During the first two weeks of November, I was able to attend the once-every-four-years International Research Congress on Pistachios and Almonds. This meeting was held in Adelaide, Australia in which almond and pistachio researchers (as well as some growers) attended to discuss recent research within these crops. Prior to the conference, I toured some orchard operations in the Mildura area. These orchards had the look and “feel” of California orchards and  yields in the 2700-3000 lbs/acre. Through the visits and discussions with my various hosts, issues that many of the operations were trying to manage were similar but different to what we experience within California. Below are a selection that I found interesting and thought I would share. Good water management can compensate for limiting soils. Across all of the properties I visited, the soil profile was very shallow with  18-24″ of sand before hitting a limiting layer of clay. To make matters worse, the layer of clay often had a very high pH (>9) and boron (>3.0 ppm) – which would kill almond trees. These conditions reduced the rootzone to the sand profile which has limited water and nutrient holding capacity. To compensate for these “shallow soils,” most orchards are planted on a raised bed and irrigated daily with double drip systems to match the tree’s water demand for that day. The water applied does not exceed the holding capacity of the 24″ of soil to prevent root movement into the deeper toxic soil. This practice also prevents excess water from running off or creating a perched water table. This was an “eye-opening” experience for me. We generally have the luxury of deep soils within California in which we can irrigate deeply, less frequently. These irrigation practices, however, produced tree growth and yields which were comparable to California orchards.