Advanced production technology of Almond crop

Presented by,Pawan Kumar NagarM. Sc (Fruit science)

Department of Horticulture,B. A. College of Agriculture,

Anand Agricultural University,

Anand – 388 110

TAXONOMICAL CLASSIFICATIONBotanical name : Prunus amygdalous Batsch

Family : Rosaceae

Origin : Persia - Afghanistan, Western Asia

Type of fruit : Drupe

Edible portion : Kernal/ Cotyledon

Chromosome number : 2n = 16

INTRODUCTION Almonds are native to Mediterranean region and are

considered as one of the oldest tree nut in the world and are closely related to peach, probably evolved from the same ancestral species in South-Central Asia and from there it spread along the shores of the Mediterranean in Northern Africa and Southern Europe by Egyptians, Greeks and Romans.

It was bought to California in the 17th century by Spanish where the industry progressed and production increased several folds due to cultivation of superior varieties accompanied by prudent scientific production and protection technologies making California the world leader in almond production.

In India it was 1st introduced to Kashmir during 16th century by Persian settlers but inspite of its great potential in the region, the crop could not be developed on commercial scale as that of apple.

Flowering and fruiting

Flowering: January - April depending on the cultivar. Bud differentiation: August-September and continues up to

February. Trees begin to bear in 3 to 4 years and they reach the

optimum production stage in 8 to 10 years. There is a serious problem of pollination in almond as

almost all the varieties of almond are self-incompatible and a few are crossing-incompatible, hence these require adequate provision for pollinizers (varieties which will provide pollen grains).

The varietal combinations recommended for almond plantations are as follows. 1. Non-Pareil- Ne Plus Ultra -Mission 2. Ne Plus Ultra -Peerless -Non-Pareil 3. Ne Plus Ultra -Non.Pareil- Davey 4. Peerless -Non-Pareil- Mission 5. Davey -Non-Pareil –Mission

More than 1 Varieties in Almond orchard. Long flowering periods are considered to be good

pollinizers. Honey bee rearing culture in orchard. 

NUTRITIONAL IMPORTANCE

1. Health benefits: Almond nuts are rich sources of vitamins, and minerals and

packed with numerous health promoting phyto-chemicals. These nuts compose of well-balanced food principles that are essential for optimum health and wellness.

Almonds are one of the complete sources of energy as well as nutrients.

The nuts, especially, are rich in mono-unsaturated fatty acids like oleic, and palmitoleic acids that help in lowering LDL(Low Density Lipoproteins) or "bad cholesterol" and increasing HDL(High Density Lipoproteins) or "good cholesterol" in the human body.

Research studies suggest that Mediterranean diet, which is excellent in monounsaturated fatty acids, help to prevent coronary artery disease and strokes by favoring healthy blood lipid profile.

The nuts are an excellent source of vitamin E; hold about 25 g per 100 g (about 170% of RDA). Vitamin E is a powerful lipid soluble antioxidant, required for maintaining cell membrane integrity of mucus membranes and skin by protecting it from harmful effects of oxygen-free radicals.

Almonds are free from gluten protein, and for the same reason, they are one of the popular ingredients in the preparation of gluten-free food formulas. Such formula preparations are infact, healthy alternatives in people with wheat food allergy, and celiac disease.

The nuts are packed with many important B-complex groups of vitamins such as riboflavin, niacin, thiamin, pantothenic acid, vitamin B-6, and folates. Altogether, these vitamins work as co-factors for enzymes during cellular substrate metabolism inside the human body.

Furthermore, almonds are also an incredible source of minerals such as manganese, potassium, calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc, and selenium.

Almond oil, extracted from the nuts, can be employed as an emollient. When applied regularly, it helps keep skin well protected from dryness. Additionally, the oil is used in cooking in Iran, and Turkey. It is also used as “carrier or base oil” in various traditional medicines, in aromatherapy, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industries.

2. Culinary uses: Almonds can be enjoyed either on their own , salted or

sweetened.

They are nutty yet pleasantly sweet in taste. Sweetened almond milk (Badam milk-shake) is a one of popular refreshing drink in Indian and other south Asian countries.

Almonds are one of the most sought after among nuts employed in various rice dishes, savory and sweet preparations in the Middle-East region.

Almond splits/sliver are often sprinkled over desserts, particularly sundaes and other ice cream based preparations.

VARIETIES

1. Improved varieties: There are number of varieties available in almond. But

there are four major varieties of export quality viz., Non Pareil, California Paper Shell, IXL and Merced.

In addition to these exotic cultivars, recently released indigenous cultivars like Shalimar, Makhdoom and Waris have also shown very promising results under Kashmir conditions.

