Has anyone outside of California actually harvested commercial grade nuts
from their almond tree?
I think we are still producing darn near 100% of the production Almonds in
the US.
I kept thinking of some older varieties that had Texas names such as Texas
which to me is the old Mission and I think right offhand Nonpareil may have
a Texas origin.
Just for fun I'll include this link below.
A Historical Reference of the Almond
I read in an Aggie Horticulture article, this one below, that Bacterial
leaf spot can be a problem and made the mistake of asking myself
which leaf spot are they referencing? Your climate is ideal for
Alternaria lef spot which is a fungus. Some people call the symptoms
we can see on the leaves from
Pseudomonas syringae a leaf spot disease
and then there is form of
Xanthomonas arboricola that produces a
leaf spot on a wide variety of the
Prunus family which includes Peaches
and Almonds.
Fruit Gardening in Texas
Then I read this article from the Texas Agriculture Extension Service below
which refers to Brown rot (
Monilinia) as being a problem with Almonds and
again I asked myself which form are they referencing and are they referring
to the right one,
Monilinia fruiticola or
Monilinia laxa? The reason is one
form of Brown rot more so than the Hull rot form can cause a gummosis
on the Almond "hull" (actually the husk instead as the husk covers the hull
and the nut resides within the hull also known as the shell). The gummosis
from the
Monilinia fungal pathogen can easily be mistaken for what Bacterial
leaf spot (
Pseudomonas syringae) does to certain susceptible varieties such
as Thompson, Merced, NePlus, Mission and Carmel to name a few. So, I've
been on a wild goose chase online wondering why areas of Texas cannot
grow a commercial grade quality Almond just from a disease standpoint.
Personally, I don't think an Almond can be grown in Texas organically
unless the term organic has become rather broadened in scope as surely
fungicide sprays will have to be used in order to protect the trees from
fungal diseases and perhaps even some bacterial prevention sprays, may
have to include using fixed Copper mixed along with some tetracycline.
Producing Texas Fruits and Nuts Organically
I've had some fun with all of this looking around wondering the reasons as
to why and figuring out reasons for the why not commercial grade Almonds
cannot be grown in Texas. In the back of my mind I believe it can be done
but selection of key varieties to grow will become essential in choosing those
varieties that are resistant to the prevalent diseases that have affected and
impacted the growing ability of these plants elsewhere.
The blooming period issues can be dealt with in some areas by having
later blooming varieties. The insect problems may be another factor
as what we may have for insects here may not or probably are not the
same as most areas in Texas and perhaps New Mexico will have to
deal with. We have one thing in common with our alkaline soils and
we can deal with that also to either free up the locked up Iron or Zinc
in the soil, through ground and aerial or boom sprays of chelated forms
of these nutrients and with the lowering of the pH of our soils by using
Gypsum and water or even to the extent of flashing a field or irrigating
between the rows with a low pH water.
Jim 
