brainstorming on the management of almond trees

Hello permies,

Background: My new(ish) permaculture project is in a quasi-Mediterranean (sub-Mediterranean) climate zone. Long, hot, dry summers, mild, wet winters. On my 2-acre plot, the soil varies from heavy clay to looser, lower clay content soil. I have planted a mix of fruit & nut trees, with a focus on species that can be seen in gardens and orchards around me. I planted the trees in February 2024, so this is their 3rd summer. I mulched them with compost and wood chips from Day 1, then later I added hay as it became available. At the beginning of this growing season, the trees had 10-15 cm mulch on a 1 metre radius from the trunk. This helped preserve soil moisture and keep the soil cool well into the season.

Among my trees are 5 almond trees of different varieties. Now, I should clarify from the start that, at least on paper, Almond is a species that is well suited for my zone. Despite this, I have encountered some issues with some of my almond trees.

- I have 3 almond trees planted in clay soil. Two of these are of the Filippo Ceo variety, which according to info available online, is supposed to be quite drought-resistant. However, after very vigorous growth each Spring, by late June / early July, when the hot dry weather hits, they gradually shed some of their foliage (some leaves turn yellow and drop). Originally I had hoped that thorough mulching would help prevent this type of issues, and even avoid need for watering - instead, the problem persisted even despite periodical watering during drought. The structure of the tree remains healthy - no drying of twigs or branches - and the following season the vigorous growth restarts. The stress cannot be attributed to excessive crop, since despite heavy blossoming and good fruit set, the trees gradually shed a lot of the fruit, at different stages of the fruitlet development (some of this occurred very early, and stopped by end of May, so not attributable to water deficiency).

- I have another 2 almond trees planted in loos(er) soil. They are of the Ferragnez variety. Vigorous growth, but less vigorous than Filippo Ceo. No yellowing or shedding of the foliage. Similar fruiting behaviour to Filippo Ceo, but better at keeping hold of its fruit.

Other than the differences in plating site, the former were planted from pots, whereas the latter were bare-root.

At this point, my question is: how could I manage my almond trees differently, in order to avoid the apparent stress when hot weather strikes?

Note: With almonds as well as with all other species of fruit trees, my overarching objective is to keep trees healthy and strong year on year, with a good POTENTIAL for fruiting, rather than pursuit of abundant fruit crop by all means. Also, the fact that in my location some trees (cherry trees, and as the example above shows, even almonds) shed (some of) their foliage in very hot weather may be acceptable as long as that is not pointing at stress that causes irreversible damage or developmental setback. In other words, if I can be assured that the tree goes into the next season with undamaged vitality, restarts the next season with vigour, AND can bring a decent crop of fruit to maturity, I may not be bothered that much about leaf shedding.

I'll look forward to any opinions, ideas, or advice that you can share !

I live in a very similar climate and have similar problems with young fruit trees, notably cherries and peaches, but also figs to a certain extent.

I suspect the reason I don't have the same issue with almonds is that I tend to plant them in the worst soil because they are more drought hardy so they are forced to grow more slowly even when we have plenty of spring rain.

Cherries and peaches are my main problem with this. If we have a wet spring they try to grow like crazy, putting all their effort into growing leaves because they are young and stupid and think that the spring rains are like overly-supportive parents who will always be there to help. They are wrong. And when the supply of money ground-water runs low they suddenly find that can't support their extravagant lifestyle foliage and begin to suffer terribly.

I've learned to be brutal when I see this happening and remove some of that beautiful lush growth so that what water the meagre root supply can gather has some hope of being enough to supply all the remaining leaves.

We have one cherry tree that pretty much died the first year we were at this 'new' place. It has now started to put some new branches out from low down and seems to have learned some sense and concentrate on its root system instead of too much leaf. There is a peach tree the same age that did something similar - it grew absolutely enormous and then tried to fruit on the young branches and we didn't want to cut it so it ended up with all the branches trying to break off as they were weighted down with fruit. We trimmed it a bit but it still struggles. Last winter we cut it right back and pretty much forced it to start again. It's a stupid looking shape now but it looks like a teenager who has learned a hard lesson and has finally grown some sense, and the right amount of new branches.

When figs do this, they seem to teach themselves and not need trimming. When they realise that water is in short supply they drop all their leaves before they actually burn themselves out and then grow just enough new leaves so that the available water supply can support them. I've never had to trim a young fig tree - they seem to know how to make the adjustments themselves.

I think the first thing I'd do with almonds that grow too fast is to not feed them - let them find all their nutrients the hard way so that they don't try to grow too fast. And they if they do still seem to be growing too much, trim them, even if it seems like the wrong time of year.

Us tree-parents need to show a bit of tough love sometimes to keep our babies alive until they get the hang of it themselves.

Burra Maluca wrote:

Thanks for the informative answer!

I have a few questions for you:

- What thrives in your location, other than (I'm assuming) olive trees and prickly pear? Perhaps pistachio? Mulberry?

- What's your experience with apricots?

- Do you mulch your trees?

- Do your fig trees fruit well in hot dry weather? I have little experience with fig trees, as most of my gardening years were spent in colder, wetter climates - I have always thought figs were well suited to the Mediterranean hot and dry summers, and indeed my 4 fig trees don't seem to mind the kind of heat and drought that we have here at the moment (they tend to keep their leaves till the end of the season), except I'm not sure that I'm getting the most out of them in terms of fruit crop.

- It's interesting that peach trees are also problematic in your region. In my experience (referring here specifically to my current location), peach trees seem to tolerate heat and drought quite well, provided that I give them a bit of support (some watering during long dry spells) IF they suffered setback because of leaf curl during spring. So my question would be: do your peaches get leaf curl when spring is wet? If so, does their foliage recover in time, before the hot weather strikes? If not, that may be the reason why they struggle. I planted only leaf curl resistant varieties - they do get sick if spring is very wet, but they quickly recover once leaf curl season is over.

I too have been thinking of performing some drastic reduction pruning on the 3 almonds that tend to grow too fast. I think I'll do one at the end of this season, to eliminate a couple of larger limbs, so that the roots can cope better in the new season, and then from next Spring, I'll eliminate excessive new growth as and when necessary.

I'm less worried about the cherry trees - they do shed their foliage by the end of summer, but before that they grow vigorously, and they have never had branches or twigs drying out and dying. This is a pattern that I observed in all the gardens near where I live.