2. Other high yielding cultivars Primorskij, Ne Plus Ultra, Peerless, Thompson, Carmel,

Price, Butte, Ruby, Fritz, Monterey, Sonora, Padre and Le Grand.

1. Non Pareil It is a regular bearer, mid bloomer (bloom during 3rd

week of March) and early maturing, matures 141 days after full bloom.

The tree is upright to spreading. It bears flower and nuts on both spurs as well as on

long shoots having good ability to renew fruiting wood and is relatively resistant to frost.

The nut has an extra light colour, papery shell that gives a high shelling percentage (60%).

It has a medium size kernel. The variety is suitable for export market as nut and

kernels. The average productivity is 2.5t/ha.

2. California Paper Shell It is a regular bearer, bloom during 2nd week of March

and ready to harvest after 152 days from the date of full bloom.

The tree is upright suitable for high density plantations. It bears flower and nuts on both spurs as well as on long

shoots with good ability to renew fruiting wood. The nut and kernel are longer in size with extra light

colour, papery shell that gives shelling percentage of 50%.

This variety is also suitable for export market. The average productivity is 2.0t/ha.

3. Merced It is a regular bearer, bloom during 3rd week of March

and ready to harvest after 152 days from the date of full bloom.

The tree is upright suitable for high density plantations.

It bears flower and nuts on both spurs as well as on long shoots with good ability to renew fruiting wood.

Shell colour intermediate with papery shell gives shelling percentage (56%).

The variety is also suitable for export of kernels. The average productivity is 2.0t/ha

4. IXL It is a regular bearer, bloom during 3rd week of March

and ready to harvest after 151 days from the date of full bloom. The tree is spreading type and of intermediate vigour. It bears flower and nuts on both spurs as well as on long shoots with good ability to renew fruiting wood.

The nut and kernels are medium and shell colour intensity is intermediate.

Shells are soft that gives a high shelling percentage (55%). The average productivity is 2.5t/ha.

5. Shalimar It is a regular bearer, bloom during 2nd week of March and

ready to harvest after 143 days from the date of full bloom. The tree growth habit is spreading/ drooping type. It bears flower and nuts on both long shoots and spurs with

good ability to renew fruiting wood. The shell colour is light, papery type that gives a high

shelling percentage (50%). The variety is also suitable for export. The average productivity is 2.0t/ha.

6. Makhdoom It is a regular bearer, bloom during 1st week of March and

ready to harvest after 141 days from the date of full bloom. The tree growth habit is spreading/ drooping type. It bears flowers and nuts on long shoots and spurs with

good ability to renew fruiting wood. The shell colour is medium, soft type plump that gives a

shelling percentage of 42%. The average productivity is more than 2.0t/ha.

7. Waris It is a regular bearer, bloom during 3rd week of March and

ready to harvest after 145 days from the date of full bloom. The tree growth habit is upright and is suitable to grow

under high density orcharding. It bears flower and nuts on long shoots and spurs. The shell colour is medium, soft shelled, nut are medium,

soft shelled with, plump kernels and gave shelling percentage of 48%.

The average productivity is more than 2.0t/ha.

8. Pranyaj It is a regular bearer, bloom during 3rd week of March and

ready to harvest after 144 days from the date of full bloom. The tree growth habit is upright and is suitable to grow

under high density orcharding. It bears flower and nuts on long shoots and spurs. The shell colour is light, very soft shelled, nut are medium,

soft shelled with, plump kernels and gave shelling percentage of 44%.

The average productivity is more than 2.0t/ha.

CLIMATE REQUIREMENT Almond needs Mediterranean climate having slightly hot

summer (30-35 ºC temperature) with cool winters for plant growth and kernel filling.

Unopened blossoms known to withstand cold up to -2.2 ºC, but blossoms at petal fall stage are killed at 0.5 to -1.1 ºC.

The blossoms can often withstand temperature from -2.2 to -3.3 ºC for a short time but if low temperature continuous for many hours they get damaged.

SOIL REQUIREMENT

Deep, loamy, well drained soils are ideal for almond growing, but can be grown in average soils supplemented with FYM and assured irrigation.

Trees do not thrive well in heavy or poorly drained soils.

Quality planting material production for Rootstock raising

For production of healthy and desired size of rootstocks, nuts from freshly harvested dried bitter almonds are preferred.

The seeds are first stratified by keeping in moist sand from November to March at the coolest shady place.

This treatment releases the dormancy and seeds are ready to germinate during March.

The germinated seeds are generally sown in the nursery beds in line at 10 cm spacing (plant to plant) and 45 cm (row to row).

