Almond Leafout Problem Is Not Widespread

Leafout Problems In Almonds Not New

By Patrick Cavanaugh with the Ag Information Network of the West

The leafout problem in almonds has been around a couple of years, throughout Northern California, said Luke Milliron, a UCANR orchard system, farm advisor serving Butte, Glenn, and Tehama Counties.

Milliron explained that the leafout problem in almonds is not exactly new. “Some of these orchards have actually had the problem for a number of years now. Dani Lightle former advisor in Glenn County observed a number of orchards in Tehama County with the problem and going back to those same orchards this year, she said some of those growers say that it’s been getting worse in those blocks and the trees really don’t look good,” Milliron said. “But it’s certainly not something that’s affecting, for example, every Monterey tree, which is usually more susceptible to the problem.”

“There are orchards across the state that looked fabulous, so it’s highly variable between blocks and within blocks it might only be a low percentage of the trees being affected,” Milliron noted.

The reason for this disorder is not really widely known, but there are theories.

“Having warm winters and potentially this problem being in those varieties because of some genetic predisposition. Plus, why are we seeing it on some trees and not others? Well, maybe those trees had other stresses such as Anthracnose or mites or some other stressor at play that led them to be pushed into this stress, vegetative leaf failure state,” Milliron said.

California Ag Today2020-06-10T08:27:30-07:00June 10th, 2020|

Almond Board Election Underway

Voting Starts Today for Many Positions on Almond Board

Voting will begin April 29 to select one independent grower member and alternate position and two independent handler members and alternate positions on the Almond Board of California (ABC) Board of Directors. These positions will serve terms beginning on August 1, 2020.

Candidates for the independent grower position are:

Position One, Member (One-year term):
Paul Ewing, Los Banos (petitioner)
Louie Ott, Modesto (petitioner)
Mike Mason, Wasco (petitioner)

Position One, Alternate:
Joe Gardiner, Earlimart (petitioner)
Brad Klump, Escalon (petitioner)

Candidates for the independent handler positions are:
Position One, Member (Three-year term):
Terry Boone, Modesto (petitioner)
Alexi Rodriguez, Caruthers (petitioner)
Micah Zeff, Modesto (petitioner)

Position One, Alternate:
Ron Fisher, Modesto (incumbent)

Position Three, Member (One-year term):
Jonathan Hoff, Denair (petitioner)
Darren Rigg, Le Grand (petitioner)

Position Three, Alternate:

Chad DeRose, McFarland (petitioner)
Dave Phippen, Manteca (petitioner)Ballots and instructions have been mailed to all independent growers whose names are on file with ABC. The Almond Board must receive ballots by May 27, 2020, for them to be counted. If an independent grower or a handler does not receive a ballot, one may be obtained by contacting ABC’s Bunnie Ibrahim, senior analyst, Government Affairs, at (209) 343-3228 or bibrahim@almondboard.com.As a governing body for the industry, the ABC Board of Directors is comprised of five handler and five grower representatives who set policy and recommend budgets in several major areas including production research, global market development, public relations and advertising, nutrition research, statistical reporting, quality control and food safety.

California Ag Today2020-04-29T11:37:52-07:00April 29th, 2020|

Almond Board Wants More Efficient Irrigation

Almond Board Goal: More Crop Per Drop of Water

By Patrick Cavanaugh, with the AgInfo Network

Jossett Lewis has Chief Scientific Officer with the Almond Board of California. And this is a big goal of the Almond Board more efficiency in water use for almonds.

“We’re tackling this from two directions. One is to improve irrigation efficiency and to get more crop per drop,” said Lewis. “So our goal of decreasing the amount of water by 20% needed to grow a pound of almonds is our Orchard 2025 goal in this area. And we’ll focus attention on how to improve the efficiency of operating irrigation systems. We’ve had really great adoption already of high efficiency systems like micro sprinklers and drip,” she said.

And the almond board is funding research and doing grower outreach to find out when an almond tree actually needs the water.

“We have a goal of more precise timing of the application of that water, which can pay off, particularly in getting more yield for the same amount of water,” Lewis said. “A large part of achieving that goal is actually improving the efficiency of how we time irrigation so that it matches up closely with the needs that the tree, so we can get more yield for the same amount of water. So that’s an area of continued work and a lot of outreach,” Lewis explained.

