By
Welcome to your fifth and final Bountiful Bloom Update for the 2024 growing season. If you missed last week's update? Here's the March 11, 2024, Bountiful Bloom Update.
Welcome to your fifth and final Bountiful Bloom Update for the 2024 growing season. If you missed our last weekly update, here's the
This will likely be our final weekly Bountiful Bloom update. You can expect a full 2024 Bloom Summary from us next week.
Let's dive in!
🌸 Bloom Summary for 2024
January 29 - March 14, 2024
Based on observational submissions, the overall duration of the 2024 bloom was a long one.
Observations for green-tip through petal fall bring the 2024 bloom length was 46 days, up +2 days over last year and up +11 days over California's 5-year average bloom length of 35 days.
🌳 2024 Almond Bloom Progress
Daily observations of bloom this year were consistent throughout the Central region of the state followed by the South, then the North. Overall, Bountiful Bloom averaged around 5 submissions per day during bloom.
You can see this below for the 2024 Almond Bloom showing the progression of bloom stages by region reported by day👇.
😊 2024 Almond Bloom Sentiment
The sentiment for the 2024 Almond Bloom began with bloom submissions showing good to excellent observations at the start of bloom in late January and then fluctuated from poor to excellent.
👇 You'll see how the bloom sentiment shifted by date per the submissions received from Bountiful Bloom.
This shift in sentiment during bloom can be attributed to the weather patterns. Specifically, precipitation impacted sentiment submissions. On days with precipitation, sentiment submissions were reported poor to average, and on days with no precipitation, sentiment submissions trended from good to excellent.
Below 👇 you'll see precipitation during bloom for California, January 29-March 14, 2024.
❄️ Chill Portions & 🐝 Bee Flight Hours
Chill Portions this season were enough to meet the requirements for almonds, albeit they did trend below last year.
❄️ California Cumulative Chill Portions in 2024 across all regions were down -1% to -7% compared to 2023.
👇 Below you'll find the Cumulative Chill Portions and Cumulative Bee Flight Hours during bloom by region for the North, Central, and South for 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2020.
🗒️ 2024 Bloom Conclusions
Overall, 2024 Almond Bloom conditions were good, even with the precipitation seen throughout bloom. Temperatures were mild allowing for a prolonged bloom period and nice timing for variety overlap for cross-pollination. We had enough Chill during dormancy for almonds to meet their minimum requirements and Bee Flight Hours saw a return to "normal" making 2023 an outlier. With that said...
Comments on the 2024 crop size...
We've already heard speculative crop estimates ranging from 2.65-3.5 B Lbs for 2024. We find the early crop size speculation to be too soon. Why? Because good or bad blooms do not necessarily result in high or low new crop supply. Grower returns have been below break-even in the last few years resulting in under-investment in inputs.
Due to this, it's possible, we'll see a significant nut drop this year as trees will be unable to carry the load due to a lack of inputs. The Almond Doctor has a great article covering Almond Set and Nut Drop, read it here.
📉 2024 Bountiful First Forecast Release
Bountiful's first almond forecasts for yield, acreage, and production for 2024 will be released in early April, exclusive to our Premium Subscribers.
And yes, that's right around the corner so stay tuned 😎
✉️ Email Megan to learn about Bountiful's Premium Subscriptions
This Week's Featured Almond Shot
Taken March 22, 2024 in Merced County. 📸 by Morgan M.
🙏 Thank You!
Thank you for all your observations during the 2024 Almond Bloom. This data and summary would not be possible without you 💜. And to those who followed along our Bountiful Bloom update thank you for reading!
