Almond

Established almond trees get through winters in the DACH lowlands in the ground. The wood is frost-hardy down to about -15 °C; young trees (1 to 3 years) you protect in their first winter by wrapping the trunk in horticultural fleece and a mulch layer of leaves or brushwood over the root zone, and a warm, wind-sheltered spot in front of a south-facing wall noticeably reduces the risk. The biggest problem is not winter frost but late frosts in February/March during the early flowering: if night frosts threaten then, loosely wrap the crown in a light frost-protection fleece and take it off again during the day so that bees can reach the flowers; container almonds you bring to a cool, bright place (5 to 10 °C) before hard frost and only put back outside after the Ice Saints in mid-May.

True-to-type propagation of the almond succeeds reliably only by grafting. Seedlings of peach, plum, apricot or almond itself are suitable as rootstock; peach rootstocks are the easiest to obtain for the home garden. Budding (T-budding or chip budding) is the most common method: bud in July onto plum rootstocks, or in August to September onto peach and almond rootstocks, when the bark lifts well. For whip-and-tongue grafting or cleft grafting you choose late winter, shortly before growth starts. Make sure that scion and rootstock come from healthy, strong shoots.

You can try raising almonds from seed in the home garden, but the seedlings are NOT true to type and often bear bitter or lower-yielding fruit. For your own raising: carefully crack the hard shell, soak the kernel for 24 hours, and then stratify it for 8 to 12 weeks, moist and cool (about 4 °C), in the fridge. Then sow it at about 20 °C in nutrient-poor, well-drained substrate about 1 to 1.5 cm deep. Germination takes 2 to 4 weeks. Sowing is suitable as a learning project or for raising rootstock seedlings for later grafting.

Cuttings hardly root at all with the almond (described in the specialist literature as hard to root/“recalcitrant”, hardwood cuttings often without success) and are not recommended in the home garden. Layering is likewise not very promising. Stick to grafting for true-to-type plants and use sowing only for rootstocks or for experimenting.