Almond hull split in progress..

Hull split is a critical stage in almond development, signaling the maturity of nuts. It also exposes nuts to various fungi and other pests. The longer the nuts remain on the tree after hull split, the longer the interval that they are exposed to invaders such as peach twig borer. You also have to watch out for complications caused by early rains.

So, harvesting your almond crop right after hull split can save you some trouble. However, this is not easy due to the complications in hull split timing. In general, ripening does not occur in all fruit simultaneously. Nuts at eye level will be less mature than those at the tree tops. Depending on the threat of pests, sometimes you may have to harvest twice. Once to remove the early ripening nuts and the second time to remove the later ripening ones.