Baby almond trees leaf study

Plant type: 

Baby almond tree planting, type: Butte.

Application used: 

All monitored trees were planted on the same date in Jan 2023, and the images taken by May 30, 2024. At planting, trees were dormant, bare roots trimmed to 12". Trunks had no branches or leaves, and were trimmed to about 100 cm above the graft. Over 24 different ratios of soil amendments are being experimented with in order to understand, which ingrediences had the best effects on plant growth.

Location: 

A commercial almond orchard in Turlock, California.

Observations: 

Not only are the leaves on the treated trees of 4x larger compared to the leaves on untreated trees, they are also in a darker shade of green, indicating more chlorophyll generation.

Results:

Description                     Height       Canopy    Trunk diam.    Leaf surface

Control plants                   127 cm         63 cm        1.05 cm              5.6 cm x 1.6 cm

Treated plants (averg.)   140 cm.        68 cm        1.47 cm                      

Best treated plant           169 cm         82 cm        1.50 cm              10 cm x 3.6 cm

Images: 

1. Conventionally planted tree (control).
2. Treated tree, planted same day as tree on image 1.
3. Typical leaf size on a conventional tree.
4. Larger leaf of a treated tree.

See the different leaf sizes of the different trees compared to the middle finger on these images. 

Plant type: 

Padre Almonds

Summary: 

We planted and monitored over 100 almond trees and experimented with 12 different combinations. 6 experimented with a harvest accelerator formula suggested to us, 6 experimented with various dose rates of JB, and 5 trees were planted with one ingredient only (to identify the contribution individually of each ingredient).  

Location: 

A commercial almond orchard in Turlock, California.

Observations: 

The trees planted (Feb-March ’24) with this JB mixture grew much taller, have broader canopies, have thicker trunks, and have larger leaves (4.2x), than all of the control trees planted in 2024. These trees grew taller with wider canopies, and larger leaves, than the average of 20 trees planted in 2023 and monitored since then. Due to the size advantage, the farmer anticipates these trees might harvest earlier than the control trees planted in 2023, and the larger leaf size correlates to larger harvests; yet to be proven. On 29 November 2024, a trench was dug, and pressurized water was used to inspect the root balls of JB treated trees vs control trees: the JB treated trees had thicker main roots, more roots (and root hairs), which went both deeper and wider. 

Thank you to Jason DeGroot of Living Soils company, for helping with the almond tree root inspection.