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Posted on 7:59 AM by Wanto and filed under
By Evan Roberts
Suckers coming up from the roots should always be cut off right to their base, while in the summer the strong lateral growths are broken back by about half their length with the back of the knife- blade. This is known as bruiting. By leaving the ends of these laterals rough (that is why they are broken off and not cut) secondary growths are discouraged.
These brutted side shoots are shortened back another 3 inches in early March. For ease of picking, keep the tops of the branches at a height of about 7 or 8 feet. Leaders, therefore, have to be cut back hard each year. The female flowers bloom very early in the season, usually from mid-February onwards, the blossoming period usually lasts for one month. The flowers are extremely small, hardly any bigger than a pin's head, and are like a little mauvy tuft peeping out of a bud. Because the male and female flowers are borne separately on the same branch, it is important to see that the male pollen is well distributed, when the female tufts are receptive.
At the moment of writing I have no knowledge of the grassing down of the soil underneath the nut trees. I have always grown my nuts on land that is very lightly cultivated in the summer for the purpose of keeping down weeds.
Nut trees should not be sprayed in the winter with a tar-oil wash, but because of the ravages of the nut-weevil, which hibernates as a grub and emerges in May to lay its eggs in the soft nutlets, it does seem essential to apply a 5 per cent D.D.T. dust to the trees during the first week in June, before the weevils probe the nutlets to do their feeding.
The varieties Prunus amygdalus macrocarpa and Prunus amygdalus dukis produce practically no hydrocyanic acid and they have a mild nutty flavour, being quite innocuous.
It is the varieties .Prunus amygdalus amara, Prunus amygdalus pollardii, Prunus temella, and Prunus amygdalo-persica, which produce dangerous proportions of hydrocyanic acid. Grow, prune and treat as for Peaches. It very much depends on the weather how these trees yield. So often their blossoms are cut by the frost that few nuts appear. But in the years when there is a nice mild spring, the almond trees may bear quite heavily and those who bother to grow them discover that the nuts are an attractive and nutritious fruit.
These brutted side shoots are shortened back another 3 inches in early March. For ease of picking, keep the tops of the branches at a height of about 7 or 8 feet. Leaders, therefore, have to be cut back hard each year. The female flowers bloom very early in the season, usually from mid-February onwards, the blossoming period usually lasts for one month. The flowers are extremely small, hardly any bigger than a pin's head, and are like a little mauvy tuft peeping out of a bud. Because the male and female flowers are borne separately on the same branch, it is important to see that the male pollen is well distributed, when the female tufts are receptive.
At the moment of writing I have no knowledge of the grassing down of the soil underneath the nut trees. I have always grown my nuts on land that is very lightly cultivated in the summer for the purpose of keeping down weeds.
Nut trees should not be sprayed in the winter with a tar-oil wash, but because of the ravages of the nut-weevil, which hibernates as a grub and emerges in May to lay its eggs in the soft nutlets, it does seem essential to apply a 5 per cent D.D.T. dust to the trees during the first week in June, before the weevils probe the nutlets to do their feeding.
The varieties Prunus amygdalus macrocarpa and Prunus amygdalus dukis produce practically no hydrocyanic acid and they have a mild nutty flavour, being quite innocuous.
It is the varieties .Prunus amygdalus amara, Prunus amygdalus pollardii, Prunus temella, and Prunus amygdalo-persica, which produce dangerous proportions of hydrocyanic acid. Grow, prune and treat as for Peaches. It very much depends on the weather how these trees yield. So often their blossoms are cut by the frost that few nuts appear. But in the years when there is a nice mild spring, the almond trees may bear quite heavily and those who bother to grow them discover that the nuts are an attractive and nutritious fruit.
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