Saturday, February 27, 2010

Latest research: Stop pruning your almond trees!

"Many of us grew up believing in the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, but at some point in our childhood we realized they were just fairy tales. As difficult as it may be, grown men will someday have to realize the same thing about pruning their almond orchards." Says this research article authored by our friend, Prof. Roger Duncan.

http://cestanislaus.ucanr.edu/files/111772.pdf

Highlights:

  • The notion that almond trees need to be pruned every year to increase or sustain yields appears to be just flat wrong. 
  • Past and current University of California trials suggest that growers are not getting a return on their pruning investment. In fact, the numbers suggest the opposite: the more growers prune, the more they may reduce their yields and profits, even in the long term. 
  • I know that the “need” to prune almonds is so deeply ingrained in our brains that it may be difficult to change our ways. However, the scientific evidence is now so compelling that it is hard to ignore. 
  • Orchards older than 10 years should not be pruned for the purpose of sustaining yields, period. Realistically, almond orchards have to be pruned a little on occasion for reasons other than yield. Limbs that are dead, broken or diseased, or are safety hazards for equipment operators have to be removed. 
  • Conclusion: A good compromise may be to train the trees during the first two years (to reduce scaffold splitting and safety pruning in later years) and then abandon pruning in later years.


Thursday, February 25, 2010

Final bloom update.

After the morning fog burned off about 10 am, it was a pretty fair bee-day today. Pics taken at 11:30 am and there is already a lot of bee activity.

 Petals are beginning to fall, especially Nonpariel, also notice the amount of water on the ground. There are still a few more days for pollination to occur.

Based on Lane's conversation with Blue Orchard Bee apiculturist, these bees are very effective pollinators and are active at cooler temperatures than honeybees. There are challenges in managing them, but people are learning how. I think we will supplement the honeybees with them next year if he is successful in increasing the size of his bee population. 

They are solitary bees, not social.



Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Cloudy with a chance of honey balls (get it? :)

Here's the deal with bees: Bees do not fly when the air temperature is below 55 degree F.  Neither do they come out when the wind velocity is above 12 mph. Any signs of rain shut them off as well.

Tues morning was cool and cloudy with no bee activity but around noon it cleared up to mostly cloudy but with some sunshine (temp 50's). The bees took advantage of the opportunity and were very active. We are so glad we have strong colonies that can take good advantage of the limited pollination time that we have had. 

The trees will be blooming for several more days, hopefully?  One of the attached pictures shows the Monterey with some unopened blossoms remaining. The Nonpariel are on the later half of their bloom time.





Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Rain rain go away.. Come again another day..

By this time, you probably guessed how crucial bees are for almond crop. So bees decided not to come out on Monday morning (who likes Monday mornings, right?). but the afternoon cleared up and the bees were very active. But again they took leave of absence on Tuesday, as it was cool and cloudy in the morning and raining all afternoon. 

Lane says this is one of those very wet years that we periodically have to endure with almonds since they bloom in the middle of winter! A wet spring is not unusual with an El Nino event in the Pacific ocean. We are glad we decided to purchase crop insurance. :)

Look at these gorgeous bloom pictures.


Monday, February 22, 2010

Bees are not happy about the rain. We are not happy about the bees.

There was not yet much bloom overlap between varieties, although in some areas the pollinators were more advanced than others. Saturday was very cool but there was some bee activity in the afternoon. Sunday it rained all day, zero bee activity. Not happy.

It is sunny but cool, however the bees are getting out this afternoon.



Sunday, February 14, 2010

Spreading the irrigation tubing complete. Hoping everything goes well..

The tubing in the cots has an orange stripe to differentiate it from the tubing for the almonds. The space between the emitters is different for the two different crops because of the different row spacing.



The mobile home is gone! Have to find a replacement at a reasonable price.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Honeybee, Oh, Honeybee.. Thy wings are so dear..

Yep!

We are happy with the bees that got delivered this year. They are much more active than the colonies we have received in the past. It was a good switch to this other bee keeper. Good call, Lane!. I don't know how he does, but Lane is very good at sensing the mood of the bees, based on buzzing. :)

Bloom will be getting started next week!? This is a picture of a Nonpariel bud.




Waiting for bloom.. Root stock in for candycots.

Dormant season activities like – the removal of mummy nuts that remain on the tree after the last harvest – is very important. Otherwise, those mummy nuts are a loud and open invitation for nut feeding insets that just hang around the trees and damage next crop.

Dormant trees, without leaves, allow for better coverage of any necessary sprays. Spraying during the dormant season means you are less likely to harm beneficial insects.

Carpenter ranch:





Whitmore ranch:




Monday, February 1, 2010

Almond orchard is resting.. Whitmore has tons of work ahead..

BTW, almond trees are one of the first to blossom. If you carefully look in the first pic, you can see tons of buds ready to break out into flowers anytime now.

Carpenter ranch:

Whitmore ranch: