# Northern Pecan (Carya illinoinensis)

> Northern-adapted pecan from the upper reaches of its range, ripening thin-shelled nuts in short seasons.

Also called hardy pecan. Category: Nut & Fruit Trees. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/pecan/

![Large pecan (Carya illinoinensis) with a broad green crown in summer beside a park drive under a blue sky](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/pecan-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: James St. John, CC BY 2.0, cropped · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carya_illinoinensis_%28pecan_tree%29_1_%2824790682337%29.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Large tree
- Mature height: 70 to 100 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 5 to 9
- Grows wild in: Floodplain forests
- Native range: 14 states, north to [Iowa](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IA), south to [Louisiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=LA), east to [Ohio](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OH) and west to [Texas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TX) ([Alabama](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AL), [Arkansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AR), [Illinois](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IL), [Indiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IN), [Iowa](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IA), [Kansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KS), [Kentucky](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KY), [Louisiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=LA), [Mississippi](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MS), [Missouri](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MO), [Ohio](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OH), [Oklahoma](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OK), [Tennessee](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TN) and [Texas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TX)). Also recorded, not native, in [Florida](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=FL), [Georgia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=GA), [Maryland](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MD), [North Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NC), [South Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=SC) and [Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VA)
- Sun: Full
- Soil moisture: Average, Wet
- Growth rate: Medium
- Flowers: March to May
- Fruit: Nuts, September to October
- First crop: About 10 years (10 to 20 in natural stands)
- Mature spread: 75 ft
- Traits: Edible, Wildlife value, Street tree
- Sold as: Saplings, Nuts

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

## Availability

Saplings ship [bare-root](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/planting-bare-root-trees-on-arrival/index.html.md) or [in a pot](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/a-sapling-in-a-pot/index.html.md), [usually 12 to 18 inches tall](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-sapling-or-big-transplant/index.html.md), in the dormant season, and their [height and age](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/reading-a-nursery-listing/index.html.md) are stated with the price, once available. Live plants ship February to May and October to November. Not priced yet: leave an email on the web page for one email when it is priced, with a code for 10% off the plants in that order, not shipping or tax, or write to captain@bluewhaletrees.com.

In bundles: Native Edible Orchard.

## Notes

Pecans from Iowa, Illinois and Missouri river bottoms mature nuts in seasons too short for southern varieties. The nuts are smaller but sweeter. A pecan wants deep, moist, fertile soil and a lot of space, and it repays that with a massive, long-lived tree and a nut crop for the grandchildren. Plant two for pollination. It can also line a city street. Belongs on a bottomland field or in a pasture, where cattle can graze in its shade.

## Size, growth and what to expect

On loamy soils a young pecan may average 35 inches of height growth a year for several years. That is well above the foot and a half a year our growth estimator assumes for a medium tree. A northern pecan becomes a very large tree of 70 to 100 feet and 40 to 75 feet wide. Trees begin to decline at 60 to 200 years.

Trees in natural stands begin bearing at 10 to 20 years, with good crops every 1 to 3 years, and a tree can still bear at 300 years. The nuts run about 100 to 160 to the pound. Male catkins and female flowers open at different times on one tree, so pollen from a second tree within 250 feet sets the crop. Squirrels, turkeys, deer, raccoons and many birds take the nuts.

It grows wild in the lower Mississippi Valley, west to eastern Kansas and central Texas, east to western Tennessee and north into Iowa bottomlands, on deep alluvial loam.

## How to grow Northern Pecan

A northern pecan wants full sun and deep, moist ground that does not bake dry in summer. Bottomland soil is ideal, and it puts up with spring floods, but any deep soil will do. It becomes a huge, wide-crowned tree, so keep it 40 feet from the house, other trees and power lines.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant a sapling while dormant, from leaf drop until buds swell. Pecan sends down a long taproot in its first year, so keep that root straight and unbroken. Dig the hole wider than the roots but no deeper, set the root flare at grade, backfill with the soil you took out, and stake only if wind rocks it. Sow nuts in fall an inch or two deep under hardware cloth, or squirrels will dig every one.

Water weekly through the first summer when rain fails, keep a wide mulch ring off the trunk, and tube the stem against rabbits and deer for three years. Top growth is slow at first while the root goes down.

