Chance of snow shouldn’t have much effect on nut tree blossoms, farmer explains

Blossoms adorn an almond tree at the Chico State University Farm south of Chico, California, Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023. (Ed Booth/Enterprise-Record)

Rows of almond trees with their blossoms on full display at the Chico State University Farm south of Chico, California, Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023. (Ed Booth/Enterprise-Record)

Almond blossoms in contrast with a threatening sky at the Chico State University Farm south of Chico, California, Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023. (Ed Booth/Enterprise-Record)

A row of almond trees with blossoms on full display at the Chico State University Farm south of Chico, California, Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023. (Ed Booth/Enterprise-Record)

Blossoms on an almond tree at the Chico State University Farm south of Chico, California, Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023. (Ed Booth/Enterprise-Record)

DURHAM — Snow is certainly not unusual in California, but it’s rare in the Sacramento Valley, due to the region’s low elevation. This alone keeps warmer air in between the Coast Range to the west and the Sierra Nevada to the east. The air is almost always too warm for snow to reach the valley floor.

There could be a highly unusual exception this morning, as an extremely cold mass of air from the Arctic region continues its push into the West. Places that don’t often receive snowfall — such as Crescent City and Eureka — got some of it Thursday morning despite being located at sea level.

The snow — and its associated near-freezing conditions — were enough to cause farmers some concern Thursday night into today. However, Dax Kimmelshue — a Durham farmer who grows mostly walnuts but has 50 acres of almonds — says he’s not too worried by this bout of harsh weather. With the National Weather Service predicting the low Thursday night into this morning at just 35 degrees in Durham, he doesn’t expect it to be cold enough to cause any damage to almond blossoms, he said.

“There’s a potential for cold, but not enough to do damage to the bloom,” he said, adding that 30 or 31 degrees is what many varieties can withstand. Others can handle as low as 28 degrees.

“During the bloom they can take the cold, but the cold is harder when the nutlet appears,” he said, referring to the stage when the almond has a fuzzy exterior with a grape-like consistency. At that point, the nutlet has water inside and “it can freeze and fracture,” Kimmelshue said.

Farmers’ low-tech weapon against freezing trees is water, which comes out of the ground at about 52 degrees, Kimmelshue said.

“It actually warms the air,” he explained. “We get kind of a mist or fog going. It can’t warm it a lot — only about 2-3 degrees — but if it coats a nut, the nut can only get down to 32 degrees.”

Also, a fungicide many farmers sprayed on their trees a short time ago should help protect the trees from disease. In any event, Kimmelshue said, “It’ll be so cold that disease wouldn’t be a problem anyway.”

He added: “I’d rather see it be about 65-70 degrees and have the bees knocking each other out, trying to get out of the hives to get to work pollinating.”

Weather is only one source of concern for farmers these days, Kimmelshue said, with growers of walnuts and almonds seeing the nuts “down to historically low price levels.”

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