At Burchell Nursery, we see what commercial growers are up against. Our field agents are out there with you every day, discussing your issues and devising solutions. But to help you even more, those field pros bring your problems right back to our very own breeding experts. Yes, Burchell is the only independent nursery to still have an in-house nut breeding program. And we do so because we’re steadfast in our belief it’s the best way to develop the most successful varieties of nut trees to suit your changing needs.

Drought? Pests? Regulations? We’re on it.

With our in-house nut breeding program, coupled with the first-hand knowledge of our field agents, we’re able to adapt our stock to your circumstances. We have focused our breeding to give you high quality and patented varieties with the perfect mix of:

  Water efficiency and salt tolerance
  Crop yield, quality and productivity
  Pest and disease resistance
  Tree efficiency
  Harvest timing options

We recognize your economic and environmental realities, and we’re doing everything we can to help you overcome them. We have collaborative relationships with nurseries and researchers around the world to help enhance our capabilities. For example, we have spent a lot of time in Australia to learn from growers’ experience with the 12-year drought that was the worst in that country’s history. It helped us develop our patented Cornerstone (PP #21248) almond/peach rootstock to be a water miser that also produces high fruit and nut quality and storage life — a winner for peach, plum, nectarine, almond and even some apricot varieties.

To help ensure you’re able to manage increasing restrictions on pesticide use and air quality — plus the continuing loss of bee colonies — we developed the patented Shasta® almond. It’s a highly productive variety that fills the role of a Nonpareil but harvests earlier. Shasta® nuts dry on the tree, which reduces the threat of fungus diseases. Plus, this variety is self-fertile, so you need fewer bees.

These are just two examples that came from our breeding program. We have breed and introduced over 80 exclusive fruit and nut varieties.

Homegrown Excellence

So please, share your challenges with us. If we don’t have a solution at the ready, our in-house breeding program will address it