Pecan Pollination Chart

The short answer: Pecan trees will not pollinate themselves reliably, so a lone tree sets a thin, disappointing crop. Every pecan is either Type I or Type II, and the two types shed and accept pollen on opposite schedules — start with one of each, then use the chart to confirm their bloom windows overlap. This pecan pollination chart shows exactly when each variety sheds and receives pollen, and which varieties make good partners.

40 pecan varieties · 16 carried by Food Forest Nursery (shown as green links)

Pecan pollination compatibility chart: which varieties cross-pollinate

Printable pecan pollination charts

Choose the layout that is easiest to reference. The A-Z chart makes a variety quick to find, while the Type I/II chart keeps varieties with the same flowering pattern together. Click either image or its link to open the full-resolution version.

On a phone, tap either chart to open the full-size image, then pinch to zoom and drag around it. Use the A-Z chart to find a variety quickly, or the Type I/II chart to compare flowering groups.

When do pecan trees bloom? The pecan bloom & pollen timeline

Quick answer: Pecan trees bloom in mid- to late spring — usually late April through mid-May across the Southeastern and South-Central US, a week or two earlier in the Deep South (USDA Zones 8–9) and later in the Upper South, Midwest, and Southwest (Zones 6–7). Yes, pecan trees do flower — but the pecan flowers are small and green rather than showy, so most people never notice them. Pecans are wind-pollinated: the male flowers hang in finger-like catkins that release pecan pollen (the pollen shed), while the separate female flowers — where the nuts actually form — turn receptive on their own schedule. Because a pecan tree rarely sheds its own pollen at the moment its flowers are receptive, a second, compatible variety needs to be blooming nearby. The timeline below shows exactly when each pecan variety blooms — when it sheds pollen and when it is receptive — so you can line up good partners.

Each variety has two bars: gold = pollen shed and green = pollen receptive (pistils). Where one variety's gold bar lines up under another variety's green bar, that variety can pollinate it. The colored band down the left marks each variety's flower type — peach = Type 1 (sheds first), blue = Type 2 (receptive first): pair a Type 1 with a Type 2 — their schedules are mirror images (a few same-type pairs also overlap enough to work, as the compatibility chart above shows). Green variety-name links are ones we carry — click through to the product page.

Timeline reflects typical timing for the Southeastern / South-Central US. Pecan trees bloom earlier in the Deep South and later in the Upper South, Midwest, and Southwest, but the order and the overlaps between varieties stay about the same. Shift the whole calendar to fit your area.

Printable pecan bloom timeline

Open the full-resolution timeline to compare pollen-shed and receptive dates across all 40 varieties.

Best pollinators for the varieties we sell

Quick answer for the most-asked pairings — each variety we carry, with its two or three best-matched pollinizers. Among partners that overlap equally well, the more scab-resistant one is listed first — scab is the #1 pecan disease in the humid East, so the more resistant partner is the healthier, lower-spray pick. Green names link to the product page.

A partner does not have to appear in this short list to work. Use the compatibility matrix and bloom timeline above, especially for the same-type and extreme-season exceptions explained in the preceding section.

Sources & notes

Compiled from six published pecan pollination charts: the UGA Pecan Management Guide compatibility matrix, the 2021 Georgia pollination bar chart, two university/extension pollination timelines, a nursery bloom-timing worksheet, and a regional pollen-shed/receptivity bar chart. Compatibility source: for the 23 cultivars in the UGA Pecan Management Guide matrix (which covers most of the varieties we carry), each pairing is taken directly from that published matrix; for the remaining varieties, compatibility is computed from the overlap of pollen-shed and receptive windows in the timeline above, using a rule calibrated against the UGA matrix — opposite-type timing matches UGA well, while same-type pairs use a stricter cutoff because raw timing tends to over-count same-type matches. Same-type pairings (Type I × Type I, or II × II) can still work when their bloom dates line up — the UGA matrix itself shows this — but an opposite-type partner is the more reliable default. The bloom timeline is anchored to the two calendar-dated extension charts; a few varieties that appear only in the Georgia chart were fit onto that calendar and their exact dates are approximate (their flower type and rough season are reliable). Flower types were cross-checked across all sources and agree with the timing shown. Pollination timing shifts with climate and year — every source chart carries the same caveat. Use this as a planning guide, not a guarantee.

• University of Georgia Extension: Pecan Varieties, Flowering Types, and Alternate Bearing
• Clemson Cooperative Extension: Pecan Pollination and Common Nut Problems
• University of Florida IFAS: The Pecan Tree
• Oklahoma State University Extension: Pecan Crop Load and Alternate Bearing
• University of Georgia Extension: Reasons Pecans Fail to Produce