Drought Stress?

I mentioned in my most recent post that we are continuing to irrigate due to the lack of rain. But not all appearances of drought stress are necessarily due to lack of water. Although the trees in this orchard appear thirsty, they are really dropping leaves due to a late infestation of Rust disease (a fungus).

Rust

Rust disease has been a challenge during the last few years. This year, one application of fungicide kept the disease down before and through harvest. This late season infestation is a reminder that we will need to be on the lookout for it again in 2014.

Drip Irrigation with well water

It is almost mid November and we are still irrigating! We've had no rain and the trees continue to use water during the mild days (70's) we are having.

The drip tubing was secured at the top of the berms to be safely out of the way during harvest.  We leave the tubing there until spring. This keeps them secure while we sweep the mummies to where they can be destroyed by a mower.

Where we do not have access to well water, some of the trees are experiencing stress and beginning to drop leaves. This is the kind of leaf drop we might want from cold temperatures this time of year, not from lack of water. We definitely need rain!

Getting ready for a pre-plant fumigation with Telone. A lot of specialized equipment is involved. Fumigation reduces soil nematode populations and is important for reduction of Replant Disorder, an ill-defined soil condition that stunts new trees.

This is the GPS-guided tractor that will inject the fumigant into the soil. This rig is set up to "know" where each tree will be planted and apply fumigant in about a 10 ft. square at each tree site. This is a trial run and researchers will measure the concentration of fumigant surrounding each tree site to test the application accuracy.

Fumigants are tightly regulated and county biologists were on site to be sure all safety and regulatory requirements were being met. Pictured are Melanie Fisher (Stanislaus Co.), Kraig Williams (TriCal, Inc.), Anna Genasci (Stanislaus Co.), and Matt Gilis (researcher with TriCal, Inc.)

Almondfarmer with pilot Kevin Morgan Smith of Hawke Ag Aviation (aerial ag applications, Oakdale, 209-765-6762) next to the Cessna 150 that Kevin used to take me up for some aerial photographs. Kevin did a great job of flying, giving me lots of opportunities for pictures and made a smooth landing for a safe return

Aerial pictures allow us to clearly see weaker areas of an orchard. We can investigate what those areas will need to become more robust. In this picture a weak area is apparent where a hill top was removed. We can test what nutrients are deficient and supplement those areas.

WOO HOO! Almond harvest 2013 is complete for us as of today! No more nuts in the field!

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.