California Ag Today2021-05-12T11:05:01-07:00April 15th, 2020|

Patience on Irrigating Almonds

When To Start Irrigating Almonds

By Tim Hammerich, with the AgInfo Network

When to start the irrigation on those almond orchards? Most growers want to get out there early to get the trees the water they need and to apply nitrogen through fertigation. However, there are risks associated with starting irrigation too early. This according to Dave Doll, who spent 10 years as a UC Farm Advisor in Madera County and is currently managing a farming operation in Portugal.

“The risks you have about starting the irrigation season too early is that you apply too much water that reduces the amount of oxygen within the root zone that depletes the ability for the tree to develop feeder roots or find feeder roots, which help with nutrient and water uptake,” said Doll. “So as such, what we would recommend and what still is a recommendation from my perspective and what we’re doing on an operation here, is to evaluate these trees for water demand in the spring before we start our application.”

“And this can be done through the use of a pressure chamber, which measures stem water potential, or even watching soil moisture probes to make sure that you’re getting a depletion in your top two feet of in soil moisture before you start applying in irrigation,” noted Doll.” And this in essence, will help you have better water management or more resiliency in your water management as a tree continues to grow and the temperatures pick up.”

California Ag Today2020-04-11T13:37:33-07:00April 13th, 2020|

Be Aware of Yield Robbing Ants in Almond Orchards

Late April and May Are a Crucial Time to Survey Orchard for Ants

By Patrick Cavanaugh, with AgInfo.net

Ants potentially can be a serious problem in almond orchards said Kris Tollerup a UC Cooperative Extension Area Wide IPM advisor based at the Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension center in Parlier, southeast or Fresno. “Ants can be a very serious problem,” Tollerup said.“I’ve had growers get up to 12% damage, but the interesting thing is that there’s only a couple of ant species that are really important.”

And Tollerup said that’s the Southern fire ant and the pavement ant. And we asked Tollerup how a grower would go about identifying these ants. “You can go out and collect some ants using corn chips in vials and put out several vials into the orchard and collect them in the morning and throw them in the freezer and the next day, put them out on a plate and look at them with a hand lens. And there’s some very good resources on the University of California IPM website that’ll help identify those ants,” he said.

Tollerup noted sampling should be done anytime through April and May.“It gives you plenty of time to get out there, identify those ants, and see what you got,” he said. “And the interesting thing is that you don’t have to sample, but just one time a year or maybe even one time every couple of years because ants don’t reinvest orchards very, very quickly.”

And if you have an ant issue, go to the UCI PM website on ants where they also have recommendations on control products. Again, over the next six weeks is a good time to be looking for those yield-robbing ants.

California Ag Today2021-05-12T11:01:44-07:00April 7th, 2020|

Almond Buyers Are Curious About The Farm

Buyers of Almonds Are Asking More Questions About Farm Practices

By Patrick Cavanaugh, AgInfo.net

Ben Goudie is membership development with Blue Diamond Growers, who move a lot of almonds around the word.

He noted that buyers of their products for distribution are interested in sustainability growing practices. “You know, in the past sales conversations have been pretty basic, with general questions about price and availability,” said Goudie. “Now, a lot of the sales meetings start with conversations about sustainability, start with conversations about corporate social responsibility and what we’re doing with our growers. What we’re also doing in manufacturing, looking at energy savings, looking at all aspects of sustainability on the corporate level,” h explained.

And the Almond Board of California’s Almond Sustainability Program (CASP) where growers fill out information on their growing practices is part of the information Blue Diamond Growers share where their buyers. “We are using the CASP survey as the basis for our grower information. We are also working on a full and comprehensive sustainability program with our sustainability manager, Catherine Campbell, and she has put together a full package that we supply to our buyers,” Goudie said.

Goudie noted that the in-house sustainability program they’re putting together is comprehensive. “It is pretty robust—everything from energy savings to looking at our distribution and supply chain, how we’ve made savings and looking at our carbon footprint,” he said.

California Ag Today2020-03-18T22:15:16-07:00March 23rd, 2020|

Almond Pollination is Going Strong Throughout California

Keeping Bees Safe and Healthy During Almond Pollination

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Editor

It’s always good to think about those working bees in almond orchards, said Becky Langer the project manager for the North American Bayer CropScience Bee Health Program.

“Bees continue to face multiple challenges and that’s not necessarily new information. I think what we see though as people are getting a better grasp of awareness that pest and diseases continue to be a huge problem in those beehives,” said Langer. “Beekeepers are working very hard to monitor and control those.”

