Farm updates. Courtesy of God of Rain.

We have succeeded in "beating the rain" and all the work that might have been delayed by rain is done.

Carpenter - A weed strip spray is applied, replant sites have been backhoed, the pruning is finished and the brush has been chipped. All that remains for the near future is to fumigate the replant sites.

Whitmore - Ground preparation is completed, including ripping, leveling, fumigation, putting up the berms and marking the tree sites. The only remaining task to be done before planting is to install the irrigation system.

Cleaning up inter-row space - Carpenter ranch:

Clean row middles:

Whitmore ranch:

Laser leveling tripod:

Wanna make some berms?

This is how they are made..

When you drive by any orchard,  you might have observed that they feature row after row of trees straight in symmetrical beauty. You might have wondered how they planted those rows so straight, right? Well, using a GPS controlled tractor, like in the pics below.

They use a guidance system to first measure the field and program into the computer the row spacing as desired by us. Once they input the field coordinates, they use GPS and satellite imagery to put markers all over the ground, with a precision of 1-inch. 

Here you just see the GPS controlled tractor making berms. Once it is done, it will go install markers where new plants will go.

Berms at Whitmore

A berm is simply a mound of earth with sloping sides. Berms or mounds may serve one or a combination of the following functions:

• Moves water down and away from the tree's root system
• Effective fertilizer usage
• Create more aeration in the soil so leading to rapid rooting of developing tree

This is the almond field. Straws will be inserted at each tree location for the almonds and the candycots tomorrow.