The old "Hall's Hardy" was really a peach-almond hybrid and you
haven't missed anything by not getting nuts from it. The nuts look like
a slightly smoother version of a peach pit and they are as hard to crack.
Also, the kernals are bitter. The main reason they never set (at
least for me) was that they bloom way too early. The few times I got
nuts was when we had unusual warm dry spells during bloom time.
Almonds themselves bloom so early that commercial
production is only possible in places like California.
HOWEVER, there is a very wide range of almond
germplasm out there, and good, cold hardy, disease resistant almonds could
easily be bred. Tom Plocher in Minnesota has a bush species (species
name escapes me) that has set nuts after -40 winters. And not just a few
- over 300 to a bush. Dr. Maxine Thompson did
plant exploring in central Asia where there are many types of almonds
and described a lot of them that could be good breeding material to produce
late blooming, self-fertile, dwarf almonds. Ironically, the people of
the area didn't grow almonds. The soil was so poor they grew apricots
with sweet kernals so they got two crops from the trees to make use of the
limited soil they had. -Lon Rombough
> Good thing the tree has a good shape and
is >healthy or I would have yanked it out years ago. >-Mark Lee,
Seattle z8 >
Mark's reply to my question about plum/apricot
hybrids in a maritime climate reminded me of my 35 year old almond which
has bright pink flowers which look as though they are starting to grow
almonds, but have never done so. Well, not quite true - I think I
remember there were three almonds once about 25 years ago.
It is
a nice looking tree, with shiny narrow green leaves (9 cm long, and 3 cm
at the widest part - 3.5 inches by 1.2 inches). Very big, even though I
have removed large branches occasionally. I just walked out on an
upstairs balcony to pick one of the leaves to measure. It is above
the roof of my two storey house, and equally wide as high.
Back in
the 80s, there was an article in Pomona about Hall's Hardy Almond, with
the suggestion that people should grow its nuts to develop some better
varieties. I wonder if anyone did that. I also wonder if my
tree is a Hall's. The article said it was self-fertile.
Any ideas
as to why my tree doesn't produce nuts?
_______________________________________________ nafex mailing list
nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
**YOU MUST BE SUBSCRIBED TO POST!** All
other messages are discarded. No exceptions. ---- To subscribe
or unsubscribe, go to the bottom of this page (also can be used to change
other email
options): http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/nafex
File
attachments are NOT stripped by this list TAKE STEPS TO PROTECT YOURSELF
FROM COMPUTER VIRUSES! Please do not send binary files. Use plain text
ONLY in emails!
Message archives are
here: https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/nafex