Almond harvest of nonpareil variety at Carpenter ranch

We like what we see so far..

Raising hundred kids must be easier than growing a few acres of Candycot trees!

Wow, what a labor intensive process growing these candycots has been! It's been several weeks since the crew budded the first batch of candycots onto the rootstocks.

Since then, it has been a constant process of progressively cutting back the rootstock and encouraging the new buds. The buds were much slower in starting to grow than we were expecting causing a great deal of anxiety, but we are finally seeing some results. 

Some buds are still very tiny and just starting, but others have a few inches of growth. It is too early to determine what percent have been successfully budded, but we think and hope will be in the 80 to 90% range. 

The trees on which the buds do not "take" will continue to grow as rootstocks and we will dormant bud them this winter.

Hull split is moving along in the Nonpariel variety..

Hull split is a sign of nut maturity. Once the shell is exposed, we have to watch out for nut feeding pests like naval-orange-worms.

Hopefully we will begin shaking late next week or early the next. The trees have grown a lot this summer. I think the mild weather has helped.

PureSense system irrigation data rocks, btw!