Sacramento Valley Orchard Source

2024 Prune Season Retrospective

North Sac Valley: Jaime Ott, UCCE Tehama, Shasta, Glenn, Butte Counties

Despite a much earlier bloom than last year, harvest started only a few days earlier. Fruit size and sugar at harvest was variable: blocks with heavy cropload or which suffered from water stress during the season struggled with size and sugar. ...

Carbohydrates, dormancy, and yield in pistachios

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.

New Threat to California Almonds: Red Leaf Blotch

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.

Small steps boost net grower returns

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.

Playing Potassium Catch-Up?

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.