How is a almond grown
How Are Almonds Grown? Part 1
[Music]
what's going on guys welcome to the Volk
ranch youtube channel today we're going
to be focusing on the Amin's the almonds
i talked about in the first video just a
little bit coming out here and just
starting off we're gonna talk about kind
of the crop itself how they're grown and
how we kind of get started and get to
where they are at now and just kind of
the basics of almond farming there's a
ton that goes into it I could there
could be hours of video and episodes on
the ammon so we're gonna try and keep it
pretty basic like I said in the first
video almonds are grown on a tree and
this is what they look like at this
stage we're now weird it's actually June
first today so this is what they look
like at this stage this isn't obviously
you're not going to pick this out at the
store to eat this almonds are a seed and
so we actually have there's this outer
hole and then inside this hole there's a
shell and then inside the shells the
ammon so I'll break this apart real
quick for you and so you can see inside
I gotta use my mouth to open these
because these are really solid tight
right now
so you can see there's this outer hole
there's this outer hole here and then
there's a shell beginning to form around
the the amat itself and here's the
actual Amman almond and right now it's
pretty soft like I can squish it it's
just mmm squish it and it's just got a
lot of moisture in it but you can see
it's starting to it's got its shape that
it needs and it's just really soft right
now still forming so we as the growers
we take care of the trees we were the
ones who put all the money into planting
them doing all the work
getting the sprinklers going making sure
they're getting water getting bees for
pollination all the things that they
need going on and on and I'll go over
more kind of in depth of what we do
exactly for farming but that's what we
do once we're once we harvest them then
they'll get sent to a hole or in shell
or who will take that hole off take that
shell off and all you have left is that
Amman and then from there that'll get
sent for us and goes to blue diamond and
so we market our Amin's with blue
diamond and a great great awesome
company to coop you know so it's grower
owned maybe a little later on we can see
if we can get some get some guys from
blue diamond out here we can kind of do
an interview with them and kind of kind
of get to know them better and get to
talk with them but so that's who we
market Auriemma to so the whole ER and
Cheryl Shelley will send it to them
they'll go through they'll do all the
they'll pick out the bad ones cuz
there's gonna be bad just any crop
there's gonna be bad ones
they'll go through pick them out size
them they'll sword them and then package
them and send them off to you guys to
send them off to the stores for you guys
to grab okay so kind of I'm gonna walk
you through try and do this as quick as
possible how we get these and orchards
the way they are today so first things
first we have to deep rip the ground
[Music]
you
now the reason we have to deep rip is
because the soil here in the Central
Valley especially in our area about two
three feet down some areas four feet
down we have a layer of soil called hard
pan and it's exactly what it sounds like
it is concrete hard rock solid the roots
can't penetrate through it for these
trees because these trees we want the
roots there you want them to go down at
least about six feet and they can't get
past that hard pan it cannot penetrate
through that hard pan through that
basically concrete layer so we have to
have like I showed you those big giant
bulldozers so we'll have D tens D 11s
depends on how how deep your hard pan is
how thick it is to be able to break it
up and they have that giant shank on the
back that's in the ground it's about six
feet we try and get them to bury it as
deep as they can six feet down and then
that just goes through and rips up the
ground and it kind of pulls up those big
chunks then we have to have I didn't
have a video of it we have to have these
big discs come through huge double discs
come through break up those clods smooth
out that dirt so we're ready to plant
next step would be installing air and
get fresh I was installing irrigation
lines I didn't have a video of that
either I'll pry it put some pictures
maybe if I can
but we got to install all the
underground irrigation lines because we
like we said we've got these irrigation
lines here that we have to water the
trees they need water here in the
Central Valley we don't get a lot of it
during the summer the next step is
planting
and so we do what's called mechanical
planting a lot of guys will hand plant
where I'll actually have crews come out
and dig a hole
plant the tree fill the tree in and go
to the next one which takes a ton of
time a lot of labor cost a lot of money
we do what's called mechanical planting
like I showed you in the video with the
tractor it's got the disks makes the
furrow as it's going and I was doing
that there's a couple guys on the back
there's guy who plants it as that dirt
and goes over it covers it up and then
usually there's a couple guys walking
behind those and they'll sand they'll
lean the tree
the reason they leaned the tree is
because we have what's called the
prevailing winds and so from the Delta
and Stockton we get these winds and they
blow from a north northwest to southeast
direction and so we plant the trees in a
Northwest angle because we know that
that winds going to blow those trees and
eventually it's going to raise their
straight in those trees out and so we
don't want to plot them straight because
then they'll just tip over especially in
these strong winds that we'll get so we
get them planted and now they're ready
to go now that we've got them planted
basically for the next three years all
we're doing is taking care of this tree
so now they're at this stage now so
these trees actually right here are six
leaf trees so they're at this stage now
and we got our normal growing season so
in February beginning of February that's
when the trees will start to bloom
they're coming out of dormancy they're
waking up for the spring and so they'll
put off like a lot of plants and trees
do they'll put off these so they have
they grow these flowers
and then that's why we need the bees to
come in and pollinate those flowers
so that we can have a crop that's how
you get the Amin's they have to be
pollinated by bees so they've been
pollinated and then now we got started
taking care of from mowing irrigating
and we got to be really conscious about
our irrigation and then about for us the
end of August it's time to harvest
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