The almond is the first of the deciduous fruit trees to start growth
and come into bloom in the spring, and normally the last one to shed
its leaves in the fall. In other words, it has a very short period of
rest. When the trees are forced into premature dormancy by mites or
lack of moisture, they soon reach the end of their normal rest period
before the winter season is over. Then the first warm weather in spring
will bring the trees into blossom. In some cases where moisture and
temperature conditions are favorable late in the fall, they may actually
blossom before the winter season. In young trees that have become dormant
unusually early, the rest period may terminate and then the tips of the
branches resume growth and continue to slowly develop new leaves at the
terminals throughout the winter. Trees which have been kept growing
thriftily until the leaves have been forced to fall by the cold weather
and frosts of winter, do not tend to blossom as early in the spring, nor
do they open under the influence of a few days of warm weather in late
winter or early spring.
Young trees blossom somewhat later than the older trees, and buds on
sucker growth blossom later than the more mature portions of the same
tree. The difference may amount to three or four days or almost a week.
Well-grown trees carry large numbers of blossoms over the entire tree, as
shown in figure 2.
[Illustration: Fig. 1.—IMPORTS OF ALMONDS INTO THE U.S.