The Party's Over! Time for the bees to go home. The rain which began last Friday (2/28) brought an abrupt end to bloom. Some late varieties are hanging on, but the weather has not been conducive for bee activity. Locally we received about an inch of rain which fell over three days. The South state received more rain, but much of it arrived in heavy downpours.

Bloom is beginning to wind down in most orchards. The color green is appearing more each day as petals fall and leaves begin to expand. The trees here with the least amount of bloom are Nonpareil and the still-blooming variety is Wood Colony.

In both of these photographs the sky is bright blue. We have enjoyed a run of fantastic weather for bloom with sunny warm days. The forecast is for several days of rain beginning today. No one is complaining. We have had time to set a crop and California desperately needs the water.

                                                                                                                              

 

This bee is focused on collecting pollen and was oblivious to my camera.

Petal Fall ?

Every year brings something new to ponder. On a very widespread basis, I am seeing petals falling before the trees have reached full bloom. Why this is happening and what it means are unanswered questions at this time.

 Almonds are part of the Rose family of plants (Rosaceae).  This year almond farmers are getting millions of dozens of roses for Valentines day!

Almond "Roses"

Working Bee

14 Feb 2014

This picture is of the same orchard that I photographed 2 and 4 days ago. Bloom is moving right along here. Good bee activity. Moderate temperatures.

This is another orchard also photographed on Feb. 14. There is a lot of variation between orchards as far as bloom timing this year.  Sometimes orchards all seem to "pop" at once but not this year.

Feb 10, 2014

  What a Difference a Day Makes!

Well, OK, actually two days. These two pictures were taken about 48 hours apart so you can see that bloom progresses rapidly when the weather is warm. This is also a young orchard exhibiting "youthful vigor". It is a few days ahead of our older orchards.

Feb 12, 2014

Here are rows very close to the previous photo and of the same two varieties, Nonpareil (most blossoms) and Fritz. Nice day today, the bees were very active. I'm sure each of the few open blossoms was visited several times.

First Fog of Winter 2013-14

The rain we had over the last week or so (only about 1") has provided some badly needed drought relief and has set up conditions for our first fog of winter. Typically November and December are our foggy months.

Note that bloom is still a week or so away.

26 Feb 2013

 This image was taken almost one year ago on Feb 26, 2013. The bud development looks similar to the next image taken today, Feb. 10, 2014.

It appears that this year the bloom will be about two weeks earlier than it was last year.

Earlier bloom timing can mean more risk of frost.

10 Feb 2014

The bees are in place and appear anxious for the blossom festivities to be underway.

Machine shaking mummies is the alternative to hand poling. It is more economical when there are a lot of mummies, if they are difficult to remove, or the trees are so tall that poling is impractical. The severity of the shake can be adjusted to match the energy required to remove the nuts. Usually winter shaking is less vigorous than at harvest time. This year we are lucky that the nuts are easily removed despite the dry conditions. Often nuts are difficult to remove unless they are saturated with water from rain or fog.

Poling Mummies

January is the month to remove mummies (nuts that were not removed from the trees at the most recent harvest).  Mummies are the overwintering site for Navel Orange Worm (NOW). Mummy removal is the most important worm control activity of the year. In orchards where there are not too many mummies and if they are easy to remove, hand poling is an economical approach. Sadly, notice the lack of weed growth here. Since my rainy day post of November 20, 2013 we have had no rain, and none is in the forecast. The awful "D" word is heard every day, Drought. More on that later.

Elvauating the island near Hana...too steep for almonds

Where have I been? Your Almondfarmer recruited the family to help evaluate Maui as a place to grow almonds. Unfortunately we found the island to be wholly unsuitable for almond farming. Steep terrain, sea breezes, lack of chilling and nearly continuous pleasant conditions are just some of the impediments. The trip was not a total loss however since we discovered it may be a nice place to vacation and we hope to return some day with less focus on work.