Petty Ranch / Chris Sayer

A few more Californicus mites headed into battle in a weedy portion of the Santa Paula #avocado ranch.

Just stop clicking on this shit, I'm serious. People re-heat these "one weird trick so Trump can run again" stories bc people will skip over actual news to read them.

Standing up to Big Toe

If someone wanted to harm USA agriculture they'd do 5 things.
1. Deport labor, make work in USA inhospitable
2. Start tariff wars that end US commodity crop exports
3. Fire experts in transmissible livestock disease
4. Invite/subsidize foreign meat competition
5. Tell farmers how much I love them.

85 between SP and Fillmore, 62 in Saticoy

Australians?

85 degrees and 25% RH just after 10AM. The young #avocado trees are well hydrated, but we may need to give them a little water today if the wind kicks up.

No Reserve: 1998 Honda Acty Pickup SDX 4WD 5-Speed Bid for the chance to own a No Reserve: 1998 Honda Acty Pickup SDX 4WD 5-Speed at auction with Bring a Trailer, the home of the best vintage and classic cars online. Lot #217,877.

I think this would look right at home in the avocado orchard.

bringatrailer.com/listing/1998...

3/4 of the year, we're on track to hit a pretty good water conservation number. Late spring rains, no Santa Anas, lots of mulch, efficient sprinklers and soil moisture monitoring combine for good results. Should finish around 1 acre-foot/ acre water use for 10k lbs/acre avocados

If it's priced by the pound....

My pleasure!

It varies, that's why some flexibility is preferred. Usually we take the Hass in March-April, but sometimes as late as June-July. Lamb Hass usually early to mid July, put possibly up to Labor Day. Weather, market conditions, size of the crop, cash needs, pruning plans and many other considerations

I'm mostly worried about logistics: harvest contractor availability and packing house capacity. I'll be able to get picked and get the fruit to market, but perhaps not quite when I want.

I believe that CA #avocados will keep a place in the market. But concentration of production in Ventura County may make it more difficult to harvest and ship fruit in the optimal window for price and quality. Not sure there's an easy way to mitigate that risk.

Good news for consumers: wholesale avocado prices remain low. Your local retailer sets their own price, but in general it's putting downward pressure on the retail price. An oversupply may continue into the early part of the new year. Eat 'em up. Please and thank you.

Good morning #avocado fans. Are you ready for 2026? I'm not. Neither is this guy. But we're getting there.

And being pro-slavery is arguably among their less extreme positions currently...

Only about 8/10 of an inch of rain at Saticoy so far, but we're seeing it reflected in soil moisture throughout the root zone of the #avocados. A little more to come before this system moves on.

When flail mowers are magical.

The Americas are chronically under recognized not just for the quality and importance of the foods they introduced to the world, but also how early they were producing them.

For about 7000 years before people like me got involved, human beings were domesticating wild #avocados into the fruit we know and love. Today seems like a good day to acknowledge and thank them.

"Have you considered the advantages of fractional person ownership? Thanks to recent Supreme Court decisions, not only are corporations people, but people are corporations. Buy now!"

Do not shine lasers at aircraft for fuck's sake. It is not a righteous act of protest.
It is a monumentally stupid and dangerous thing to do and will likely land you in prison.

Roscoe looking for that rain that's supposed to be coming. Doesn't look like it yet, but they say more than an inch is expected in the next 48 hours.

Today's plan for irrigation and fertilizer did not survive a water valve which had stuck in the "closed" position. I got it replaced, did a few other maintenance jobs on the system, and got the water applied. But we'll need to feed the #avocados another day.

It was a great morning to learn from some of the best #avocado growers on the planet at the annual gathering of the CA Avocado Society... conveniently held only about 2 miles from Petty Ranch this year.

This is more of a "keeping tabs on the competition" / "doing my part to sustain aggregate demand" situation.

Is it #tactober or #guactober? Why not both? Carnitas tacos with guacamole are hard to beat.

Even though the days are getting shorter, the #avocados are still growing and the fruit is still sizing up for next season. Today the trees in Santa Paula get a little Nitrogen, Potassium, Zinc, and Calcium to help support that growth.

Unlike Hegseth, I was a military officer in 1990, and can tell you with certainty that he would have been notable not for his lethality but for his quantity of hair product.