From Bloom to Nuts: Maximizing Almond Nut Development
By Robert Smith, Chief Agronomist Almond yield hinges upon the early stages of development. In just a few weeks, almond trees go through a staggering transformation as they go from dormancy to bloom, pollination, and nut set. Every pollinated bloom turns into an almond. This is when the nuts are going through rapid cell division. During this time, the number of cells being formed inside the developing kernel determines its final size and ultimately your yield potential. Once that cell division phase slows down, you can’t go back and add more cells! So, what happens now really matters. Calcium is the most important building block for the development of strong cell walls. As new cells are formed, calcium acts as the glue to strengthen the cell walls. Phosphate is essential for energy transfer (ATP) that drives cell division. If the tree> Read more
Why Do I Need Calcium?
By Robert Smith, Chief Agronomist - Providing your soils with an adequate level of soluble and available calcium is an essential part of well-rounded fertilizer nutrition practice for several reasons. Here’s why and how to add calcium to soil. Calcium improves tilth and friability by reducing the stickiness and clinging ability of soils containing clay. Calcium, by breaking up clay particles and improving clay soil, increases the surface area of soils so more nutrients can be held by each particle. Calcium, by loosening up soil, increases water penetration ability, water-holding capacity, and aeration ability. The soil biome requires oxygen; thus, the more oxygen available, the more soil life it can support.> Read more
A Year of Nutrition in Citrus
By Dennis Laux, CCA - It's a new year, and in the citrus world, we drag 2025 into 2026 with crop harvest and farming techniques. There are a lot of different styles of farming today. Some are bare bones and some are upper-end. Today I am using the University of California, and Yara, nutrient timelines as a reference. Anyone can look these up, and they are great reference points to use for timing and products used in orchards. The four basic phases we’re diving into are: Flowering Fruit set Fruit fill Post harvest Flowering Four nutrients are needed: Nitrogen Phosphorus Potassium Calcium Nitrogen boosts yield and tree productivity.> Read more