Why bees? What exactly do they do in an almond/fruit orchard?

I get this question a lot. It is indeed a fascinating topic.

Trees are, what they call, sessile organisms. They cannot move. A male tree cannot go over to a female tree for the purpose of fertilization or vice versa.

So, they have to depend on somebody else to carry pollen (plant sperm) from one tree to another to unite it with a flower ovary. This somebody is called a "pollinator." Pollinator could be simply the wind or any insect that does this job. Bees, it turns out, are the most effective pollinators.

Each flower contains both ovary and pollen. But, pollen from a flower cannot fertilize ovaries of the same tree variety. So, the standard practice is to plant alternating rows of two compatible varieties (cultivars) so that each acts as a pollenizer for the other.

Honeybees forage for nectar and pollen in almond blossoms. They use this pollen to produce food for the queen bee and their brood (larvae) in the hive. While bees are busy doing this, pollen easily sticks to their legs and travels to a compatible variety tree where it gets rubbed off on a flower ovary when the bee is busy collecting its nectar.

Fertilized ovary at the base of a flower develops into an almond fruit with nut inside.

Here's a flower anatomy (courtesy: Brittanica)

Bees at work:

God of Lightning is a secret cook too?

Otherwise, why would he order every lightning to prepare gourmet nitrogen food for plants down below?

On average, there are 100 lightning strikes happening over the earth per second. That translates to 8,640,000 lightning strikes per day. Apparently, 80% of them are in-cloud flashes and 20% are cloud to ground flashes. And every one of those lightnings converts atmospheric nitrogen (N2) into plant consumable form of nitrogen.

During lightning, air burns at very high temperatures. This tremendous energy causes the (inert) nitrogen and oxygen in the air to combine with rain water to produce nitric and nitrous acids.

The raindrops that you stick out your tongue and catch when it is raining, believe it or not, contains these acids in very small quantities. The acids in the rain water combine with alkaline substances in the soil and form "nitrates." If that sounds like the name of a fertilizer, that's because it is.

These nitrates along with other nitrates from animal manure, bacterial action and fertilizers strengthen the plant.

Just in case you are interested in the chemistry of this, here is how meaningless equations from your chemistry classes from school take on a practical meaning in the context of farming.



Nitric oxide oxidises into nitrogen dioxide in presence of excess oxygen. Nitrogen dioxide may react with rain water to produce nitric and nitrous acids.

These acids reach the soil with rain water and combine with alkaline substances readily release the hydrogen, forming nitrate and nitrite ions.




PS: Thanks to Vihari Komaragiri for his elucidative edits on my original post.

Guess how much water is used to produce 1 lb of almonds?

Our Carpenter ranch uses 38 acre inches of water per acre per year delivered via a micro-sprinkler system. Apparently, the state average for a mature california almond farm is 39-42 acre inches per acre. This, combined with average yield numbers, it turns out:

500 gallons of water is used to produce 1 lb of almonds.

So, it's equivalent to 10 standard bathtubs of water.. Isn't that fascinating? Oh, BTW, for comparison, try this. According to PETA, it takes more than 2,400 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of meat.

Every orchard has its weak spots..

So, we are not exactly surprised to discover that candycots have some weaker areas to deal with.  We applied potassium fertilizer to the weaker areas of the Candycots because they can easily be identified now. The plan is to apply potassium to all of the trees later so the weak areas will end up with a double dose. We ll proceed to do the same with a systemic nematicide, doubling the application in the weak area.

We had a crew prune the inside portion of the Candycots a few weeks ago. We will be coming back to prune the upper growth. This is a technique we learned from John Driver. The Brittons pruned their Candycots, top and bottom, right after harvest. As a result they have a lot of new shoots to deal with. By leaving the tops on our trees, the pruning did not stimulate new shoots. I hope I am making sense..

Mature early, die late.

Think about it.. Trees mature early but die late. Humans mature late but die early.  You can quote me on that.

Look at these trees. Can you believe these are first leaf almond trees at Whitmore?

We are very thankful! This pic doesn't have a frame of reference to appreciate the fact that how fast and how tall they grew in a year.

Harvested almonds. Can someone call the huller?

These almonds have been wind-rowed. Sweeping is complete and nuts are waiting 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 pollinators 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.

Whenever trees are shaken, I feel the pain..

Remember how I unsettled I was to discover shaking of trees? If not, please read my very old  post:  http://katarufarms.blogspot.com/2007/08/almond-harvest-and-shaker-blight.html

I mean, it makes me think, "Are we stressing out the trees too much?." Anyway, harvest is going well, the weather has been ideal for harvest so far. The Wood Colony are on the ground at Carpenter and we will probably start to sweep them this weekend. We will shake Whitmore trees on Friday perhaps.

Started shaking Wood Colony variety almonds.

Very clean and smooth process so far..

Bank out cart discharging into a shuttle cart for transport to the elevator. Or say, Hauling almonds..

Wind rows at Carpenter ranch. Looks like we ll have close to the same number of loads as last year but we are squeezing an extra half cart or so into each load.

Final yield will depend on crackout (different varieties of in-shell almonds produce different kernel percentages so crackout is measured as weight-of-the-almond-kernels/weight-of-all-almonds-with-hulls-and-shells) but we are optimistic.

No, it's not a trasnformer. Or an alien.

It's a shaker. Started shaking nonpareil variety of almonds at Carpenter..

Sweeping nuts into the middle of the rows

To recap the almond harvesting process:

1. We shake the trees to ensure all nuts fall down 
2. Allow the nuts to dry on the floor for several days 
3. Sweep the nuts into windrows
4. Pick up nuts using a harvester. 

Needless to say, we pray for dry weather throughout the harvesting operation.

