Can anyone who lives in an area where there are a lot of plantings of Russian almonds taste some nuts for me this year?
I’m looking for seeds from plants with the sweetest and largest nuts.
There is a good chance some of the nuts will be sweeter than the average. The bitter taste is from amygdalin which when digested breaks down into the cyanide. The less bitter the less cyanide. Cooking is used to significantly reduce cyanide content in almonds.
I just want someone to taste them (NOT EAT) and save some seeds (as many as possible) from the sweetest bush(s).
Also a bush with sweet nut genetics can still have bitter nuts if cross pollinated with a bitter plant (the seed is the cross of both parents).
Those sound appealing for me to try growing.
I was thinking of the Russian almonds for a sister in western Nebraska area (and myself).
Trying to get some seeds of a sweeter stock and planting them here, and select seed from the best for out there (if nothing else ornamental).
But I truly didn’t think of Ukrainian almonds, need to try some.
I would recommend buying one or two cultivar varieties and grafting it onto half of yours, or all of yours if you have bitter ones and have at least two cultivar varieties.
Due to suckering, grafting is probably not the best method of propagation, but if you get a scion, that’s how I’d start, then I’d try to root it and eventually keep separating suckers or rooted cuttings.
That might be a good idea if I get some scions from a sweeter nut plant and graft onto a peach or something, then put it in a secluded area so the only pollination accurs between sweet ones so possibly further improvement in the nut quality.
Then single out the absolute best for dividing the clumps or rooting cuttings.
Hand pollination and bagging is a method you can do anywhere and then you have almost full control and can even have pollen mailed to you , SkillCult on YouTube has great videos about hang pollination.
I totally agree that we need to popularize good cultivars of Russian almonds! I have one seedlings, I think the other died, and I will probably try to get a cultivar one eventually too.
Oh and for things like this that sucker and root easily, I think grafting a small one, planting it in a big hole and then burying it in the winter up to the green shoots could work great, then it possibly will grow it’s own roots and almost certainly surpress suckers from the rootstock.
Then low branches could be layered into the ground, rooted and replanted, then that bush is finally on it’s own roots and can be divided, propagated by root cuttings, etc.