Chapter 93: Walnut Farm (1)
TL: Hanguk
About 7 km northeast of the Brentwood cherry farm, a walnut farm stretched out across a wide, open plain.
Brandon stepped out of his truck and frowned. As he unloaded the pressure chamber from the truck bed, the smell of metal mixed with the breeze. It was a new machine, almost the same model Brian used.
He told himself there was nothing left to learn from that Asian genius anymore.
"Today's going to be perfect."
Brandon connected the chamber to the trunk of a walnut tree. He cut a leaf, capped it with the rubber seal, slowly raised the pressure, watched the gauge move, and recorded the reading in his notebook. His notebook already had a graph showing steady, even values going back a week.
"See? I can do this too. Scientifically."
A smile spread across his lips. The farming methods Brian had talked about had seemed old-fashioned at first, but trying them one by one, the results were undeniable. The problem was that his father followed whatever that Asian kid said without question.
"That bastard says one word and Dad changes everything right away..."
Brandon clenched his teeth. He'd inherited the farm, but it still felt like the real decision-making power belonged to that man, 'Brian Choi'.
He acknowledged Brian's knack for handling anything you threw at him, but he couldn't stand watching his father make every decision based on that Asian's word.
He drove the truck around to survey the entire farm. The south-facing slope of the walnut orchard had thick foliage, and unlike last year, the rate of dropped fruit had decreased. Everything looked good, and he believed he was clearly doing well.
But when he arrived at the spot where the workers had gathered, the mood was strange.
"What's going on? Why is everyone just standing around dazed?"
At his question, Lewis, the longtime farm manager, took off his hat and spoke apologetically.
"Brandon... take a look over there."
Where Lewis pointed, there were walnuts scattered on the ground. The outer husks were burned black, and on some, the hulls had peeled halfway off. When he picked one up, the shell crumbled in his hand, and the flesh inside was stained pitch black.
"What is this...?"
"Looks like sunscald. Temperatures shot up suddenly starting last week."
"That can't be... the SWP readings are normal..."
Brandon hurriedly flipped through his notes. The stem water potential he'd recorded every day was steady, and the irrigation schedule had no gaps. And yet the trees were burning.
"Turn on more water! Increase the irrigation!"
His voice rose, but the workers' faces only grew darker.
"Understood. But that's not all."
Lewis led him to another section of the orchard. There, the walnuts had holes not in the shells but in the kernels themselves. At a glance, you could tell it was insect damage.
"Uh... what is this...?"
Small moths had laid eggs in the cracks of the shells, and the hatched larvae had bored their way through the insides. A few were already starting to give off a rotten smell.
"No way... I followed the spray schedule to the letter..."
"Looks like the timing was off. The rain ended early last month and it got hot all of a sudden, so the pests probably spread all at once."
Brandon slumped down beneath a tree, dazed. The bits of walnut husk on his fingertips fell to the ground. He glared at the SWP graph and finally crumpled the paper in his fist.
"What is all this... it was supposed to be perfect...!"
The workers watched him in silence. He'd thought he'd kept the water data perfect, but he hadn't proactively prevented anything else. He hadn't been constantly monitoring how hot the sun was beating down, how dry the wind had become, or whether the pests were on the move.
His heart sinking, Brandon was overcome by a sense of dread. He rushed to the truck and pulled out his phone. His hands were shaking so badly he couldn't punch in the number properly.
After several beeps, the call connected.
"Dad... we've got a big problem."
"What is it?"
"The walnuts... they're all burned. The hulls are discolored and there are pests too. Right now... I think about half of them are ruined."
His father must have been stunned, because there was a moment of silence on the other end. Then a low, heavy voice came through.
"Got it. I'll be right there."
Even after hanging up, Brandon stood frozen for a long while. The cicadas screamed in the distance, and there wasn't a breath of wind. In his field of vision, beneath the burning red sunlight, the blackened walnut orchard rippled.
"I really thought I had it right..."
Brandon slowly hung his head. He'd thought he was doing it scientifically, just like that Asian guy, but he was realizing for the first time that none of it meant anything in the face of nature's whims.
The vineyard at Ironwood Cellars. Acquired for a hefty sum and now part of Redwood Winery, this place was right in the middle of the busy canopy management season.
The Cabernet Sauvignon was entering veraison (the period when grapes shift from green to purple), and since the balance of skin thickness and acidity was set during this stage, controlling shade and light was critical.
I lifted leaves one by one with my gloved hands, checking how the light was hitting them. If the leaves overlapped too much, airflow would be blocked, but if I removed too many, the grapes would get scorched in direct sunlight.
"This row here, you've stripped too many leaves. The clusters will burn like this."
"Should we tie them back up?"
"Yes. Pull them up over the stem and tie them. Block the sun from the side; leave the top exposed."
The workers moved according to my instructions. In the harsh afternoon sun, I checked stem water potential (SWP) with the pressure chamber. -11 bar. No water stress. The leaves on the vines were healthy and photosynthesis was running well.
'This is just about a perfect balance...'
I was jotting down notes in my workbook in the shade beside the trellis, taking a sip of water, when the phone in my pocket buzzed. The screen read 'Fredrick Harris'.
"Yes, Mr. Frederick."
"Brian, sorry, but could you come over right now?"
"What's going on?"
"Haa, well... there's trouble at the walnut orchard. Looks like sunscald, and there's pest damage on top of it. The workers are in a panic right now. Could you come take a look?"
