Wet processing

It has been my intention for some time now to post the developing layout for a continuous-flow wet processing area. Until now, all my processing has been on a batch basis, which is very limiting and time consuming. It is my intention to get to the point where my system will contemplate tonnes of product with relative complacency.

My wet processing is done under a steel-roofed addition to my barn. This offers ample opportunity to collect adequate rainfall for storage in two elevated cisterns (8). The area measures about 30' x 15'.

Nuts (more accurately, the fruit) will be received on a conveyor (1), lifted (2) and dumped into a geared-down forage blower (3). This will pre-split the hulls and physically propel them to the hulling machine (4). Hull material will exit the area on another conveyor (5) and the cleaned nut will enter the continuous-flow washer (6) before dropping into the dryer(7). Most transfers depend on gravity, so steps 2 and 3 are intended to lift the incoming material to adequate working height.

The continuous flow washer is this year's collaborative project with Algonquin College, and the initial design is already being critiqued. I hope we will have a proof-of-concept ready for this fall's harvest.

If you click on the above diagram it will open at larger scale in another window.

Tree scoring

Once again, I am indebted to the Ontario Stewardship Rangers (this year aka Josh Bowes, Stefanie McCann, Jessica Rothwell and Eric Dopson), from the Lanark County Stewardship Council for spending a day at the farm and scoring my two main stands of trees for nut load (>1000 trees). This is the third year the OSR has done this, and each year I introduce changes to the system. The 2007 crew had the hardest job.

The purpose of scoring is to identify superior trees ahead of harvest. Different-coloured flagging tapes are tied to the tree in accordance with the assigned score. The superior trees are the ones I am most interested in selecting nuts from for on-planting, and for cracking analysis. We are a season away from mechanical harvesting, so all nuts from superior trees would be hand-harvested and counted before the mechanical harvester was passed through to pick up everything else. The following table indicates the scoring ranges used in the past three years:

2006	2007	2008
None	None	None
1-5	1-5	Few
6-20	6-20	Medium
21-80	21-80	High density
>80	80-320
	>320

The simplification of 2008 stemmed from the realization that counting the nuts on the tree was very difficult and often inaccurate at best (at the high end). Nuts are counted anyway at pickup time, so no more is needed than an estimate of ‘nut density in the canopy’. Thirty-eight trees in total fell into the high category in 2008, about 50% more than 2007.

Prior to harvest the trees will also be scored for other features, and expression of leaf-spotting diseases is one of these. The pairing of low disease expression with medium nut density in the canopy would boost a tree into the ‘of interest’ grouping, such that it would also be selected for on-planting and cracking analysis.

If one embarks on biomass nut production, as we have, where extensive plantations of non-select trees are used, it is important to find management tools which simplify and streamline management for production. Tree scoring is one of these, allowing one to focus on the trees that will eventually add more to the bottom line than others.

Thanks again to the Ontario Stewardship Rangers for their help for the day!