Bud Swell, The beginning of the new life cycle

We have been enjoying plenty of foggy mornings on the farm this past month. Mornings when we can't see in front of us very far because the clouds are so low, or it feels like being in a cloud. The brisk cold mornings and the wet foggy air is the perfect combination for helping the old almonds fall off when we winter shake. After these old almonds are off the trees, the trees are ready to start the life cycle again. Farmers generally aim to be done winter shaking by the third week of January. It is at this point the trees are starting to wake up and push buds. When buds are swelling you don't want to risk shaking the trees and harming the new bud development because it is easy to knock large buds off the branches. We definitely don't want to hurt our new almonds.

The buds are starting to swell or enlarge. They are bulging out of the branch and starting to pop up for light. In a couple weeks they will be breaking open. If you remember, last year I blogged all about the pollination series of buds, bees and bloom. During bud swell we don't want to disturb the tree with too much mechanical work. We aim to be done shaking, polling, tying or any last pruning by now. The tree is now into the new stage of bud development and will be working on forming an almond.

In just a matter of weeks we will have buds pushing into flowers and in a month or so we will have gorgeous orchards full of bloom. It seems like only yesterday we were harvesting our almonds and now the almond life cycle is starting all over again.

Until Next Time,

Almond Girl