Harvest is in full swing in our area. The sound of shakers can be heard everywhere and a lot of nuts are on the ground. Here we are picking up wind-rowed Nonpareil. The yield of the first orchard we completed was improved from last year and in this one it looks like it will be about the same as last year. Interestingly, our hullerman is reporting that so far, most local growers are picking up fewer loads than last year. We will know much more about yields in a couple weeks.

We started shaking Monday, 7/28/2014, about 2 weeks earlier than average. Nut removal is pretty good, a few too dry, and a few green, so we hit the timing about right. This orchard is our earliest to mature every year, and a good producer.

BLANKS! Sometimes a nut appears to be maturing normally, but inside, things are not going well. Usually these "nuts" are the first to split. When the shell in opened to inspect the nut, it is like getting a fortune cookie with a little note that says "no fortune here"!
My impression is that there are far fewer blanks this year than typical.

With a quick look at many almond trees it appears that we should be shaking in just a few days. An early start would be great to get the nuts out of harms way (especially with all the talk of El Nino possibly bringing rain in September).

A closer look at the interior of this same tree reveals that there are many unopened nuts and that harvest is further off than the first impression would lead us to believe.  This orchard may be ready toward the end of next week, about July 25. We just have to keep checking and wait until they are ready.

The almond crop is maturing earlier than usual, by close to two weeks. I took this picture on the third of July as we were applying the last of the hull split spray to this block. We finished the last of the Nonpareil blocks today. The hull split spray protects the opening nuts from Peach Twig Borer and Navel Orangeworm.

 The slightest hint of separation along the suture line is an indication that hull split is not far off. I think we will be seeing hull split before the end of June. That would be earlier than average but not highly unusual.

It is great to see vigorous new growth on these eight year old trees in addition to carrying a good size crop. We are blessed to have had adequate water so far this year.

 CandyCots are getting ripe so it is time for harvest!

Each fruit is selected for ripeness and hand picked. Over a two or three week time period, about 5 picking passes will be made across the orchard. It is a lot of walking and looking and is tiring work.

The fruit is placed into "totes" which are lined with plastic film to nest each individual fruit. Each harvester has to make important decisions about ripeness and quality. Bird damaged, insect damaged, and cracked fruit is discarded in the field. As the totes are filled they are placed into a refrigerated truck for transport to the packing shed.

A tote full of fruit (and a camera) brings out the smiles!

Here the entire crew of 10 meets with their boss, the farm labor contractor. I am very pleased with this crews sustained efforts at doing a quality job.

After all the ripe fruit is picked, a day or two are spent waiting for the remaining fruit to mature. These days are spent productively with pruning. The pruning will help expose the interior wood to sunlight to promote fruitfulness next year. It also allows sunlight to penetrate the interior of the trees to hasten the ripening of the remaining fruit.

The CandyCot packing shed is busy this time of year!

What beautiful days we have had this week! Highs in the 70's and puffy white clouds. Not to worry though, we will be in the 90's by this weekend. Nice to have a break though.

             Bob Curtis, Danielle Veenstra, Robbie Commens

Today, Bob Curtis and Danielle Veenstra of the Almond Board of California hosted several farm visits for Robbie Commens, Productivity Development Officer of the Australian Macadamia Society. His intent is to find practices used in almond production that might apply to macadamias. I found it very interesting to hear of their production challenges. He stated that the California Almond industry is admired worldwide for our nutrition and production research and our information transfer to the farm level. He is right, we're the best!

FARMING IN THE FOOTHILLS
No Easy Task

Recently a heavy disk loosened the soil. Here, Ernesto is doing some skilled tractor driving to scrape the soil flat behind the disk. He had to deal with sideways drift of the scraper due to side-fall on the hillsides.

Eduardo is following the scraper with our heavy roller to push the cobbles down into the soil and create a flat surface. The roller will be used repeatedly because cobbles tend to "float" to the surface as the clay in the soil expands and contracts with moisture.

The end product is a flat surface that is satisfactory for nut farming. Rock removal will be an enduring project on this land. In this picture you can clearly see that we are dealing with different soil types. Unfortunately, cobbles are characteristic of both soils.

This is Alex McCloud of Band It Spreading Service. He is a local entrepreneur who designed a machine to place precise amounts of dry fertilizers around the base of young trees. The steady growth of the tree fruit and nut industries has kept his small fleet of machines busy for many years.

We used to scatter fertilizer in young trees by hand, but the scarcity and cost of labor created an opportunity for Alex. Here he is scattering fertilizer at the base of each tree. He also has machines that will place the fertilizer in bands at the tree base. Our next irrigation will dissolve the fertilizer and carry it into the root zone.

Almond orchards provide habitat for many species of wildlife. Here is a dove nest in the crotch of a tree. Did you know that doves mate for life and have a life span of up to 10 years?