Family: ROSACEAE The almond is a vigorous tree, growing to a height of 8 - 10 m, and reaching maturity at about 7 or 8 years, although it can begin to bear nuts in year 3 or 4. Its productive life can be as long as 50 years, and will yield 4 - 12 kg of kernel per year. Nutritional composition of the almond per 100 grams of edible portion is: Water - 4.7%,
Energy - 598 calories, Carbohydrate - 19.5 g, Fat - 54.2 g, Protein - 18.6 g, Ash - 3.0g, Calcium - 234 mg, Potassium - 773 mg, Sodium - 4 mg, Magnesium - 270 mg, Iron - 4.7 mg, Phospho-rous - 504 mg, Chlorine - 6 mg, Sulphur - 96 mg, Silicon - 4 mg, Iodine - 0.002 mg, Thiamin -0.24 mg, Riboflavin - 0.92 mg, Niacin - 3.5 mg and the digestion time is 2.5 hours.
Almonds are best adapted to areas with warm, dry summers, as the nuts will not reach maturity if summers are cool and humidity high. They are fairly cold hardy and also tolerant of drought, although yields are drastically reduced if grown under moisture stress. They require some winter chilling to break dormancy, although the blossom is very susceptible to spring frosts.
Almonds prefer deep, fertile, well drained loams or sandy loams, with the roots being found as deep as 3 m. They are very sensitive to poor drainage, therefore it is preferable not to have an impervious layer within 3 m of the surface. They will not tolerate salty soils.
Almonds are propagated by budding the chosen cultivar onto a rootstock. There are three popular rootstocks available. Peach seedlings produce faster growing trees, with roots that penetrate less deeply than almonds. The mature tree is smaller and does not live as long. The roots are susceptible to nematodes. Nemaguard is a peach rootstock with resistance to nema-todes. This is the most popular rootstock, producing a vigorous tree which yields good crops.
Almond seedlings produce long lived, large, vigorous trees with deep penetrating roots. Easily affected by nematodes and Armillaria.
With the exception of a few cultivars such as "All - in - one" and "Garden Prince", almonds require cross - pollination with another variety.
Planting distance is 7m x 7m, planting four rows of the main cultivar to two rows of the polliniser (one early, one late). Closer planting of almonds generally has only limited success.
Trees should be pruned to maintain an open "vase" shape, keeping the centre open to prevent shading of the crop. Almonds bear most of their fruit on short laterals or spurs, which usually produce for 5 - 6 years and then die out. Pruning to replace branches with spurs past their prime will ensure vigorous growth of new spurs.
Almonds should be harvested after the hulls have cracked open and are partially dried. Nuts can be knocked or shaken from trees. Hulls should be removed and placed in the sun to dry for one to two days and stored in a dry, well ventilated place. Almonds in the shell will keep for up to six months.
Cultivars
Almond cultivars are classified into three groups: papershelis, having soft crumbly shells; softshells, which have a firm shell which can be broken by hand; and hardshells which need to be cracked open.