BLYTHE - R.S. Auldridge summed up his pecan harvest with three words: "It's been better."

The 83-year-old grower - and others across the South - are gearing up for what agriculture officials say will be one of the poorest seasons on record for one of the state's most famous crops.

Georgia is the nation's leading pecan producer, accounting for 100 million to 110 million pounds in a good year and 70 million to 80 million pounds in the alternating "off years."

This year, however, the harvest forecast calls for just 45 million pounds - and possibly much less, said Duke Lane Jr., a Georgia Pecan Growers Association board member from Fort Valley.

"The crop is really short this year," he said. "It's one of the shortest, if not the shortest, in a long time."

The problems, according to Auburn University professor and pecan specialist Bill Goff, are mostly weather related.

"Foremost is the extended drought in late season of last year," Dr. Goff wrote in an October assessment for pecan growers. "The trees had a large crop last season and the rains in early season and through the nut sizing period resulted in large pecans."

Those large pecans made water needs exceptionally high during the period when nuts "fill" in late August to October, and that period coincided with a drought in most of the state.

Mr. Lane said it is unclear whether pecan prices will spike. It will be difficult, however, for pecan growers to make money this year.

Mr. Auldridge, who has 100 acres of orchards, is taking the predictions in stride, preferring to await the results of his harvest. "It's too early to tell what we got because we're just starting," he said.

Soon, his packing house will bustle with activity as pecans are cleaned, sorted, sized and boxed in four-foot crates. Then the buyers will come to purchase the fruits of his year-round labor.

"They'll pull a sample and give you a price," he said. "It ain't all gravy, I can tell you that."