Almond Growers are Looking at a Good Crop

Craig Wylie is a central San Joaquin Valley farmer producing almonds, pistachios, mandarins, and pomegranates. He also manages many farms. He comments on the start of the 2020 almond crop.

“We had a really nice bloom, some chilly nights, a little bit of rain, but it was a long bloom. In fact, one of my processors came out, and took pictures of one of my orchards,” said Wylie. “He had never seen an all his blocks, and he travels up and down the valley, he has never seen so much bloom on a tree,” he said.

But the processor was a little disappointed. “He said he did not see the nut set what he thought would be over 4,000 pounds in that orchard, but he's still happy with it. It's going to be over 3000 pounds, 3,500 he thinks, but it was a tremendous bloom,” said Wylie.

Wylie said the overall nut set looks great. “My neighbors all around me, with the young blocks and the older blocks all have really nice crops,” he said.

And of course this time of year we're getting what's called the May nut drop when the tree balances itself out.

“I watched some of the trees yesterday and we're getting some drop with the small nutlets falling off, but it doesn't matter,” Wylie said.

He said his neighbor has a huge crop and he's not concerned about that May drop.

“He could lose 10 to 15% and he's still be close to 4,000 pounds on his block. So no, I think all the almond growers, if the price comes back up, which I've been told it will, should be happy with this year's crop,” noted Wylie