Growers in Idaho's Treasure Valley hunt booty from almonds
WASHINGTON, June 1, 2016 - What might one day be called the
Idaho Growers Almond Coup may be taking root in the Treasure Valley of
southwest Idaho, where farmers successfully grow table and wine grapes,
peaches, apples, nectarines and more.
There, about 16 varieties of almond trees are blooming,
flourishing in a small experimental tract at the University of Idaho’s Parma Research and Extension Center,
located in the low, flat region where the Snake, Boise and other rivers and
creeks converge.
Because winters get colder there than in the southern and
central California groves of almonds (pronounced a′-mens, with the a as in
apple, by California farmers), researchers at Parma are, of course, looking
especially at strains with cold hardiness. “The ones that have worked really
well for us are Sonora, Nonpareil and Monterey,” says research assistant Tom
Elias. “The three have grown here for a long, long time and they are doing
really well.” Now, the center has stepped up its research at the urging of
Treasure Valley farmers who want to consider commercial almond production.
Growing almonds “piques my interest,” says Kevin Schultz of
Eagle, Idaho, president of the Snake River Table Grape Growers. “I got into
grapes because of a buddy who grows almonds in California. It’s how I got into
agriculture in the first place.” Schultz observes that Californians “get pretty
good returns on almonds.” So, he says, “On my place, I would plant some almond
trees in a heartbeat.”
In California, the only state growing almonds commercially,
production has had a storied history.
Franciscan friars brought almond trees, long grown in the Middle East and
Mediterranean, to locations there more than 400 years ago. California farmers
began growing them seriously more than a century ago, quadrupling their yields
per acre by 2000. In recent decades, output has soared: Acreage has doubled in
the past 20 years, and production has nearly doubled in just the last decade to
an expected 2 billion pounds this year. The success is driven largely by
exports: Californians now grow almost 80 percent of world almonds and ship more
than 80 percent of world almond exports.
What’s more, Californians have been steadily adding more
bearing acres, while enhancing their yields to boot, right on through recent
years of drought. Yield per acre is projected up again this year – by 5 percent
– with total
production of shelled almonds up 6 percent.
Back in Parma, Elias says that one strain tested there,
called Fritz, showed cold damage. But
Nonpareil and Monterey, which happen to be California’s top
producing varieties, seem to flourish, he said. They mature later in Idaho, he
said, but it may be an advantage for Idaho growers to have a bit different
harvest season.
Note that while drought has zapped California in recent
years, the Treasure Valley has plentiful water from area
rivers and aquifers. Also, it hosts hundreds of beekeepers who now haul
their beehives each winter to California to assist almond orchard pollination,
but may prefer to perform those services in Idaho groves.
So far, California producers seem to be paying scant attention
to the Treasure Valley research. “As far as I know, we are not aware of any
research (on almond trees) in Idaho,” Alicia Rockwell, spokesperson for Blue Diamond Growers, a cooperative and
leading California producer, said in an email to Agri-Pulse.
Meanwhile, Gabriele Ludwig, representative of the California
Almond Board, a producer promotion and research entity, said she was
surprised at the notion of Idaho almond production. Folks in her offices, she
said, “are not aware that Idaho has the appropriate growing conditions for the
current varieties of almonds. Almonds
have a quite narrow temperature range they like to grow in and produce well.”
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