Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Leaf sample nutrient analysis at Carpenter -- Good news and Not-so-good news!

In our area,  the key nutrients for almonds that can be limiting factors of production are Nitrogen (N), Potassium (K), Boron (B) and Zinc (Zn).

Good new is that, all of our nutrients fall within acceptable ranges except for potassium.

University of California recommended levels are as follows and the results of the two samples at Carpenter are as follows:

N -- 2.72 and 2.58% (Recommended N 2.2 - 2.5% )
K -- 1.26 and 1.29% (Recommended K 1.4%)
B -- 30 and 32 ppm (Recommended 30-65 ppm) 
Zn -- 30 and 30 ppm (Recommended Zb >15 ppm)

Not-so-good news is that the best producing orchards have levels of potassium well above the recommended level of 1.4%.  And potash is not cheap! 

Saturday, September 6, 2008

When we were on "Field run", we noticed "Crack out"..

OK. These are just almond industry jargons that are usually found in a huller's receiving report. Huller is the guy who you haul off your shaken almonds to.

"Field run" refers to the product as we harvested it and includes the meats, shells, hulls and any other debris that we might have picked up with the nuts such as sticks or dirt clods. 

"Crack out" is the term used for the percentage of what we delivered that is actual almond meats. The crack out is influenced by how clean the loads are, that is, how much debris is sent out (our loads were fairly clean, no rocks, dirt, etc.). It also varies from year to year due to growing conditions and how thick the hulls are. 

Typically, crack outs run in the 20% to 25% range for Nonpariel. Ours is a little lower than that. 

Thursday, September 4, 2008

The cost of replacing the stolen filter pods is several thousand dollars.. Ouch!

We have added razor wire coils inside the lockup area, and a security patrol is inspecting three times a night. So far it is working, it has been more than a month without a theft.  :) 

We will add an alarm to the lockup area and I think we can cut back the patrols after September.