Everything you need to learn about cultivating almond organically. Learn about:- 1. Introduction to Almond 2. Climate and Soil Required for Almond Cultivation 3. Propagation, Planting and Spacing 4. Training and Pruning 5. Nutrient Management 6. Harvesting 7. Varieties.
Contents:
- Introduction to Almond
- Climate and Soil Required for Almond Cultivation
- Propagation, Planting and Spacing of Almond
- Training and Pruning of Almond
- Nutrient Management of Almond
- Harvesting of Almond
- Varieties of Almond
1. Introduction to Almond
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It is an important and most favourite nut fruit of the country. It is mostly grown in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. Most of the existing almond orchards in the country are of seedling origin and attain giant size, thus taking much time to come to bearing besides posing difficulty in orchard management. The vegetatively propagated plants of improved varieties come to bearing within 3 to 4 years period. The almond nuts are sold at a high price and the edible part, kernels are considered to have medicinal value.
Almond oil is an important and expensive product. A small portion of the crop harvested in early June at a time when embryos first fill the seed having more or less green kernels are a delicacy with some of the consumers and are sold as green in the market. Almond cultivation in India is done on an area of 21,400 hectares with a production of only 9,340 tons. The productivity of almonds at 420 kg/ha is very low as compared to 1080 kg per hectare at world level.
2. Climate and Soil Required for Almond Cultivation:
Almonds have exacting climatic requirements. The successful cultivation of almonds can be done in the areas where there is a little or no frost hazard. The almond is also susceptible to injury by rainy weather in spring and summer which increases blossom and fruit infection by brown and green rot organisms, while foggy and rainy weather during the summer results in brown stains on the shells of the ripening nuts, lowering their market value.
Another sensitive time for almonds is at fruit ripening time. Rains in summer hinder it’s ripening and thus requires rain free summers. Rains at ripening time forces the farmers of mid hills to harvest almond at green stage that are sold as green almonds and deprive farmers of remunerative prices.
Almond requires deep, fertile, and well- drained loamy soils free from water stagnation with proper aeration and water drainage. The sites must be free from hailstorms and frost in springs. Almond grows well at elevations ranging from 750-3210 m above mean sea level.
3. Propagation, Planting and Spacing of Almond:
Almond performs well when grafted on wild peach and bitter or sweet almond rootstocks. Although peach has performed well as a rootstock for almond during initial 10-15 years but life of such plants is not long and hence not in use and only sweet or bitter almond is used as rootstock.
The seeds of these kinds are procured from current season’s crop and sown directly in well prepared seedbeds during November-December or can be stratified in moist sand for 35- 40 days. Seedlings of pencil thickness or more are budded with selected scion 15-20 cm above the ground level during July-August using shield budding method.
Vegetatively raised plants are planted in a square or hexagonal system at spacing of 5.4 to 7.5 m depending upon soil fertility, scion, vigour and availability of irrigation facilities.
Planting of pollinizers is very important and therefore every third row should be planted with a pollinizer variety. The blooming time of pollinizer must overlap with the blooming time of main variety. Five to six beehives may also be placed in the orchard for assured pollination.
For planting, as usual 1m x 1m x 1m size pits are dug. Top soil is mixed with 25-30 kg well decomposed F.Y.M and 50 g each of Trichoderma viride and Pseudomonas Fluorescens and mixed properly. Planting time is best during December-January.
4. Training and Pruning of Almond:
For training, central modified leader system is usually adopted by retaining 3-4 scaffold branches. Almonds produce fruits on short spurs, which remain fruitful for about 5 years. Pruning needs to done in such a manner that one fifth of fruiting wood is replaced each year.
As usual weed control must be taken up manually or mechanically. Grass mulching or alkalthene mulching can also be useful to conserve soil moisture and controlling weeds. Growing cover crops like clover or beans is helpful in weed control and also improves soil fertility. Nutritional and pest and disease management requirements of cover crops must also be met in time
Potential for Increasing Production through Irrigation and High Yielding Varieties:
Although almonds are mostly grown as rainfed crop but under exceptional circumstances can also be grown under irrigated conditions. However, there is excellent scope to exploit high yielding late season varieties like IXL, California Paper Shell and Primorskif in Quil and Shalimar areas of Pulwama and Nagam area of Budgam district in J&K state.
Above mentioned varieties need to be budded on collar rot resistant rootstocks and need to be irrigated at critical phase of fruit development after fruit set. At least 3-4 irrigations are required in such cases.
5. Nutrient Management of Almond:
Almond tree is a heavy feeder and with optimum productivity of about 500 kg/ha the crop removes 30-35 kg N, 8-9 kg P2O5 and 40-45 kg K2O, out of which nearly 80% of N, 90% of phosphorus and 65% of potash is returned back to the soil through fallen leaves, flowers, fruits, prunings and weed reincorporation. This removal pattern is to be kept in mind while calculating the need for nutrient management from external sources.
As organic farming system relies more on feeding the soil rather than feeding the plant, thus in nutrient management major stress is laid on recycling of biomass and therefore entire biomass from fallen leaves, flowers, fruits, prunings, weeds and cover crops etc. need to be used as mulch and drenched with Jivamrit. This needs to be done at least 3 times in a year during December, late February and May-June. Cover crops grown in interspaces need to be mowed down and incorporated in the soil.
Considering the biomass recycled, and the nutrients being recycled the short fall is calculated and applied as combination of various organic inputs. Normally if entire orchard biomass is recycled and at least two cycles of cover crop is used as green manure, only 40-50% of nitrogen and 60% of potash is to be replenished. Fertilizer recommendations under conventional management can also be taken into account for organic nutrient calculation point of view.
Under conventional management a full-grown plant is applied with 30-40 kg FYM, 500 gm of nitrogen, 250 gm of P2O5 and 500 gm of K2O per plant per year. While full quantity of FYM, phosphorus and potash is applied as soil application before flowering, 50% nitrogen is provided 3 weeks after fruit set and remaining 50% nitrogen is provided at fruit maturation during June-July.
Keeping all above in mind two organic nutrient management schedules are suggested, one for rainfed systems and another for integrated input intensive irrigated systems. Considering the nutrient release pattern by the manures and requirement of nutrients by plants at different stages, plants are provided with manures as soil application and foliar feeding as aerial spray on leaves.
Foliar feeding solution comprises of Vermiwash (5%) or Panchagavya (3%) or farm made protein hydrolysate (4-5 ml/lit of water). Any one or combination of two or all can be used depending upon the requirement.
Mostly almonds are cultivated under rainfed conditions. However 3-4 irrigations are required during dry spell for getting higher yields and nuts with plump kernels. Under intensive input use conditions 5-6 irrigations will give good yields with very high quality nuts.
6. Harvesting of Almond:
Almond is ready for harvesting when splitting at suture starts from pedicel end. The nuts should not be harvested prematurely otherwise dehulling becomes very difficult. For easy collection of the nuts, orchard floor should be clean and polythene sheet or tarpaulin can be used for better recovery of nuts. The harvested nuts are placed in shady place for easy dehulling and after that they are dried in sun or by dryers.
7. Varieties of Almond:
In India, most of the almond orchards are of seedling origin and are divided into four groups. They are paper-shelled, soft-shelled, semi-soft shelled and hard-shelled. The important varieties suitable for Indian hilly states are Makhdhoom, Waris, Shalimar, IXL, Merced, Non-Pareil, Neplus-Ultra, Drake, California Paper Shell and Primorskif. It is likely that mid-season and late season varieties like IXL, California Paper Shell and Primorskif may help in solving the problem of damage to blossoms during spring frost.