Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it.

Salvador Dali

but this nut came close

There is a lot going on in this picture. Once again, lacewing eggs are evident (the little white dots suspended above the hull). The leaves on this fruiting spur are drying up. The culprit here is "hull rot" which is caused by several fungi that thrive on the fleshy moist hull and create a toxin that kills the spur, and often the wood several inches back from the spur. A close look at the shell below the open hull shows a split in the shell that an ant can walk through to the meat, or a newly hatched NOW larvae could walk through to gain access to the meat. Nonpareil, the most popular almond, is notorious for having a poorly sealed shell. I think I see rust fungi forming on the underside of the dying leaves.

Here is a nut at early hull split. I was happy to see that many of the nuts had one or more lacewing eggs on them. Lacewing larvae are generalized predators and I expect they would eat the egg of a navel orangeworm or a newly hatched worm.  The lacewing egg is laid at the tip of a very fine stalk.

Wednesday evening I attended a "Water Summit" at the Gallo Center for the Arts. The event was sponsored by the Modesto Bee newspaper. Each of the five panelists brought knowledge of lifetimes spent dealing with water issues in California,  I had ideas about many of the topics discussed, but the information shared expanded my understanding of the complexity of the issues. The event was very well attended with a "full house". At the end of the summit, the panelists agreed that we need to pursue an "all of the above" effort in solving our water supply issues including conservation, additional large and small scale surface storage, underground storage, recharging aquifers, more efficient and extensive transport and desalination. Here is a link to a story in today's Bee about the event. Valley Water Summit

It is the 4th of July and I am organizing the many photographs I have taken over the last several months. These pictures were taken last January.  As we endure the 100 + degree days of a typical valley summer, it is with some longing that I remember the cool winter day when this train passed by a pumping station under construction.

These nuts are at the early stages of hull split. I can find an occasional open hull, but mostly on the edges of orchards. Very hot days are predicted for the next week so I expect hull split will progress rapidly.

These fifth-leaf almond trees are looking good. The subjective crop estimate (essentially a phone survey of growers guesses) is due out in about a week. My opinion of the crop is that it is good, but not as good as last years. The subjective estimate is always highly anticipated and makes for interesting conversations and market reactions once it is released.

HAIL! Two weeks ago, on April 7, we enjoyed the gift of about a half inch of rain, a blessing in this very dry year (more on that later). Sadly for a few growers, the rain came in the form of hail.

Hail is very random in nature and fortunately it did not hit any of our orchards. In this picture, sent from a friend, the hail on the ground looked like snow.

 A young vineyard shows the effects of hail, scarring of the young shoots and tattered leaves. These pictures were taken two weeks after the hail storm so there has been some regrowth, but the signs of the earlier damage are evident.

I heard that a few almond growers suffered losses to the hail, but not widespread.

From whence our water cometh. NOT! The view of the Sierra crest from the valley would typically be all white with snow in February. This year the view is mostly of exposed granite. So sad. "Big" rains are forecast to hit us this weekend. I hope the meteorologists are right this time.

Nonpareil flower buds on Monday Feb 2, 2015

Most of the Nonpareil in our area are at the early green tip stage of development at this time. A few extra-early varieties such as NePlus and Sonora are in pink bud.

 The rain, fog, and generally moist conditions have loosened the mummies and now is a great time to pole them out. Removal of mummies, referred to as orchard sanitation, is the most important activity we do for Navel Orangeworm suppression. The mummies are the overwintering site for the larvae of NOW

WONDERFUL FOG!

Now that the rain has stopped for a while, hopefully we will get lots of this stuff. The fog we used to complain about has made a return, and I've heard few complaints. The fog acts as a cold blanket over the area and it helps the dormant fruit and nut trees accumulate chilling hours. With enough chilling, the trees are able to produce a more vigorous and uniform bloom.