Growing almonds requires a lot of water, a resource heavily regulated in some areas.
It led researchers at UC Davis to roll up their sleeves and see just how much stress an almond tree can take.
“We had two sites, we have six years in one and three years in another, and found that we could wait a substantial amount of time, more than one month after growers normally start irrigating. We have not seen any bad effects on yields, but we have seen a better tree appearance in the trees. Now, we haven’t actually seen any serious symptoms, but at least delaying irrigation for long times has had no detrimental effect and some positive effects,” said Ken Shackel.
No worries there, but starting irrigation too late can cause issues. Shackel calls it the “bank account effect,” when the trees take up too much water too quickly, and then do not have enough to get through harvest.
Stagger buys and diversifies fertilizer sources — watch CBAM, India’s tenders, and Brazil’s import pace to time urea, phosphate, and potash purchases.
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While the U.S.-China framework for soybean trade is in place, Ohio farmer Chris Gibbs tells us he will believe it when he sees it.
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Global nitrogen and phosphate prices remain high despite improved supply fundamentals, with limited Chinese exports and stronger fall applications tightening availability.
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