiment stations. Hopi's strength is a uniform nut production from year to year, thus overcoming a main problem in pecan production: trees that bear fruit every other year. Pecans are a multimillion-dollar industry. Rural landowners in the southwest and southeast derive primary or supplemental income from growing pecan trees in orchards or woodland pastures. In 1998, U.S. pecan production was about 155 million pounds with a value of nearly $191 million. Georgia, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Louisiana are the top five pecan-producing states. Annual fall nut shows are conducted in 100 of 214 Texas counties. This year, Hopi has been a consistent winner in Texas regional and county pecan shows. Budwood and graftwood from Hopi will be available to nurseries in February 2000. USDA does not distribute trees. Plants of this release will be deposited in the National Plant Germplasm System where they will be available for research purposes. ---------- Scientific contact: Tommy E. Thompson, ARS Crop Germplasm Research Unit, College Station, Texas; phone (409) 272-1402, fax (409) 272-1401, tet@tamu.edu. ---------- This item is one of the news releases and story leads that ARS Information distributes on weekdays to fax and e-mail subscribers. You can also get the latest ARS news on the World Wide Web at http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/thelatest.htm. * Feedback and questions to ARS News Service via e-mail: isnv@ars-grin.gov. * ARS Information Staff, 5601 Sunnyside Ave., Room 1-2251, Beltsville MD 20705-5128, (301) 504- 1617, fax 504-1648. To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg". If you receive the digest format, use the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg-digest". To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "subscribe sanet-mg-digest". All messages to sanet-mg are archived at: http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail