INDUSTRY NEWS
LEFT : Sebastian Saa from the Almond Board of California , Roger Duncan from the University of California Cooperative Extension , Deidre Jaensch from the Almond Board of Australia , Darren Graetz from SARDI , Jim Adaskaveg from the University of California , Riverside on a tour of the Almond Centre of Excellence with the Almond Board of Australia ’ s Josh Fielke .
From previous page priority , then growers need to consider a rootstock ’ s anchorage capability . Mr Duncan said Krymsk 86 is the rootstock that ’ s highly regarded for this quality . “ It has a fairly moderate sized canopy and the root system is very large , so you have this big anchor and a relatively small sail , that ’ s why it ’ s become popular in the northern part of the Sacramento Valley where they have a lot of wind and rain ,” he said . “ But Viking also has excellent anchorage and in general most peach / almond hybrids used in California have very good anchorage as well .” Mr Duncan said kernel size is affected by rootstock , with peach / almond hybrids often producing larger kernels and plum rootstocks are often smaller . A new almond rootstocks publication is available to download from websites based at UC Davis and the Almond Board of California – it ’ s a handy reference . The Fruits and Nuts Center at UC Davis has an online database where you can select the traits you are looking for and it will suggest a recommended rootstock .
Variety trials Mr Duncan said they have recently planted the fourth generation of regional almond variety trials in California while still collecting data on the third-generation trials . Both generations of trials include up to 30 varieties and experimental selections that are compared side by side in large , replicated trials The trials are run over three locations in the Northern , Central , and Southern
growing areas of the Central Valley . “ To harvest the trials , a Flory cart modified with scales and sensors on each axel and the tongue is used and crop weights are collected as the machine moves through the orchard ,” Mr Duncan said . “ A five-pound sample is deflected into a bag , so it can be taken back to the lab and cracked out to determine kernel characteristics .” According to Mr Duncan the top performers so far include : Yorizane , a brand new variety from the USDA which is a public variety . It ’ s self-fertile and produces a high quality kernel . It blooms a couple of days after Nonpareil and is harvested a few days earlier than Nonpareil . The kernel is a nice light colour . It ’ s a smaller tree unless put on peach / almond rootstock . It ’ s producing a crackout of 61 % which is comparable to Nonpareil . The shell has a good seal , so there ’ s been low damage from navel orangeworm and other pests . Y117-91-03 is another USDA variety . It was the top performer in the Salida trial at 4738kg / ha in 2021 . It ’ s an excellent quality kernel , that ’ s nice and light , but the kernels are a little bit smaller than Nonpareil . It has a 66 % crackout . This variety will be available in two to three years . Aldrich is an older standard variety in California but it ’ s one of the top performers in the trial . In California it ’ s one of the most common polleniser varieties for Nonpareil . It ’ s a California kernel , a little smaller than Nonpareil but it has a really good
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flavour . Booth is a Burchell Nursery variety and is a polleniser for NP . It has yielded well in these trials . It isn ’ t self-fertile and can get fairly high double kernels in some years . A fourth generation of variety trials is also underway . Breeders from around the world were invited to submit their varieties . A panel then did a blind evaluation of the kernels and the most popular ones were selected for the trial . The second leaf has just been harvested . “ We had almost 1,150kg per hectare of Yorizane , which is pretty insane I think for a two-year-old tree ,” Mr Duncan said . Meanwhile Shasta produced 830kg per hectare , and the Australian variety Carina about 800kg per hectare . “ This is the first time we have grown Carina in California . The trees were loaded with nuts and I like the way the kernel looks and the excellent shell seal to keep the insects out . I have high hopes for that , but we ’ ll see ,” Mr Duncan said . There weren ’ t any bees put into the orchard during pollination and Mr Duncan said that is probably why Nonpareil is sitting near the bottom of the results . “ We didn ’ t really expect to harvest because these were only two-yearold trees , but it ’ s a pretty high density orchard on a peach x almond hybrid rootstock and the crop ended up looking pretty good , so we harvested it ,” he said . “ So all the conventional varieties that are not self-fertile kind of got the raw end of the deal but next year we ’ ll be bringing in bees .”
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