Inter-row space is swept clean at Whitmore 3rd leaf orchard

Mowing is one of the operations that we do in preparation for the harvesting season. The idea is to keep the inter-row space as clean as possible. Because, during harvesting, tree trunks are shaken and fallen nuts remain on the ground for a few days until they are dried sufficiently.

When splitting is actually a good thing..

Hull split on the trees. Still too many not split. They will soon. Let's hope for the best!

Heat wave accelerates hull split

In general, the more nuts are exposed to sun, the faster their hull splits. BTW, I came across this cool tool from UCDavis, named Hull Split Calculator.

When harvest is not as sweet as the fruit..

We are still very excited about the very first Candycot harvest!! No, we have no idea if this crop results in any profit at all. Harvesting costs are high and the quality of fruit looks less than desired. We have to wait to hear from the Brittons, who process and sell this fruit. There's always the next year!

To learn more about Candycots, go here: http://candycot.com .

In cross hairs: Argentine Ant

Candycots are so sweet they easily attract sugar feeding ants. So what we are doing here is: spreading ant bait coated sugar on the orchard floor. These baits act very slow and it can take up to weeks to find out if this works. On a side note, I'd really like to find out any alternatives for coming years to keep the ants away from trees, not kill them with ant bait.

A couple of pictures for my father..

When my father last visited the orchard, he asked us why we don't grow some kind of crop in the middle between tree rows. I am sure he didn't imagine a full canopy of leaves and the limited sunlight that reaches the orchard floor. Here are a couple of pics from Carpenter that show how shady things get once the trees have leafed out.

Each almond tree is like a little factory that produces carbohydrates and protein using energy from the sun. When sunlight reaches the orchard floor, then the almond trees are not capturing all the light and cannot reach their full productive potential. 

Trees are not like bartenders.

They don't like to be tipped..

Here are some pics of tipping at Whitmore 3rd leaf orchard.

Yes. It hurts to cut away branches with nuts, but they are not too many. It is important to preserve the long term structure of the tree so they will be more productive in the future. Think disciplining the children so they grow into productive adults..

Q. So what exactly is Tipping?
A. As Joyce eloquently explained, "On young trees, it is sometimes necessary to lighten the load of nuts and growth by cutting back the tips of the limbs. This helps prevent limb breakage under its own weight. It also removes limbs that hang so low they would be hit by herbicides when weeds are sprayed."

Blowout! Not in a good way..

An update from Lane: This meter box exploded seconds after starting the pump. We train our men to stand to the side of panels and electrical boxes when starting and stopping for just this reason. The explosion startled the heck out of Javier but he was unhurt. Note the hole that was blown through the panel next to the meter. The inside was completely incinerated. We could not determine the cause of the fire. Our vendor, Central Valley Pump, with cooperation from Turlock Irrigation District (our power company), got us pumping again in only 28 hours.

Impulsive behavior is not exclusive to teenagers..

You ll know what I'm talking about when you see this Candycot tree with uneven fruit density.

We never said candycot production is easy. Same tree has loads of fruit (which unfortunately will be thinned) on one branch and none on the other. Or this could be just a sign of immaturity of trees and will be bear more consistent crop in future years. We ll have to wait and see.

Let every tub stand on its own bottom..

And every tree on its own roots..

Happy to see the trees growing well at the Whitmore ranch. Today it was finally dry enough that we began to mow the weeds in the middles.

30 billion honey bees working in CA right now..

Here are some newsworthy facts about Almond Pollination from BBC.

"Californian almond pollination requires billions of honeybees travelling thousands of miles in a nationally coordinated migration operating on a scale that is almost unimaginable."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21741651

Highlights:

• A staggering 85% of the world's almonds are grown in the Central Valley; the 450-mile-long, flat-bottomed valley that dominates mid-California.

• Almond blossom appears before the leaves emerge and the resulting white and pink flowers make great swathes of the Valley look as if heavy snow has fallen.

• There are over 1.5 million hives in the Valley at this time of year. With more than 20,000 bees in each hive, this means that there are more than 30 billion honey bees in the Central Valley and all of them have been brought there to work. 

• Once there, the bees work the blossom throughout the sunny spring days, collecting nectar and pollen to raise their brood - the larvae developing within the hive - and inadvertently transferring pollen between flowers. Once pollinated, the trees set fruit and start the process of producing almonds.

Crop status: Almonds good, Candycots dud !!

The almond crop is looking good, and the prospects for decent prices remain good. Here are pictures of a Nonpareil and a Monterey tree from the Whitmore ranch.

The Candycot bloom has been a disappointment. Lane apparently talked to John who said that their bloom has been weak too. We will have some fruit, but not nearly what we had hoped for. It looks like we will be waiting another year for serious production. :(  The major training has been done so we hope the farming expenses will be much lower this year than the previous two years.

Our beekeeper has removed the bees from Carpenter, and was gracious enough to leave some at Whitmore until the Candycots finish blooming. Bee shortages are going to be a fact of life for the foreseeable future, I guess.

Trees shaking off blooms.. Petal fall accelerates..

You can see the mummies on the ground which have been swept to the center of the middles. They will need to be chopped up soon. If not, mummy nuts can be infected with pests like navel orangeworm and such.

Bloom is hanging on, not a lot of petal fall yet..

Some rain last night.. Today is cooler and cloudy but there will be some bee activity with highs in the mid 60's.

Candycot trees emerging from winter dormancy

Trees are relaxed and beginning to bloom. Too early to tell if we have any production this year.

"I said to the almond tree, 'Friend, speak to me of God,' ..

And the almond tree blossomed." 

--Nikos Kazantzakis.

Carpenter bloom.

Almond bloom.. Discussing bee colonies.. Most expensive ever.