February 18, 2023

February 17, 2023 Bloom Update 🌸

By Megan Nunes · 1 minute read

Weather, seems like an appropriate place to start, as pink bud in most orchards is moving onto popcorn, and some orchards are entering early bloom stages. We expect California almond growing regions to reach full bloom in the next 3-5 days.

By now, I'm sure you've seen people from the industry sharing freezing temperatures posts and photos on LinkedIn. And if you missed those, you can read this week's freezing temperature warning issued by National Weather Service Hanford.

And if you're wondering how and what freezing temperatures cause risk on almond bloom development?

I got you, well David Doll's got you (thank you, David!). In his 2023 bloom considerations, David addresses this specifically:

"The greatest risk during flowering is freezing cold temperatures. Frost risk is always present for almond bloom. As the flower develops, it becomes more susceptible to frost. For example, at pink bud, flowers typically can withstand 26F, while at petal fall this threshold is 29-30F. Flowers tend to tolerate temperatures between 28-30F, but some varieties do have increased or decreased susceptibility. Managing frost within most orchards generally occurs with the application of water, increasing the heat within the orchard. More on that can be found here."

The freezing morning temperatures are ultimately impacting average temperatures this week for almond-growing regions across the state, with the average weekly temperate for Feb 11, 2023, at 46F, 4-9F degrees cooler than 2022 and 2021 during the same week.

And since temperatures relate to bee flight hours, those have also been impacted this year. 2023 cumulative bee flight hours are 36-58 hours less this year when compared to 2022 bee flight hours, and cumulative chill portions for 2023 continue to be up over 2022, by 11-14 chill portions.