Grafting Pecan Trees

I've been hand selecting pecans with desirable traits with the plans to sprout then plant this spring.

I started doing research and apparently I'm going about it the wrong way.

Now I need to get in the top of a couple good trees I like and prune me a few sticks.

Looks like the guy from the Dr. Pepper ten commercials.

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So February?

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Late February. Depends on how cold. When you cut, cut them 7"-8" with at lease two buds. Use candle wax to seal both ends and put them in ziplock bags. From there, throw them in your freezer till you are ready to graft.

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Why is that? To reduce time until production?

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If the seeds came from a grafted tree, there is a big chance it will grow back to a native tree.

I try to plant X amount of seeds every year from Elliot pecan trees. I then graft Elliot to the new trees that come up. Those are your best pecans by far and also bring in the most money. They start to produce around 8 years old.

It takes 3 years to produce a grafted tree for planting. You can cut that down if you have small native trees growing already by topping them and then graft them in place.

On those big pecans, those are papershell. Good for cooking with, but doesn't have much oil in them. Those trees don't like wind all that much once they get around 25 years old. Big branches will break.

If you are only looking for a few, you might just buy them. They cost around $30 each and that will save you three years.

Mean time, plant the seeds you have were you want a tree. Place the seeds in the freezer for a few weeks, plant them about 3" down in good moist ground. Cover with some leaves. Keep area moist all the time. They should come up in the spring.

You have a point about just buying them, but that doesn't guarantee what graft you get. As opposed to saying I like this tree, I'm cutting this limb out of it.

Why is grafting necessary? There obviously wasn't always grafting. Sincere question.

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When you graft you GET the exact same tree the graft came from...its part of the tree you want and all its characteristics. no chance of getting anything else.

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But I want a pecan tree.

EDIT: My question is in reference to why not plant a pecan rather than using a different root stock.

Thank you.

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Know nothing about grafting but do know that my grandfather had a tree with about 12 different types of pecans on it. Guess it was kinda of his practice tree.

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I have one tree that produces three different nuts.

I did ok with my trees from this last cold front. So far it looks like a great crop this year if we don't get any big storms. Last years crop was below 30%.