Pecans set nuts best with a second, unrelated tree nearby, because the male and female flowers on one tree open at different times. Seedling trees bear in roughly ten years.

## Sources

- [USDA Forest Service, Silvics of North America, Pecan](https://research.fs.usda.gov/silvics/pecan)
- [Iowa State University Extension, Pecan](https://naturalresources.extension.iastate.edu/forestry/iowa_trees/trees/pecan.html)
- [Kansas State University, Growing Pecans in Kansas, MF-1025](https://bookstore.ksre.ksu.edu/download/growing-pecans-in-kansas_MF1025)
- [Virginia Tech Dendrology: pecan, Carya illinoinensis](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=198)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Carya illinoinensis](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=CAIL2)
- [Illinois Wildflowers (John Hilty): Pecan, Carya illinoiensis](https://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/trees/plants/pecan.htm)
- [USDA Fire Effects Information System: Carya illinoinensis](https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/plants/tree/carill/all.html)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008), Carya chapter](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Carya.pdf)
- [USDA NRCS Plant Guide: Pecan, Carya illinoinensis](https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/plantguide/pdf/pg_cail2.pdf)
- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Carya illinoinensis](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/carya-illinoinensis/)
- [Missouri Department of Conservation field guide: Pecan](https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/pecan)
- [The Morton Arboretum: Pecan, Carya illinoinensis](https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/pecan/)
- [Flora of North America, vol. 3: Carya illinoinensis](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=210000185)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Carya illinoinensis, Pecan](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.140348/Carya_illinoinensis)
- [University of Illinois Extension, Technical Forestry Bulletin NRES-502: Maximum Tree Age & Longevity, J. C. Hayek, updated May 2019](https://extension.illinois.edu/sites/default/files/maximum_tree_age_and_longevity.pdf)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [A native food forest: the layers and the species](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/a-native-food-forest/index.html.md)
- [Native fruit and nut trees to grow and eat: what each bears, when it starts, and which need a partner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-fruit-and-nut-trees/index.html.md)
- [Six trees not to plant near a house, and what to plant instead](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/trees-not-to-plant-near-a-house/index.html.md)

## Related

- We grow 12 other hickories (Carya): [all of them](https://bluewhaletrees.com/shop/index.html.md?q=carya)
- Plants that share its sun and soil: [Nuttall Oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/nuttall-oak/index.html.md), [Sugarberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/sugarberry/index.html.md), [Water Hickory](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/water-hickory/index.html.md) and [Overcup Oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/overcup-oak/index.html.md)
- Under its canopy: [Pawpaw](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/pawpaw/index.html.md), [Virginia Sweetspire](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/virginia-sweetspire/index.html.md) and [Spicebush](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/spicebush/index.html.md)
- Same size, similar character: [Shagbark Hickory](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/shagbark-hickory/index.html.md), [Shellbark Hickory (Kingnut)](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/shellbark-hickory/index.html.md), [Mockernut Hickory](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/mockernut-hickory/index.html.md) and [American Basswood (Linden)](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-basswood/index.html.md)
- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Northern Pecan, add ?species=pecan with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address; for example, the verdict for zone 5, part sun and average soil as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=pecan&zone=5&sun=part&moisture=average
- [Companion species for Northern Pecan](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=pecan): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Transplant planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/transplant/index.html.md?species=pecan): whether Northern Pecan can be moved and what the move takes, the root ball, its weight, who can move it and the months, as Markdown at that address (add caliper= or height=, month= 1 to 12 and soil= sandy, loam or clay)
- [Tree growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate for Northern Pecan as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=pecan (add height=, years= and site= poor, average or good)
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Northern Pecan is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan for it as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=pecan (add state= and zone= for your own frost dates, method=fridge for the refrigerator route)
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Northern Pecan needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the verdict for 2 of them as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=pecan:2
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant Northern Pecan where you live, as a fall and a spring window from the local frost dates; the windows as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=pecan&state=MO&zone=6 with your own state and zone in place of those
- [Planting-distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md): how far Northern Pecan goes from a house, a septic field, a walk, wires, a property line and the next tree; the distances as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=pecan&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Northern Pecan flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species; its own row and the gaps of a planting with it as Markdown at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=pecan