“We know forage and habitat continue to be a huge challenge. We have climate change, which can affect those wild flowers blooming in California during the drought years and then we know that the beekeepers and growers have to continue to communicate with one another, and use all those products according to label.,” she said.

And for almond growers, it’s a good idea if you can the plant a variety of different forages around the orchard, different species of flowers for instance. “That can be a great idea because we know those bees have to eat, and if we can have something blooming year round, it’s the best way to keep the pollinators healthy,” said Langer

“They also like diversity in different plant species, different colors, different size flowers. You want them to pollinate your crop, but if you’re offering some alternative resources in the area that keeps them better fed and happier pollinators, which will make better pollinators for the crops,” Langer said.

Langer reminds growers to read those product labels. “This again is going to help to provide a much healthier environment for the pollinators and it’s going to keep the grower in the good graces of the beekeepers too,” she noted

California Ag Today2020-02-28T10:45:52-08:00March 4th, 2020|

Whole Orchard Recycling

Whole Almond Orchard Recyling is A Next Generation Farming Practice

By Tim Hammerich with California Ag Today

The Almond Board of California recently announced their $5.9 million investment into next-generation farming practices. The Board is exploring some of these initiatives as they offer insights into challenges faced by California growers.

Josette Lewis, Director of Agricultural Affairs for the Almond Board of California, says one area these investments have really paid off recently has been in something called whole orchard recycling.

“This is when an orchard gets to the end of its life and the trees are taken out. They’re chipped and deep-ripped into the soil, and then disced over to put that entire orchard biomass, which is a huge amount of woody material, down into the soil…

“We’ve been doing research for quite a number of years that shows that that can improve soil quality: things like water holding capacity, and soil organic matter. It does not seem to pose a particular problem for replant disease or soil-borne pathogens. But very importantly, that research this last year paid off in terms of the California Department of Food and Agriculture has decided to include whole orchard recycling in their healthy soils incentive program.”

Lewis says this incentive program will provide dollars to help growers with the costs of recycling their orchards, which also gives them this benefit of healthier soils long term.

California Ag Today2020-01-06T20:25:08-08:00January 7th, 2020|

Consistent Production is Key in Almonds

Keep Almond Farming Simple and to the Point

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Editor

Franz Neiderholzer is a UCANR Farm Advisor based in Colusa County and he also works with growers farming almonds in Sutter and Yuba Counties.

He says consistent production is the key.“Once the orchard has been laid out and the pruning’s been selected, an you’ve grown trees to fill their space, how do you maintain good production year in and year out for a mature orchard? Consistent production is your goal,” Neiderholzer said

Neiderholzer explains the steps toward good production. “You provide the resources the trees need, set them up, but don’t try to force it,” Neiderholzer said.

“Mother Nature is going to give you the crop that the weather conditions at bloom will allow and whatever environmental conditions occur throughout the rest of the season. But there is no silver bullet. You need to maintain consistent practices and spend money on good bees, an adequate crop protection practices,” Neiderholzer

“Do the fundamentals and the rest of it should follow. So again you need adequate pollination and nut set, careful irrigation in nutrition and protecting the canopy through crop protection practices and adequate nutrition and irrigation,” he said.

California Ag Today2019-12-18T13:24:36-08:00December 24th, 2019|

Almond Growers Concern About Trade Issues

Farmer Joe Del Bosque Checks In Regarding Almond Season

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Editor

Joe Del Bosque is a diversified grower in Western Fresno and Merced counties.

He noted the almond crop was light this season mostly due to a wet spring that fouled up pollination. “Yes, I think the crop was a little lighter than normal, particularly in some varieties. Some did okay. Some did pretty normal and some were lighter.” Del Bosque said.

And del Bosque said that pest pressure was not particularly heavy.

“The few reports that I’ve seen on worm damage didn’t look too bad. So I think we’re, we’re going to come out okay with pests this past season,” he noted.

And trade issues, particularly with China, continue to be a big concern.

“For almond growers that’s probably our major concerns aside from water. So we hope that they will certainly solve this trade issue so that trade flows more freely,” Del Bosque said.

“It’s not that we haven’t been able to sell our almonds, because we have been able to sell them, but there have probably been some restrictions in the trade and maybe that might have been reflected in the prices,” he said.

“Maybe we should be getting higher prices than we have if we didn’t have these, these trade issues looming over us. And I think the, the worst part about the trade issues is probably the uncertainty of how long we’re going to go with these tariffs,” Del Bosque noted.

California Ag Today2019-12-17T10:48:21-08:00December 23rd, 2019|