How Drought Affects the Growth Of Almonds


With Climate Change we can expect to see more extremes of weather. There will be more droughts and more flooding. Our recent drought in California is an example of a drought that may have been worsened by climate change. Almonds have been known to use and drink a ton of water. California has been a main producer of almonds for decades by now, and the recent drought has not been a good impact on the production rates. Almonds are very good at absorbing water that isn’t directly next to them; therefore they actually can take some other plant’s water. Farmers had started to plant almonds near some of there other Rose Family crops, but soon they realized the almond plants were actually stealing the water from the other plants. Worried of the other plants' survival, farmers started to move their other crops away from the almonds because there isn’t enough water for the almonds and other plants because of the amount almonds drink. Almonds can sometimes have 56 inches of water in a year.  Now, the almonds are starting to die from water stress, by that I mean their demand for water surpasses the availability of water. That plan is known as the “Spread it out Evenly” plan. The trick with that is to find a good balance between the amount of plants in the area. 

- Prepared by Emily



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