Gadenin日本語Get the appPlant while the tree is dormant, and pick the site for the flowers
Bare-root almonds go in whenever the tree is leafless and the ground is neither frozen nor waterlogged, which for most gardens means late autumn to late winter. Earlier is better in mild areas, because the roots make a little growth in soil that is still above 45F (7C) and the tree is anchored before the buds move. In hard-winter gardens, wait until late winter rather than leave new roots sitting in cold saturated ground for three months.
The site decision that matters most is not sun or soil, it is cold air. An almond flowers extremely early, often several weeks ahead of a plum and well before the last frost, and the open flowers are killed at around 28F (minus 2C). A tree planted in the lowest corner of the garden, where cold air pools on a still night, will flower beautifully every spring and set nothing. Choose a slope, a raised bed, or the upper part of the garden where cold air drains away past the tree and keeps moving.
After that, look at drainage. Almonds are less tolerant of wet feet than almost any other stone fruit and will not survive a winter with the roots in standing water. Dig a hole a foot (30 cm) deep, fill it with water, and come back in four hours. If water is still sitting in the bottom, do not plant into that ground. Build a mound 12 to 18 inches (30 to 45 cm) high and 4 feet (1.2 m) across and plant into the mound instead.
| Site factor | What you want | What to do if you have not got it |
|---|---|---|
| Cold air drainage | A slope or high point, never a hollow | Raise the planting position; a mound of 18 inches (45 cm) can be enough on gently falling ground |
| Drainage | A test hole that empties within about four hours | Plant on a mound and do not dig a sump-shaped hole in clay |
| Sun | Full sun all day, and reflected heat if you can get it | Use a south-facing or sun-facing wall; shaded almonds crop lightly and the nuts fill poorly |
| Shelter | Out of the prevailing wind during flowering | Put a hedge, fence or wall on the windward side so pollinating insects can work |
| Soil pH | 6.0 to 7.5, and never a heavy sour clay | Improve drainage rather than the soil itself; lime a very acid soil the autumn before planting |
A warm wall is worth as much to an almond as it is to a peach
An almond is a close relative of the peach, and everything that makes a wall good for a peach applies here. Reflected heat from masonry ripens the nuts more reliably, the wall shelters the early flowers from wind so insects can work them, and warmth held into the evening extends the working day for pollinators at a time of year when there are few of them about.
The second advantage matters more in a cool, wet climate. A tree trained flat against a wall can be covered with clear plastic on battens from midwinter until the leaves are out, and that cover is the only reliable defense against peach leaf curl, which attacks almonds exactly as it attacks peaches. A free-standing tree needs a temporary frame built over it instead, and most people do not build one twice.
Plant 8 to 10 inches (20 to 25 cm) out from the base of a wall, not tight against it, and lean the stem back towards the wall at about twenty degrees. The strip at the foot of a wall stays dry even in wet weather because the wall throws the rain clear.
Depth and the graft union
Almonds are grafted, and the swollen kink low on the stem is the join. Burying it lets the top variety root above the graft, which takes the rootstock out of the equation and leaves you with an over-vigorous tree that is slow to bear and rots at the buried join. Keep the union 3 to 4 inches (8 to 10 cm) clear of the finished soil surface, and check it again a month later once the ground has settled.
- Dig wide, not deep Make the hole two to three times the width of the roots and no deeper than the roots themselves. Loose soil under the rootball compacts over the following year and the whole tree sinks, which is how a graft union gets buried without anyone burying it.
- Break the sides in clay Score the smooth walls of the hole with a fork if you are digging in clay. A glazed hole behaves like a pot with no drainage hole, and on a tree as intolerant of wet roots as an almond that is a slow death sentence.
- Set the tree on undisturbed ground Lay a cane across the hole to check the level. The old soil mark on the stem should sit level with the surrounding soil, and the graft union well clear above it. On a mound, build the mound first and firm it before you plant.
- Backfill with the soil you dug out Do not fill the hole with bought compost. A pocket of soft rich material in firm ground keeps the roots circling inside the pocket instead of going out into the garden. Mix in a little well-rotted manure at most, and firm in layers with your heel.
- Stake low and remove it early Drive the stake in at an angle away from the roots and tie the trunk about 18 inches (45 cm) up, no higher. A low tie lets the trunk flex and thicken. Take the stake out after two or three years or the tree never builds its own strength.
- Water once, thoroughly, then stop Two full cans poured slowly at the base settle soil into the roots better than any amount of treading. After that, water only when the top 2 inches (5 cm) of soil is dry.
Put no fertilizer in the planting hole. Nitrogen at planting drives soft growth on a tree that has no roots to support it, and soft growth is what aphids and canker attack. Wait until the tree is clearly growing away in its first summer before you feed at all.
Spacing, and the form you are committing to
Space by the shape you intend to hold rather than the size of the whip in your hand. An almond is pruned every year in the growing season, so the tree you plant looks nothing like the tree you will keep, and the distance you leave now decides whether you can get round it with a ladder and a sheet at harvest.
Almonds are usually kept as an open-center bush or trained flat as a fan. Whichever you choose, leave enough space to stand inside the drip line with both hands free and to lay a sheet on the ground all round the trunk, because that is how the crop comes down.
Remember that most almonds need a second, different tree nearby to set a crop at all. With room for only one, plan on grafting a second kind into its framework.
| Form | Spacing between trees | Final height | Best suited to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fan on a sunny wall | 12 to 15 feet (3.5 to 4.5 m) | 7 to 8 feet (2.1 to 2.4 m) | Cool or wet climates, and anywhere a winter rain cover is needed against leaf curl |
| Open-center bush | 18 to 22 feet (5.5 to 6.5 m) | 10 to 15 feet (3 to 4.5 m) | Hot dry gardens with room; the easiest form to prune and the easiest to shake |
| Dwarf tree in a large pot | One tree per pot of 20 inches (50 cm) or more | 5 to 7 feet (1.5 to 2.1 m) | Small gardens, and where the tree must be moved under cover in late winter |
The first two summers, and what to write down
For the first two seasons the job is roots and framework, not nuts. Keep a circle of bare mulched ground 3 feet (90 cm) across at the base with nothing growing in it. Grass right up to the trunk will halve the growth of a young almond in its first years. Mulch 2 to 3 inches (5 to 8 cm) deep and pull it a hand's width back from the trunk so the bark stays dry.
Remove any nuts that set in the first year and most of them in the second. An almond that fruits at one year old puts that energy into seed rather than into the framework of limbs that has to carry twenty crops, and the framework is what you are buying with those two seasons.
Write down the planting date, where each tree stands and which kind it is, and how far the graft union sits above the soil. Where you have planted two trees for pollination, record which is which: in five years, when one flowers a week ahead of the other and you are working out why the crop failed, none of that is recoverable from memory. Note the date the buds broke in the first spring too.