The young seedlings should be regularly irrigated and given nitrogen fertilizers during summers for getting the desired size (pencil size thickness) of rootstocks in the same year.

These plants are ready for budding during the month of July to 1st week of August.

For dry areas, seedlings of almond and apricot are more suitable while for irrigated lands peach seedlings like Lovell, Halford, Nemaguard and Nemared are found good, which are extensively used as rootstocks in commercial cultivation of almonds at California.

BUDDING AND GRAFTING Scion woods of required almonds are budded/ grafted on

to seedling rootstocks of pencil size thickness in July, when sap flow in the rootstock and bud wood is ideal.

The ideal method of budding is 'T' or shield budding 10 cm above the ground. The grafting is done in the month of March following wedge method.

RAISING OF ROOTSTOCKS FOR BUDDING

ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS

i) Suitable age of rootstock 1-1 1/2 yrs.

ii) Size of rootstock Pencil sizeii) Method of budding 'T' budding

iv) Method of grafting Wedge grafting

v) Time of budding July-August

vi) Time of grafting Feb. – March

vii) Height of budding 10-15 cm above ground

pLANTING

The budded/ grafted plants should be planted in square system at a distance of either 6 x 6 m (normal farmers planting system), 4.0 x 4.0 m (Medium high density system) and 3.5 x 3.5-2.5 m (under high density planting system).

Every third row should be pollinizer row.

Before planting, pits of 3 x 3 x 3 ft should be dug up size during the month of September-October.

The plants should be planted from February to March in the centre of pit, provided by desired bamboo supports to protect the trees from winds.

Medium density plantation

(4m × 4m)

Medium high density plantation

(3.5m × 3.5m)

High density plantation (3.0m × 3.0m)

High density plantation(2.50m × 2.50m)

trAINING AND PRUNING• At planting time - Head back the tree to 1m above ground

level.

• 1st dormant pruning - Three primary scaffold branches retained along with few temporary branches below trunk, removing only those which compete strongly with primary scaffolds and the tree is trained to a shape of modified leader system. One year old wood is pruned each year in December/January when tree is completely dormant.

• Almond produces most of their fruit on short spurs which remain fruitful for about 5 years.

• Therefore, pruning should be done in such a manner that 1/5th of fruiting wood is replaced each year.

• Prune in such a way that new wood with new spur growth is constantly replacing spur that are no longer fruitful.

• To achieve this, only prune or remove older branches that are 1.2 to 3.7 cm in diameter.

• Thin out very little of the smaller wood, except to remove unwanted water sprouts or suckers.

• The success of pruning program can be judged, in part by the length of new shoots over the entire tree each year, if other factors are not limiting the growth.

WATER MANAGEMENT

For fresh plantings, apply sufficient water to settle the soil around the roots and give subsequent at an interval of 10-15 days and keep the optimum moisture level for achieving better yields and plump kernels.

The critical stages of almond which are most sensitive to water shortages are flowering (Feb to March) and fruit development (April, May and June).

Therefore, irrigations must be provided during these stages for getting higher yield of quality nuts. The drip irrigation particularly in Karewas found very efficient. Four drippers with a discharge of 4 L/ hour for 5 hours at an interval of 4-5 days require about 1600 L. per tree per season resulting in saving of about 40-50 percent water over conventional.

Mulching of tree basins with straw or black polythene further conserve moisture and reduces irrigation intervals. In dry rainfed areas where there is no source of irrigation water, rain water harvesting methods depending upon the topography combined with straw or polythene mulching can be very useful for conservation of moisture, enhancing water availability and increasing plant growth, fruit set and nut yield

POLLINATION MANAGEMENT

Almond trees in general are not self pollinating. Therefore it is necessary to provide every third row in each orchard with pollinizer variety (33% pollinizer) so that their bloom should coincide with each other.

The varieties which are generally used for commercial almond cultivation as pollinizer like IXL, Jordanalo, Ne-Plus-Ultra and Waris.

In addition, to this, placement of 4-6 beehives is found highly beneficial and can for increase fruit set and yield of almond by 12-15 percent.

REARING HONEYBEES IN ALMOND ORCHARDS IN ARTIFICIAL BEE HIVES

POLLINATION IN ALMOND THROUGH HONEYBEES

INTER-CROPPING During the pre-bearing stage of almond orchard,

intercropping with several suitable crops are recommended for realizing some farm income through sustainable utilization of interspaces and available resources.

The following crops are recommended as intercrops in almond orchard like pea, saffron, pulses, seed production of turnip, knoll khol, carrot, mustard and bulb production of onion and garlic, and medicinal and aromatic plants like lave der, lavendine etc.

