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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 5, 2024 11:55:25 GMT
I'm wondering what quantity of almonds one tree can produce.
(Google just told me 2 to 5 kilos.)
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 5, 2024 12:45:56 GMT
Two to five kilos.
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Post by lugg on Mar 5, 2024 20:17:29 GMT
I wish my garden was as scruffy as yours Cheery - really it is such a mess.
Such beautiful blooms all - Bixa that orchid is lovely. Mark that almond ( ? orchard) makes me very envious.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Mar 6, 2024 22:37:16 GMT
I just saw your Orchid pics Bixa, they really are splendid !
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 6, 2024 22:46:30 GMT
Thanks, ladies! All the buds are open on the Dendrobium nobile (the lavender & purple one) & it's blooming merrily with no sign of fading. Another of those is making blooms, but I don't anticipate such a grand show on it.
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Post by Kimby on Mar 7, 2024 5:17:44 GMT
I'm wondering what quantity of almonds one tree can produce. What you should be wondering is how much water it takes to produce an almond. (And the trees have to be watered or they’ll die, so even if the bottom drops out of demand and prices fall too much to make it worth picking one year, you still have to water them.)
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 7, 2024 5:39:04 GMT
I think I read that in Spain a lot of olive orchards are being ripped up and replaced by almond orchards which require less water.
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Post by Kimby on Mar 7, 2024 5:50:05 GMT
I don’t know about olives, but here’s the poop on almonds:
What nut takes the most water to grow?
1. Almonds. To produce 1 pound of almonds, 7302 litres of water is used, making them the nut with the biggest water footprint. It actually takes 5 litres of water to produce just 1 almond!
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Post by bjd on Mar 7, 2024 6:42:07 GMT
There is another huge problem with almond trees. They bloom very early, before pollinators are actually awake. So truckloads of hibernating bees are taken to California and forced outside to pollinate trees while they are blooming in order to produce those crops.
Since there has been a drought in the western Mediterranean (Barcelona, Perpignan), the fruit trees are being taken out and replaced with pistachio trees. Allegedly, they don't require as much water. For the past two years, fruit farmers have been removing fruit from the trees in order to save the trees but the drought doesn't seem to be ending any time soon. Of course, new trees will take a few years to become productive.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 7, 2024 6:59:01 GMT
I've read different figures for almond water usage and many can't agree how it compares to walnuts, pistachio etc e.g. "For context on water usage, consider the following: 1 almond = 1 gallon, 1 pistachio = 2 gallons, 1 walnut = 5 gallons, 1 orange = 13 gallons, 1 apple = 18 gallons, 1 pound of alfalfa hay = 100 gallons." My area in Spain, Andalucía, combined with Valencia province are the second highest producer of almonds after the US and have been there from before the Roman era. I have an unknown number on my land, no more than about thirty though and they grow wild. There are vast tracts of land I can see from the house that have been turned over in the last ten years from olive trees to nuts of one sort or another.
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Post by bjd on Mar 7, 2024 7:23:42 GMT
I suppose one way of looking at water consumption is to see where these trees have been growing traditionally. Walnuts, for example, grow in temperate forests like in Dordogne and near Grenoble, France. Pistachios I buy here are imported from California and used to come from Iran, so hot and dry places. Olive trees have become popular in gardens in southern France in the past 10 years, but productive olive trees have been in southern Spain, Palestine and other hot dry areas for centuries.
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Post by Kimby on Mar 7, 2024 14:27:40 GMT
From the same source (UC Davis) as the almond water usage comment:
“Are olives a water intensive crop? Olive (Olea europaea L.) is considered drought tolerant and trees can survive on shallow soils with little supplemental water beyond winter rainfall.“
I suspect the reason for replacing olive trees with almond trees has more to do with profitability.
And perhaps the age of the existing groves of olive trees.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 7, 2024 15:35:24 GMT
The conundrum is that olives were getting less and less payment on the market for the farmers so they were turning to a higher profit crop - but then in Andalucía there was less and less rainfall and average temperatures were rising resulting in more and more water restrictions and drought. So a crop needing more water is/was on the surface, a bad move. I can only imagine to change from one to the other takes ten years or so (maybe shorter, maybe longer, I'm not a farmer) and in the meantime the climate has changed plus the income from olives is returning to levels before they made the decision to do so. I'd need to ask when I'm there.
I do know, being there every summer, that ten years or so ago is was unusual to have temperatures of more than 40 C for more than in total about a week between June and September. It has gradually increased such that last year for example there was one stretch of about three weeks over over 40 plus numerous other days. It's at a point that me and Mrs M are talking about if it is worth selling the house as there is no way we can have aircon with our solar, prohibitively expensive to get a mains connection and would we want to be there anyway with those temperatures.
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 7, 2024 16:48:07 GMT
Re last para, fully understandable but such a shame for you.
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Post by whatagain on Mar 8, 2024 12:02:08 GMT
Cognassier. Quince tree. forsythia prune or cherry tree.
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Post by tod2 on Mar 11, 2024 8:20:19 GMT
So pretty - Prune or cherry? What a nice surprise it will be.
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 16, 2024 12:56:45 GMT
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Post by whatagain on Mar 16, 2024 15:15:12 GMT
Our Camelia and our magnolia.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 16, 2024 15:32:49 GMT
That camellia is loaded with flowers & buds! Beautiful.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Mar 16, 2024 19:58:47 GMT
What a lovely selection of daffodils Mick, I think that I put my ulbs in too late as the pots I planted up last year are showing quite spindly growth...they may pick up.
I love your flowering shrubs and trees Whatagain, they really are glorious.
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Post by tod2 on Mar 18, 2024 9:58:09 GMT
Mick your dafs are sensational!
Whatagain - that Camelia tree is putting on a fabulous show. So heavy with the bright pink blossoms, the branches are drooping. Magnificent.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 18, 2024 13:52:29 GMT
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Post by tod2 on Mar 18, 2024 13:56:51 GMT
Simply Beautiful in every way!
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 18, 2024 15:25:33 GMT
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Post by fumobici on Mar 18, 2024 18:48:21 GMT
Those blooms are amazing Bixa! I'm familiar with all but the top one.
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 18, 2024 19:08:47 GMT
My Dad used to grow the shrimp plant.
My Agapanthus is only just showing leaves!
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Post by bjd on Mar 18, 2024 19:27:01 GMT
I like that dark blue agapanthus. Mine has leaves but is a long way from blooming.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 18, 2024 19:34:45 GMT
Thanks, Fumobici. That yellow shrimp plant and the similar looking Justicia brandegeeana (also called shrimp plant) are pretty common ornamentals in the Gulf south of the US. It was given to me potted from a nursery at the end of July '23 and not even planted right away. It seems to have decided it likes its spot in a raised planter.
Mick, did he overwinter it inside? I've seen Agapanthus blooming here & there around town. Remember that it does not freeze here during the winter, nor are there even prolonged periods of cold.
I have to admit I'm thrilled with the "St. Joseph's lilies". The bulbs were given to me a good twenty years ago. This group got terribly overshadowed with a Thalia geniculata before I moved the monster last month. Once it was gone, the Amaryllis almost immediately put out more leaves followed by rapidly developing buds.
Bjd, if you ever come across one of the dark blue ones, pounce on it. I brought this one from Oaxaca. My plant friend there told me they want water and sun to be happy. Seems little enough to provide for the reward of that flower.
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Post by bjd on Mar 18, 2024 19:43:48 GMT
A few photos from my garden this afternoon
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 18, 2024 19:50:39 GMT
That double Daff is a beauty.
Yes it came indoors in winter bixa.
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