California nut harvest winding down

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The California Farm Bureau Federation told Capital Press the 2011 pistachio crop "looks exceptional."

Nut harvests in California are winding down, and growers of almonds, walnuts and pistachios are mostly happy with their yields, reported Tim Hearden in Capital Press.

Almond growers expect to meet an early estimate of 1.95 billion pounds statewide, which would be a record

Pistachio growers in the San Joaquin Valley are enjoying their second-largest crop ever after last year's record yield

Walnut growers expect this year's yield to be 485,000 tons, slightly lower than last year's 503,000 tons

"The rumors I've heard is that guys are still complaining about the quality" of walnuts, said Rick Buchner, a University of California Cooperative Extension farm advisor in Red Bluff. "We're getting a lot of black husks on them, so there's a suggestion that we may have some husk breakdown and husk fly problems. It's probably too soon to tell yet."

Posted on Wednesday, November 16, 2011 at 8:43 AM

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