CULTIVATING SUSTAINABILITY
Honey bees are amazing insects that offer us the important service of pollination. They have become indispensable to our food supply, and especially to commercial almond production. With an estimated 88% of the nation’s bees beginning the year pollinating almonds², there is a unique chance to positively impact and protect their health.
Fan-Jet ® Microsprinklers
Add a line of Fan-Jets ® Precision Rain - Rain when you want it, where you want it. Frost Protection - Fan-Jets can help provide frost protection by raising the ambient temperature by 2-3 degrees. Fan-Jets will allow you to push salts away from the root zone. Fan-Jets will help your pre-emergents penetrate the soil.
Photo (L) by Project Apis m., 2021: Almond Grower Ken Rapp stands in one of his orchards that has been planted with PAm. Brassica Mix Cover Crops. (R) Booming cover crops can trigger a “positive feedback loop” in the hive, increasing the number of foragers pollinating. more nitrogen lbs/acre in Kern County, than orchards without cover crops. The UC study has also found orchards with cover crops to have higher almond yields. Merced County site yields were 225 lbs/acre higher when compared to control orchards with resident vegetation/weeds. Kern County yields were 94 lbs/acre higher when compared to bare soil. Varroa mites and poor nutrition are two of the biggest health threats honey bees face in modern beekeeping. Beekeepers often look for orchards with supplemental sources of forage for their bees. Planting cover crops that will bloom before and after almonds can help growers attract high-quality beekeepers with healthy hives. Some beekeepers even give growers a discounted rental rate for hives if there is access to supplemental sources of food. There are some great resources to help growers plant cover crops. The Seeds for Bees ® program offers free and subsidized seeds along with technical guidance — Growers can apply for seed between June and November each year: projectapism. org/seeds-for-bees. The Almond Board of California recently published a new Cover Crop Best Management Practices guide for almond growers, an excellent resource: almonds. com/tools-and-resources/grower-tools/pollination-tools.
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