This was Frederick, who had run a walnut farm for years. Obviously, if it was something he could handle himself, he wouldn't be calling me. The fact that he'd gone so far as to phone meant the situation was serious.
"Send me the location. I'll be right there."
"Thanks. I appreciate it."
I peeled off my gloves and headed straight for my old pickup truck, driving to the address Frederick had sent me. Before my regression, I'd mostly been stuck in the university research lab, so I hadn't done much driving. These days, I felt like I was putting hundreds of kilometers on the truck every week.
It was my first time at the walnut farm. When I arrived at the entrance, Chloe and Brandon were standing there alongside Frederick. Brandon's face was set hard and pale, which made it clear the situation was pretty serious.
The moment Frederick saw me, he grabbed my hand and shook it.
"Thanks for coming, Brian."
"You said it was serious."
I glanced at Chloe. Normally she would have been laying into her brother for failing to manage the farm, but her mouth was clamped shut. Whether it was simply because the farm wasn't hers anymore so she didn't care, I couldn't tell.
We drove some distance into the farm, and it became plainly obvious that several of the trees were in trouble. The leaves on the affected walnut trees looked as if they'd been scorched by fire, with the uppermost veins already burned brown, and dark brown spots had spread across the walnut shells.
At their feet, fallen fruit lay scattered. Up close, I could see holes in their surfaces.
"These are completely burned."
"Is it sunscald?"
"It is... but there are pests too. Probably Navel Orangeworm."
I split a walnut in half. The kernel inside had been hollowed out. Traces of where insects had eaten their way through. I turned to face Brandon.
"Did you do any leaf thinning recently?"
"Yeah, to improve airflow... I removed a lot."
I nodded.
"That's the cause of the sunscald. Airflow may have improved, but the shade disappeared. Under summer direct sunlight, the shade acts as a protective shield. Especially on days like this when it's over 95°F..."
The California region was currently experiencing occasional heat waves, with some days even exceeding 104°F.
"But the SWP was normal, I matched the water levels..."
"SWP only tells you the moisture status. It doesn't protect against heat stress. The problem is the canopy."
"......"
"And when did you do the pest treatment?"
"Two weeks ago. The weather got too hot, so I finished early."
"Too late. The eggs are hatching right now. And in this heat, the eggs mature much faster."
Brandon's expression twisted in distress.
"So this is all... my fault?"
His voice, lost for words, sank like a shadow. I shook my head with a pained expression.
"This happens to everyone in farming. What matters is understanding the cause. That's how you avoid repeating the same mistake."
But Frederick knew I was only saying that to console Brandon. And consolation didn't fix problems.
Frederick asked in a low voice.
"So what do we need to do right now?"
"First, we need to restore the canopy. Tie the branches up and install partial shade cloth above the fruit. Even just blocking direct sunlight for two or three hours in the afternoon will dramatically reduce the damage. And underneath the canopy, run micro-irrigation nozzles twice a day, only at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Humidity control matters."
But seeing that my face had hardened, Frederick asked with a sense of foreboding.
"And the pests?"
"Hmm..."
When I didn't immediately open my mouth, you could practically see Brandon's face turn even more ashen.
"What? Is there nothing we can do?"
"For now... the pests are nocturnal, so spray pesticide early tomorrow morning. The heat reduces effectiveness right now."
"Let's do that. But complete eradication is going to be difficult, isn't it?"
He knew. He'd been farming walnuts for a long time, and the very mention of Navel Orangeworm would have told him the situation was serious. But it seemed he'd been holding out hope that I might offer some kind of solution.
"Yes. As you know, once you start seeing holes appearing in the walnuts, starting pest control at that point is already... too late. You have to focus on minimizing the spread and reducing the damage as much as possible."
Holes in the walnuts meant the pests had laid eggs, those eggs had hatched, and the larvae had already burrowed into the husks. And once you reach that stage, pesticides can no longer reach them.
Right now, invisible to the eye, countless pests would be laying eggs and boring into the walnuts. Even if pesticide was sprayed at this point, no dramatic turnaround was likely.
"Damn... alright, understood."
I wanted to help, but even with knowledge from before my regression, there wasn't much I could do in this situation. That's why people sometimes say that in walnut farming, the moment the bugs become visible to the eye, the war is already lost.
Frederick patted Brandon's slumped shoulders once, then gathered the workers and immediately started giving instructions.
"Thanks for coming all the way out here."
Chloe, with a bitter expression. I watched Brandon trudge after the workers, then said, almost in surprise:
"You're not fighting with your brother today? You always used to go off on him."
"Honestly, I want to chew him out... but look at the farm. The one most upset by all this is going to be him."
"Wow... now you even sympathize with farmers. You've completely changed."
"Have I?"
She tilted her head, then snickered.
"Yeah, I really have. Before, I would have torn into him. Told him this happened because he's stupid and lazy. But seeing the farm, those words just won't come out. What am I supposed to do..."
I patted Chloe on the shoulder.
"Farming can't always be a success. You learn from the failures and find success that way. Brandon will grow from this. The walnut farm will do better next year too."
"You really think my brother can grow like that?"
"...... Who knows. That's why you can never let your guard down in farming. Keep that in mind, you too."
"...Ah, yes!"
At my final words of caution, Chloe pursed her lips.
*****
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