What's Happening on the Farm

OK…maybe not snow… but it sure looks like it.  In a few days these trees will be completely green and the bloom period will be finished.  The fertilized blooms are beginning to mature into almonds and the others are falling to the ground.  It will take four to five months for the blooms to transform into an almond and the…

Here is a before and after picture of the same branch.  There are six blooms visible in the first picture and only three in the second.  The three that dropped were most likely damaged in the freeze and fell off with just a slight touch.  The final picture is of the ground directly below the tree and you can see…

After all this talk about pollen tubes, embryos, and freeze damage, I though it would be a good idea to pull it all together.  Below is a picture of two blooms with the petals pulled off and the small almond exposed.  The bloom on the left side, failed to pollinate while the other has pollinated and has begun to make…

Bees are one of the most important workers in the almond orchard.  They carry pollen from different flowers and deposit it on the pistil (the pollen tube) where it can make its way down into the ovary and fertilize the bloom.  The bees aren’t trying to pollinate the bloom, though.  They are working to make their hive stronger by either…

WOW!  I have never seen this before.  If you look closely at this bloom, you will see three pollen tubes (pistils).  Each one is connected to an ovary below that, if pollinated, would produce an almond– in this case triplets. It is not uncommon to see “doubles” in the orchard.  This usually happens when the embryo splits and two almonds…

Well, this is a year that will be talked about for many years to come in the almond industry.  A cold low pressure system dropped down from the arctic and brought several days of sub-freezing temperatures to the entire almond producing region of California.  Temperatures of mid-20’s were prevalent in many areas and the crop will definitely suffer some damage…

The bloom came on very fast this year but recently the weather has cooled and is now progressing normal.  The trees will hold this level of bloom for a week or so as the new flowers open at about the same rate the pollinated ones drop.  Towards the end of the bloom period the trees will slowly turn green and…

One sure indicator of a mild winter is when the leaves from last year are still on the tree (and green) when the bloom begins.  Young almond trees are notorious for holding on to last year’s leaves but it is not very common to hold them until spring.  In the picture below, you can see the blooms and leaves together……

The lack of rain this year has had one (small) positive– light weed pressure.  I am always amazed at how, even with almost no rain, some weeds are still able to grow.  Seriously, I dig into the root zone and the ground crumbles from lack of moisture, but the Malva and winter weeds are still green.  Here we are running…

I happens slow… until it happens fast.  With the record heat we’ve had the last couple weeks, the almond trees are really moving fast.  I usually expect first bloom tho occur on about the 14th of February, but this year it looks like it is going to be about five days early. This is a great picture to see the…