Whiddon
A named pecan cultivar.
The record
- Parentage
- not recorded
- Origin
- University of Georgia pecan breeding programme · Tifton, Georgia · patent issued 2018
- Rights
- patented — US Plant Patent PP29,316, issued 29 May 2018 to the University of Georgia. Check the current term before propagating.
- Scab
- High resistance, described as superior to ‘Desirable’
- Nut
- Large, with very large kernels of excellent colour and no speckling
- Bearing
- Consistent, in small fruit clusters
- Harvest
- Moderately early
Description
One of three University of Georgia releases — with ‘Tanner’ and ‘Huffman’ — put forward as replacements for ‘Desirable’ with better scab resistance.
The patent language is worth reading for what it selects on: kernel colour and the absence of speckling. Those are grading criteria, not growing ones. A shelled pecan is sold on appearance as much as on weight, and a cultivar that comes out of the shell bright and unmarked prices above one that does not. Breeding programmes serve the market that pays them, and the traits recorded in a patent are a fair description of what that market rewards.
Where to find it
No source recorded. That does not mean the cultivar is unavailable, only that this record does not yet name a nursery carrying it. Point us at one and it goes in.