Καλλιέργεια καρυδιάς στην Καλιφόρνια με τον drew Cheney και ο Ζαφείρης απο την καλλιφόρνια.

I grew up in Colusa, CA. https://goo.gl/maps/mX1owLcBTy9b5cwD6 It's primarily known for rice, but there used to be a lot of cotton, tomatoes, and cucurbits grown in the area. I grew up with a small walnut orchard (12ac) around our house. The varieties I learned to grow were Hartley, Serr, Tahema, Eureka, and Franquette. Franquette is my FAVORITE! The flavor is the absolute best out of any walnut. Most of the work was done by my father, mother, grandfather, and me. We had one tractor, and an old home-made shaker from Chico. We hired a group of ladies to pick up the walnuts during harvest. Everything was harvested by hand, and we used 5 gallon buckets. Now I work with the family of my wife. The farm is located in Linden, CA: https://goo.gl/maps/eELwy1gAYxBSdKDF6 The farm has existed here for four generations, and started entirely with row crops (corn, beans, tomatoes, sugar beets). A small block of cherries (4ac) was added about 80 years ago, and the next permanent crop was a block of walnuts planted in 1981. We now farm over 1079 acres of trees (walnuts, almonds, and cherries), and most of the work is done by the owners (two brothers; my wife's father and uncle), four brothers from Zacatecas, Mexico, and me. Farm Labor Contractors (FLCs) provide folks for high-volume hand labor when timing is critical: pruning young trees, disposing of trimmings, tree staking and tying, etc. For walnuts, we have 775 acres of bearing trees, and 138 acres of immature trees. We have 135 acres of almonds, and 93 acres will be harvested in 2021. We have 31 acres of cherries, and if the rain doesn't destroy the bloom, we'll harvest 20 acres this year. The walnut varieties we grow are: Vina, Tulare, Hartley, Howard, Solano, and Chandler. Our oldest trees are Hartleys, Vinas, and Tulares. Our youngest trees are Howards and Solanos. We have mechanized our entire operation, and I run the walnut huller and dryer during harvest. We shipped over 1,400,000kg during the 2020 harvest. We do all of the spraying (herbicide, insecticide, and fungicide/bactericide) with our own equipment, and I manage the spray program with input from our PCA (Pest Control Advisor). With the amount of acres we need to harvest in 5-6 weeks, we have another shaker (or two) come help our shaker. We have sweepers, two harvesters with nurse carts, two nut bankouts, an elevator, and a truck and sets of trailers to haul the walnuts to our huller. I have begun transitioning the farm to focusing on soil and tree health, with a focus on organic matter in the soil, and compaction-fighting cover crops planted in the middles. I look forward to learning about how you farm walnuts, and I hope my ways of doing things serve as a means of creating discussion.