In California and the northern hemisphere, nut fill has finished for most varieties of almonds, and hull split strategies are in place to get ready for harvest. Good hull split strategy is crucial for achieving a uniform hull split in each block, leading to more efficient shakes while avoiding navel orangeworm (NOW) and the costly spray programs required to manage it. During hull-split, many growers start to apply regulated deficit irrigation (RDI).
Phytech growers can now manage irrigation amounts and frequencies in this sensitive time of the season using an additional newly added tool - the Plant-Dynamic Refill Line.
Piecing together what trees are saying and what the soil is showing, helps support growers decision making as they switch their irrigation strategy and start optimizing towards hull-split.
Together, these two data streams act as a navigation system. Growers can monitor their irrigation frequency against the Plant-Dynamic Refill Line, while checking on their trees' status and not putting them into too much stress.
Keeping the moisture slightly above the line, enabling decrease in irrigation frequency and quantity while avoiding yield effecting stress - let the trees and the Plant Dynamic Refill Line - navigate you.
Here how it looks on Phytech's Plant mobile app:
Here's is another example showing moderate stress developing - from the plant and the soil perspectives:
In our next AlmondBeat report we'll deep-dive into the hull-split phase and how Phytech is helping growers to optimize deficit irrigation..
