Sacramento Valley Orchard Source

Recent years of research by the Zwieniecki lab (the Z Lab) at UC Davis, including the Carbohydrate Observatory, have been providing exciting new insights to better explain how pistachios may be counting winter chill, when budbreak occurs, and how much pistachios will yield in a given year.

In late May 2024, unusual symptoms on leaves, including yellow spots and orange to dark red-brown blotches, were detected in an almond orchard (Nonpareil, Monterey and Fritz) on the border of Merced and Madera counties.

Almond growers are in a long tunnel of low prices and high costs. With volatile nut prices largely out of grower control, cost management and cost-effective yield improvements offer the best hope of maintaining headway and reaching the light.

Fertilizer management with thin margins is extra tricky with almonds because varieties can yield so differently within a year. Post-harvest can be a great time to start catching up on potassium.

Annie Edwards and Margaret Smither-Kopperl with the USDA recently released a report on termination using a roller crimper in orchard systems.