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The autumn season brings more than just pumpkin spice, holidays, and fall decorations. It’s a time of harvest for many crops, including almonds. If you’re blessed with owning almond trees, you’re probably excited about what they are beginning to yield. Almonds are a delicious snack you can eat plain or in many different dishes. Here’s how to know when and how to collect your nuts!
You can start checking your almonds for 1/2 to 2/3 splitting while the hull is still green in early August. Once all of them are at this point, you can start shaking your trees. The Almond Doctor is a great resource and explains, “This process utilizes a piece of equipment which clamps to the tree and applies a vibrational force. This energy is transferred to the nut. The vibration moves the nut, which causes the tissues to disconnect at the abscission layer. Nuts then fall to the ground to finish the drying process.”
You don’t want to start shaking your trees prior to all of the almonds being pretty well split because they will not be ready. Sugars inside will turn into fats and protein, and as the splitting begins, the outer shell dries out so the almond can be released.
Once you’ve shaken your almonds to the ground, you’re ready to harvest them. The sooner you pick them up, the better, so they don’t rot because of moisture on the ground or become the next snack for animals and insects.
Forget the old back breaking techniques of picking them up by hand. Check out Bag-A-Nut’s line of Almond Harvesters available in a variety of sizes and start collecting the fast, fun way!
Sources:
“Shaking Almond Trees: When to Start”, The Almond Doctor
