Almond Matters: Assessing Fertility in the Orchard

Taylor Hillman Almond Matters, Tree, nut & vine crops

Fertility
In today’s Almond Matters, brought to you by Valent USA Corporation, we are almost two weeks into April and that means it’s time to assess fertility in the orchard. AgNet West talked to Valent’s Pat Clay.

Valent’s Manager of Field Development, Pat Clay, said almond growers should be estimating yield around this time of year. “Right after nut set during bloom is a good time to go out and assess the crop and try to make an estimation of what the anticipated yield is going to be. Really, fertility management from this point on is going to be how you want to manage the crop based on the yield you anticipate getting,” he said.

That assessment is a little more important this year as several areas had weather damage during bloom. “Basically, doing an assessment of the set and then doing some tissue analysis of the leaves and having those run through a good lab,” Clay said. “You can see if there are areas where you are deficient on those test reports.”