Wind-rowed Wood Colony variety almonds.

The sweepers have done their job and these nuts are ready to be picked up. We will do some hand raking ahead of the pickup machine to gather in any strays.

Nonpareil harvest is finished and we have been harvesting pollenators for a while. I think there are about three more weeks of harvest for us if the weather continues to cooperate. Unfortunately, rain is a possibility next week. Let's hope the forecast changes.

                                                                                      

Here is a tree surrounded by healthy trees that appears to be drying up. The leaves wilting as though they have no water.










Pulling the soil from the base of the trees it does appear dry, but a clue to the problem is a tiny gumball exuding from the bark.              

Crown Rot

Cutting away the surface bark reveals gummy brown (dead) wood at the crown of the tree. This is classic Phytophthora Root and Crown rot caused by a fungus. The top of the tree appears drought stressed because the fungus has cut off flow of water from the roots to the leaves.  The rot is a result of excess water that has caused the roots to become stressed from oxygen deprivation and unable to ward off infection by this ubiquitous soil fungi.

This tree happens to be in a low swale and water has accumulated in the soil around it. This is especially a challenge in the foothills where irrigating enough for the hilltops can cause problems for trees in the low spots.

Nonpareil harvest continues. Up the elevator the nuts go and into the trailer for a trip to the huller. So far yields are in line with expectations (good) and quality looks excellent. I have not seen a worm or ant damaged nut yet from our farms. The kernels are averaging smaller in size than last year and this is what I am hearing is the norm from the hullermen I have spoken with. Nonpareil harvest will continue for about another week for us.

On Tuesday (8/13) we started sweeping nuts into windrows at our earliest maturing orchard.

Yikes! Our baby trees are getting a load of dust from our neighbors cultivation activity. Mites seem to thrive in a dusty environment. Fortunately we just finished treating these trees for mites so I think they will be OK. We need to continue to monitor for mites in all the orchards well into September.

To my growers: This is NOT your orchard!!

This is an orchard next to one we farm. Ownership changed hands two years ago and that is how long it took to create an unmitigated disaster. Because of inadequate irrigation, these nuts stopped developing and should have been harvested weeks ago.  A random sample of Nonpareil nuts reveal a Navel Orangeworm infestation of 40%!!!  At a high point in the almond industry when there is money to be made, these owners apparently decided to "save" money on cultural costs and their result will be a huge economic loss.

Some of the obvious bad decisions in this situation are:

No winter sanitation program; We spend a lot of money every year destroying unharvested nuts, or "mummies", this is where Navel Orangeworm larvae overwinter. By destroying the mummies we begin each season with a smaller resident population.

Inadequate Irrigation;  The result is smaller, shriveled nuts that weigh less and will be hard to market.

Untimely harvest; The worm damage would be less if they had been harvested when ready two or more weeks ago.

Pre Harvest "Wind Falls" from lack of water

Start of Shaking - 7 Aug 2013

We started shaking this years crop yesterday, Wednesday Aug 7.  Nut removal is very good and we may not need to follow with a poling crew here.  Due to variations in soil type, age, and location all the orchards do not mature at the same time.  Now that we have started, we will be shaking Nonpareil, the first variety to mature, for about the next two weeks.

Nonpareil just starting to split

When looking at the high percentage of hull split in trees on the edges of orchards it is easy to get excited and think that harvest is just a few days away.  However, you do not have to venture far from the edge to find that there are plenty of Nonpareil that have barely begun to split. We have to wait until nearly all of the nuts are ready to shake or we will leave too many behind. At the same time, early harvest will take the nuts out of potential harm from worms or weather. When to begin shaking is a judgement call that needs to be evaluated often as the nuts mature.

Mowing can be a very dusty operation, especially in a drip irrigated orchard where sprinklers do not moisten the soil. The result is a clean surface to harvest from and the weeds will not grow again since the hoses have been moved to the tops of the berms. These are 3rd leaf trees.

One of our irrigation systems developed an infestation of slime bacteria. I collected this amber colored debris (bacterial masses) in a water bottle by flushing several drip tubing lines.

We injected chlorine into the system to kill the bacteria.  Here Eduardo is checking the chlorine levels at the far end of the irrigation system.

This is one of three fox pups who, along with their mother (such a vixen!), have made themselves at home living under a storage shed.  Look out rats and mice!

Hull split is progressing very rapidly. These nuts are further along than most because they are on an outside tree with sun exposure, but the rest of the nuts will be at this stage soon. The extreme heat last week accelerated split. We are applying sprays to protect the opening nuts from Navel Orangeworm and Peach Twig Borer.