Pistachio graft

Last August we visited our cousin Juan Ángel who was in one of his fields where a few years ago he began the adventure of planting pistachios... he was carrying out grafting work. As we have already told you before, we are dedicated to the in olive tree growing, so pistachio is a fairly unknown crop for us.

When you plant pistachios, you have to choose between grafted and non-grafted plants... basically the big difference is the number of years required to be in production and, consequently, the price of each kind of plant. A grafted tree will be in production several years non-grafted plants. If we focus on price, we have these options:

• Rafted tree: € 15.
• 1 year old ungrafted plant: € 0.8.
• 2-year-old non-grafted plant: € 2.
• Non-grafted plant with UCB1 rootstock: € 7.

Regarding the rootstock used, the most common options are cornicabra and UCB1. Cornicabra rootstock is much cheaper. However, in recent years the most widely used is the UCB1 rootstock.

Concerning on pistachio graft, in our area grafting pistachio tasks are carried out, between the months of July and September and it is necessary to look for the best moment of sap in the tree. It will be essential to review the grafts after a few days to know the success. To be grafted, the tree must be at least 18 months old, or even older. Other than that, they should have a trunk thickness of 12 mm or more. The buds used for grafting are taken from older trees already in production or can also be purchased from garden centres. Juan Ángel likes to graft at a height that stays within the protector, because when the new stem starts to grow, it is always easier to guide.

I conclusion, the final aim is to obtain a pistachio tree of the Kerman, Larnaka or Sirora variety, which about 3 years after grafting will begin to produce pistachios in more or less important quantities.

Versión en español.

Harvesting days (IV). Cereal delivery

These days we are finishing with our summer tasks and especially with the harvesting tasks to which we have dedicated the last four posts, so now we are focusing on delivering the grain to the companies that will market it. In our village, the most common task is the direct unloading at the threshing floor of the companies that buy cereals and pulse vegetables. It is true that there are some farmers who store the harvest in their sheds, but direct delivery from the field is very normal... we do it. Then, when the farmer wants, the grain can be charged according to the cereal market, which in our case is the Albacete market. 

As you can see in our photos and video, we have visited the threshing floor of the Antonio Caballero, S.L. company. It is one of the most important companies in our area and, moreover, in our village it is the biggest buyer of cereal... as you can see, the pile of barley is considerable large, despite the fact that the day we were there was in the middle of the harvesting season. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Jose Antonio (head of the company Antonio Caballero, S.L. in our area) who made our visit much easier. 

One of the objectives of this job was to be able to work with the Kramer KT407 telehandler... It was quite fast and fun to load several lorries of barley with the machine. We are dealing with a telehandler that from a distance looks like a very high quality machine, but when you get close to it, you realise that you are looking at a premium product and you could even say that it is quite exclusive.  

During the hours we spent working with the Kramer KT407 we also saw some details to be improved, so we could indicate that: 

• The feel of the steering wheel is a bit hard... perhaps a softer steering would be advisable. 
• The loss of visibility on the right side when you raise its arm is noticeable (you don't see the mirrors)... perhaps cameras could be incorporated to avoid these dead zones of visibility. 
• When you are working with three functions at the same time (e.g. lowering arm, picking up arm and opening bucket), the movements are quite slow...  we imagine that this can be solved with the different configurations offered by the machine's hydraulics, but it is something that caught our attention. 
• Controlling the arm at maximum reach is complicated. 

In conclusion, we would like to point out that this Kramer telehandler is a very high quality machine whose slogan of the German manufacturer could be: "Kramer: the details make the difference". We really enjoyed working with it and the machine’s behaviour. With a tool like this you cannot get tired of loading trucks... congratulations to Kramer because they have a "Super" product. 

Versión en español.