Besides realizing some income, the growing of legumes like pea and pulses increasing soil fertility, seed production of turnips and mustard augmenting to polli nation by attracting bees, and growing of medicinal and aromatic plants like garlic, laven der, lavendine etc are acting as repellant to insect ant pests and diseases.

INTERCROPPING WITH VEGETABLE CROPS FOR SEED PRODUCTION

Nutrient management

Almond is a heavy feeder. Therefore, it requires substantial amount of manures and fertiliz ers. They should be provided timely and in appropriate quantity at right growing stages.

Urea may be applied in 2-3 split doses. 1st half dose should be applied along with DAP (full) and MOP (full) at fortnight before expected bloom, 2nd dose (1/4th) of Urea may be applied about 3 weeks after fruit set and third dose of Urea (1/4th) should be applied in May-June.

Foliar spray of urea about 1.5-2 percent may also be given for promoting fruiting bud formation and subsequent growth in the next season.

Age of the tree (years)

Fertilizers/trees (g)

UREA Nitrogen DAP Phosphorus MOP Potassium

1 55 30 25 5 50 302 110 60 50 10 130 653 170 90 75 15 200 1004 225 120 100 20 260 1305 280 150 125 25 330 1656 400 210 150 30 580 2907 515 270 200 40 750 3758 635 330 225 45 910 4559 740 390 300 60 1080 540

10th yearand onwards 860 450 325 65 1240 600

RECOMMENDED DOSE OF FERTILIZERS

Maturity Indices

The first symptom of nut ripening is the bursting of the hull (pericarp) and the reduction of the removal force.

Usually growers start to harvest one and a half month after the first sign of hull bursting.

Nuts growing at the periphery of the tree usually mature earlier than those located in the centre.

HARVESTING

After the bloom the petal drops. The leaves grow and give fuzzy gray-green "fruit". The nuts are covered with green hull that continues to harden and grow.

Around end of July it begins to split open. Between mid to late August the splits widens which exposes the shell and this allows the nut to dry. Therefore, more than 50% split stage; the nuts are generally harvested by manual plucking.

Sometimes during the harvest period if rain generally occurs it deteriorates the nut quality and nuts get black to dark brown in colour.

The harvesting is done manually or by knocking the branches with sticks but care be taken to save the fruiting wood and branches particularly while knocking the branches with sticks. Later on hull is removed manually.

However, in California, nuts generally separates from hull on tree itself which are being harvested mechanically through "Shakers" and are being dried and then transported to the huller.

ALMONDS READY FOR HARVEST

HARVEST INDICES

HARVESTING MANUALLY HEEP OF FRESHLY

HARVESTED ALMONDS

Yield Varies from 10-20 q/ha of shelled almonds depending on

cultural practices including irrigation and cultivar.

Problems

1. Problems of spring and frost causes great damage to this crop.

2. Problems of the almond tree are prone to attack of disease.3. Non-availability of late-blooming varieties for cultivation.4. Poor marketing practices.

POST-HARVEST HANDLING AND STORAGE

Just after harvestings, fruits needs hulling otherwise they attracts fungal infection very quickly.

Nuts are sun dried or dried by forced hot air until their moisture content reaches 5 7%. Poly tunnels with fan can also be used for best and hygienic drying.

Nuts are then dehulled and shelled. Almonds packed in air tight container or sealed bags can be

stored in cool dark place for months either in shell or shelled if dry.

For very long periods when frozen but should not be exposed to humidity. Commercially, nuts for long storage are fumigated for naval orange worm and kept at below 10C.

Insect-pest White grub/ chaffer beetle

Symptoms:

Fruitlets are eaten away and leaves are perforated by adult beetles after sunset during night. Grubs feed on roots and may cause wilting of the plant. If uncontrolled, the adult beetles defoliate the whole tree during June-July.

Control:

Apply Phorate 10g or Aldicarb 10g @2.0kg ai per hectare in the soil against chaffer beetles. Spray 0.02% ai. Chloropyriphos after sunset results in complete knock down adult beetles in Karewa conditions of Kashmir. Biological control with Beauveria bassiana 108 spores/ml has also been found effective when integrated with chemical fungicides.

Shot hole (Leaf spot)

Symptoms:

Caused by Stigmina, Cladosporium. The leaves, twigs and fruits develop small, round to irregular, light brown to dark brown lesions. The necrotic spots on leaves form shot holes

Control:

The tree may be sprayed with 0.2% Captan 50 WP or 0.3% Copper Oxychlo-ride or 0.3% Mancozeb 75% WP. Extract of botani cals such as garlic and Artemisia have also been found effective when integrated with chemical fungicides.

disease