Burchell Nursery Moving Forward with Self-Fertile Almond Pioneer commercial breeders launching new age in almond culture

摘要

California almond growers may - in a couple of years - have the option of planting single-variety blocks of self-fertile almonds, says Tom Burchell, third-generation CEO of The Burchell Nursery Inc., near Oakdale, CA. With testing in the final stage,Burchell is planning to patent the first of several self-fertile varieties this year, but propagation in commercial quantities is a year or two away, he says. "Think of the efficiency," says Burchell, "a single regime for water, fertilizer, and pruning,and just one harvest. Efficiency translates into profits. And with the current bee situation, a self-fertile variety would be far less dependent on bees to set a crop. "