Typical Day In My Back Yard

[usedto]

Well, I guess necessity IS the mother of invention. Not to make light of the ingenuity, but this whole process of switching from row crops to almond orchard has used some unique and expensive equipment, some of it quite specialized. I noticed earlier in the week that there was a machine running out in the field, but it was too far away to identify. On one of our walks in the morning, we noticed the fertilizer tinder in the yard, then spotted the fertilizer on the ground, directly over the tree's root ball. The gray fertilizer pellets are Triple 15 (15N, 15P, 15K), and are best concentrated at the roots.

Yesterday, they did the rows directly behind my warehouse, so I grabbed my camera to get a photo. It wasn't exactly what I had envisioned:

The driver stopped at the end of the row, so I talked to him a bit and took a closer photo:

It started off with set of Chevy 3/4 ton differentials (it's 4WD) mounted on a rigid frame. It's powered by a 65 hp 4 cyl. Wisconsin engine. I didn't see how it was coupled to the transfer case, but I imagine the motor drives a hydraulic pump with an orbit motor on the input.

The hopper feeds two chutes that dump the fertilizer into the two plastic anti-freeze jug bottoms that are mounted on a catapult assembly. The driver has a pushbutton, and when the machine is in the proper position, he pushes a button that activated the catapult and dumps the contents at the base of the tree on either side. It's quite the gizmo! And he clips right along, too.

I spoke to a friend of mine who just had his new orchard done, and he says the company that owns/built it is the only one around that has one that can do that job. $12/per acre for application, I believe. That's $3000 to do this field. Sounds like alot, but savings on fertilizer by concentrating in in this manner would easily surpass the cost.

 

[usedto]

One of the "fruits" of their labor:

That's pretty much it for now. They'll probably mow the weeds sometime after the irrigation. The rest is just waiting and taking care of the young trees.

 

[HankHandy]

Cool thread, thanks for sharing. Seems like they would want to control the distance of that water more to be more on the trees, less on the weeds. Wonder if they do any of that on purpose to spread root growth. Maybe it's just the nature of the beast with that type of head. Anyway, just thinkin out loud.

 

[usedto]

Once the trees mature, their roots will spread to the center of the rows. The sprinklers will give them the water they need.

They have experimented with drippers at the base of the trees, but the results weren't as positive.

 

[usedto]

Strip spraying to keep the weeds out of the treerows:

Time to mow the weeds now, between irrigations. Before:

After:

Makes it nicer for our walks in the morning.

 

[usedto]

Pretty much finishing touches now. They've been irrigated a few times and growing quite well. A crew is tying the trees up now. I'll get photos when they get closer to the warehouse. They have been bouncing around the field between sprinkler sets.

You remember the earlier photos of the D10s and the rippers? Although the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages, there is an occasional hiccup. When those huge shanks break up the ground 4-5 feet down, there's always the possibility that a few clods will wedge themselves together and create a void. Add water, and voila - a sink hole:

There are several of these we've seen on our walks. One even gobbled up a half a tree. Crews go through in the beginning and fill them in.


Here's another one. Note the tree I have marked. See how much brighter green and curly the leaves are?

The wife was the first to spot it. She thought that maybe some bugs had been eating the leaves where they appeared shriveled with irregular edges. I walked over and took a closer look. I told you earlier that most edible almonds trees are grafted on peach roots - otherwise the nuts are bitter. This appears to be a peach tree. Something must have happened during the graft process - maybe this one was skipped, or a wrong bud produced the stem. Anyway, if they leave it in, I would bet that it will produce peaches instead of nuts.


Here's a closer comparison:

The top photo is an almond tree. The leaves are a dull, flat satin green.

The bottom tree appears to be peach. The leaves are bright green, shiny, and wavy with irregular edges.



I haven't brought it to the attention of the foreman (it's out in the middle of the field where we walk). He may or may not leave it in.

Ahh, the best laid plans of mice and men........................

 

[jhtstone]

This is a great photo essay! Thank-you!

 

[usedto]

This is a great photo essay! Thank-you!

You're welcome.

