- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The numbers are beginning to trickle in confirming UC Cooperative Extension advisor Brent Holtz' hunch. Chipping and returning expired almond orchards into the soil where they grew is not only environmentally sound, it is economically smart.
(View a three-minute video of the machinery in action at the end of this post.)
After about 20 years, almond orchards' productivity and vigor begin to decline. Most farmers remove the old trees and plant younger, more vigorous replacements to keep up almond production.
In the past, old trees were easily and cheaply disposed of: they were...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
When almond orchards are about 25 years old, farmers must pull out the trees and plant new ones to maintain quality and yield. Typically, the old trees are pushed out and burned or ground up and hauled to a co-generation plant. However, UC Cooperative Extension advisor Brent Holtz believes there may be a better way.
Holtz has been pioneer in ag burn alternatives throughout his 26-year-career with UCCE, and going back still further on his family almond farm near Modesto. Beginning in the early 1990s, Holtz and his father experimented with chipping almond prunings instead of burning them, long before air quality regulations required wide implementation of the practice.
When...
