I live in East Tennessee near Knoxville, and I've just planted two pecan trees - Kanza and Peruque. I wanted just one pecan tree, but decided to make sure that the variety I have could cross pollinate. I got the Peruque as a pollinator but I'm sure the many Blue Jays and squirrels on my property (where they raid the existing black cherries and hickory nuts) will steal all the soft nuts. I'm hoping to get a taste of Peruque once in a while but I'm counting on the Kanza to produce for me in about 6 years. My soil is pretty heavy in clay, so I'm not sure if they'll do ok or live long enough for me to see the day of the harvest. I've got the potted grafted trees through Stark Bros, and they looked tiny but they were healthy. I've also got 4 other bareroots (3 Asian Pears and 1 Almond) from Star Bros along with the Pecans, and they're all budding well. I'm pretty happy with the purchases given all the varieties I was able to get along with a free shipping promo. This post was edited by bluema on Wed, May 22, 13 at 13:53

hey mike.. i could never get away with that in my sandy soil ... in MI the rotting wood leaches all available moisture from the near sand... and they become so dry by about this time of year ... they arent even rotting ... unless they are dry rotting ... most of the rotting in my MI ... is spring and fall when there is ambient moisture ... i could never grow anything.. IN the stump ... unless i was willing to water it every single day ... [again ... big garden vs small garden dilemma] trees i cut when i moved here 14 years ago ... are just to the point of rotting to the point where i can kick off the exposed part ..... with 5 months of ground freeze .. and the dryness of july/august ... thats not a lot of rot months per year ... comparing to mike in the PNW ... i am often amazed at how different it all is ... heck.. up the UP of MI ... there are still stumps from the clear cut at the turn of the 20th century ... 1900s ... and they are colder than i am ... but they have the same sand that i have 350 miles south .... thank you mr glacier .... [ever wonder about the global warming.. that made the glaciers recede 10,000 years ago ... one thing for sure.. it wasnt my fault] but i digress ken

UF did an 11 year study of 26 pecan cultivars in North Florida and their top three recommendations are Elliot, Moreland, and Sumner. This is the best link I could find on the subject, with many charts about performance, etc. Unfortunately, it only lists pollination type, and does not have a cultivar pollination compatibility chart. The pollination charts from UGA and LSU have conflicting info, so the lack of a pollination chart for our area is definitely a need it would be great to have filled. For instance, UGA says Elliot would be a perfect pollinator for Moreland, but they are both Type II (protogynous,) so how does that work? Here is a link that might be useful: Pecan Cultivars for North Florida

The leaning makes me think maybe it is root-bound from having been left too long in a pot years before having been planted where it is now. This is a very common occurrence that seems therefore likely to be involved when an established tree develops such problems. If it were mine I would carefully dig down a bit to look and see if there is a girdling root below the rotting area. In what is perhaps a similar situation friends had a long established snake-bark maple pinch itself off on one side after many years in place. The section of trunk directly above the clearly visible, above ground constricting root (it looked like a boa or python wrapped around prey) turned black and oozing once things got to that point. And the tree's crown began to decline - so they cut it down. This was too bad as it was a somewhat unusual tree right off the corner of their wrapping deck.