A little off subject but still all part of the deal:

Last year, Amazon built a huge warehouse out here. I showed photos of the helicopter setting the HVAC units on the roof. Well, they already need to expand, so they're building on to the warehouse. This morning the chopper was out doin' it's thing again: (lousy photo)

I'll throw in a little "history" just to show you how plans can change. That Amazon warehouse is about 1 1/2 miles away, on the edge of one of the city boundaries. In the early 90s when people were fat and stupid with money, this whole area was (maybe still is) considered to be in the "sphere of influence" of the city, and had a designation of future homesites. Many of the affected farmers joined forces through a realtor/developer to have their properties considered in the city's future general plan. The property this orchard sits on was included. Since my parcel is so small in comparison, I was omitted from the consideration (I instead went to the county and had my property re-zoned on my own). As a matter of fact, the cell tower that now sits on my property was supposed to go on the neighbors, but they opted out in favor of possible homes in the future.

After the crash, all of that has changed. Any of the developers who once had interest in any of this property are long gone, and the farmers who survived have gone back to pursuing that profession. Hundreds of acres that had "For Sale For Development" signs have now been turned into orchards - a 30+ year commitment. Smart move. Almonds, for now, are a lucrative crop, and any developer who comes along now will have to pay for the future income from the crop to buy a farmer out.

Worked out good for me in the long run. The cell tower put both my kids through college and then some, and I have one of the only small pieces of property zoned Industrial that isn't in city limits - a big plus. It's now for sale (my daughter graduates from college in 2 weeks), and should prove to be fairly lucrative.

And life goes on.

 

[usedto]

Well, the tree tie-r-uppers made it to the warehouse today. Interesting process. Each tree is ties with two legs, with the tree as the third. The prevailing wind is from the northwest, so they tie on that side. It starts with a "W" clip. A piece of poly twine about 3' long is tied to the center of the "W".

This is the gizmo they use for installing the tie and anchor:

The tip has a notch cut in it, and the center peak of the "W" is pushed up inside with the tie twine in the notch so it doesn't get cut. (It's packed with dirt because he was at the end of the row and just stuck it in the ground).

The foot assist and gusset below it do two things. The rod and anchor are stuck in the ground, pushed in with the foot, then twisted one direction or the other while lifting. That allows the "w" to spring out, and the gusset closes any opening in the ground it may have made going in. The ties are set.

The ties are now in place:

Then, a fatter, less abrasive piece of hemp or manila rope (treated, it appears) is tied around the trunk as a tie-off point. The orange ties themselves are so thin and tough that they would saw through a branch in no time. Also, a growing tree will be able to break the rope if left unattended, where the tie twine would more than likely do harm.

After that, the two anchor ties are fastened to the piece around the tree:

And the completed assembly:

Tracy is pretty windy - hence the ties. The other issue is that the branches and leaves have outgrown the root system for right now, and they catch alot of wind - more than the roots will hold their first year.

They should grow enough this year that the trunk guards and ties can probably be removed next spring.

As soon as the crew finished these rows, the sprinklers were turned on, and they moved back to the other end to finish up there.

 

[fdejong]

Great thread. Thanks for posting!

 

[usedto]

Great thread. Thanks for posting!

Glad you're enjoying it. I was going to bump this today.

Here's what a tree looked like right after planting, putting on the guard, and pruning back. The guard is 18", so this tree is somewhere around 30" in this photo:

Here's one of the trees I just took a photo of. It measures 8'1" to the top of that branch. Not bad for 8 months growth. They'll grow a bit more this summer, then go dormant when the weather changes.

I see there's a pile of gypsum in the north end of the field, so it will probably get spread before too long. Gyp helps break up the soil so it can do a better job of absorbing water and getting it to the roots.


As a heads-up, I'm HOPING to do another thread like this in the near future that many of you should like. I don't want to start it yet, because circumstances could interfere between now and when it "officially" begins. In this one, I will have a personal involvement. I attempted it last year, but the other person (people) involved crapped out on me. This year, I've already signed a contract and passed the cash to get it started, so hopefully it will succeed. I'll keep you posted.:thmbsp:

 

[JHS2RT]

Ahhh-Green Acres (is the place I want to be--Farm living is the life for me-land spreading out so far and wide------------------------)

 

[usedto]

Busy day in the orchard today. Almond harvest is upon us, and pretty soon all of the workers will be busy with the knocking, sweeping, raking, and picking up of the crop in established orchards, so they're doing the season-end projects on this field while they have the time. I mentioned the Gypsum - it's time for another irrigation, so the gyp is being spread now. Sorry for the poor photos, but I wasn't expecting him so quick and I had to rush to get these:

The spreader has panels on the rear to divert the product. It's more important to band the gyp near the roots, so the center is blocked off. If it were an open field, the material would be evenly spread all the way across. The spreader has a drag chain (like a conveyor belt) at the bottom of the V tinder that brings the material to the back and through a slide gate that regulates the amount. It then drops on spinners that fling the material out. The RPM can be regulated to determine how far it's thrown.


