Pecan

Pecan trees practice alternate bearing so predictably that orchardists plan around it. A tree producing 500 pounds of nuts one year might yield 50 pounds the next. This isn't failure - it's the tree's accounting system made visible. Nut production requires massive carbohydrate investment, and the tree simply cannot photosynthesize enough in one year to fund back-to-back heavy crops. The 'off' year is debt repayment.

What makes pecan strategic rather than merely constrained is the synchronization. Trees across a region tend to align their cycles, creating regional mast years. The mechanism involves hormonal signals triggered by nut load - heavy crops suppress flower bud formation for the following year. But trees also respond to weather cues that affect entire populations, creating loose synchronization even among unconnected individuals.

Pecan's deep taproot system - often extending 10-15 feet in the first few years - provides the resource base that makes mast seeding possible. These roots access groundwater unavailable to shallow-rooted competitors, providing drought insurance that lets pecans survive the multi-year accumulation periods between mast events. You can't fund a boom without surviving the quiet years.

The business insight is that visible output variation often masks invisible resource cycling. A company's 'slow year' might represent strategic reinvestment rather than weakness. The question isn't whether output varies, but whether the variation follows a coherent pattern of accumulation and deployment. Pecan teaches that sustainable boom-bust requires deep reserves built slowly over time.