As I was leaving the field to go back in my office, I heard something coming through the field. I looked up and saw this:

And this:

And this:

...coming through the field. I showed you a close-up of one in previous photos. Time for another shot of fertilizer before fall sets in. Three units to get it done quick. They'll be busy doing established orchards after harvest.

They irrigate this field 1/4 at a time (60 plus acres). At the rate they're going now, they will easily have a quarter of the field done this afternoon. I expect to see water running either tonight or tomorrow.

 

[usedto]

As I said earlier in the thread, it's been over 40 years since I've been involved in farming almonds, and alot has changed, so some of my speculation as to what, why, or when could easily be in error. Such was my prediction of water immediately after the gyp and fertilizer.

It took 4 days to finish spreading the gyp. Just so you'll understand the whole process, the gyp is dumped in a huge pile at the end of the field, along with a front end loader - in this case a backhoe. The tractor driver pulls up to the pile, fires up the loader, and uses it to fill the tinder. He then gets off, hops back on the tractor, drives back out in the field, and spreads the load - maybe two or three rounds. Then back to the pile for another load. To put that into perspective, the field is 3/4 of a mile long, and crossways there are 90 miles of tree rows. When he first starts, it's a mile and a half round trip to refill and back, getting shorter every round. The field is 1/2 mile wide, so if he empties at the far end, it's a longer trip. Bottom line - I'd bet money the driver spends more time refilling than actual spreading. That's a lot of driving!!

Anyway, he finished yesterday afternoon. This morning when I went out for my walk, I was met by these guys:

There are three of these strip sprayers going this morning, and they clip right along. They probably started at sunup, and already have over 1/8 of the field done. They only spray the tree rows to keep weeds out. They mow the centers. As I said before, the sprinkler system prevents cross working the field any more, so the spray keeps the weeds out of the rows to facilitate easier and cleaner harvest.

I'm not sure when they will irrigate again. Most current spray materials need only to dry on the weeds and sit an hour or so to be effective, so the water may come any time. I'll let you know.

 

[usedto]

And now, one of the pitfalls of modern day farming. A little history.

Some of the water in this area is salty, some due to overuse of chemicals in the past, and some due to the proximity to the bay and salt water. Also, water from the dams in the Sierras is pumped out of the delta and shipped to SoCal via canals. In drought years, overpumping for the canals lowers the water level in the Delta, allowing salt water from the SF bay to back in. Pump it for irrigation, and you get salt water.

Although there are some plants that are salt tolerant, almonds aren't. Here is a photo of a tree right behind my warehouse.

See how the bottom leaves are turning brown? That's salt damage. This orchard is irrigated with a combination of well water (salty) and irrigation district water (also salty this year). I don't know exactly how much damage it does, but I know it sets the trees back some. Hopefully we have a wet winter so we get past some of this.

 

[usedto]

Time to mow the weeds again.The weeds aren't too high here by the warehouse, but some places in the field where the soil is different some are almost as tall as the trees.

Before:

During:

After:

The mower on the back of the tractor is a Vrisimo flail mower, made in a nearby town. It has a rotating drum under the shield with a large quantity of "knives" or "hammers" that hang and swing on the drum. There's a PTO shaft on the rear of the tractor that a short driveline is hooked to. It turns a gearbox that then turns the shaft across the back which drives the drum by belts. They do a nice job, and can shred even small branches.

The company also makes a version for shredding tree prunings.

 

[Jeffery]

I haven't posted yet, but just wanted you to know I've been following this thread from the start and have really enjoyed it. I would never have guessed how much work went into creating an almond orchard.

 

[Guest114]

Nice thread/documentary.

In the Midwest we call them flail mowers.

Lin

 

[usedto]

Nice thread/documentary.

In the Midwest we call them flail mowers.

Lin

This one has had the "L" beat out of it...........

 

[Guest114]

This one has had the "L" beat out of it...........

Makes sense, since it fail'ed.
Good comeback. :thmbsp: