INFLUENCE OF TEMPERATURE ON THE PRODUCTION QUALITY PARAMETERS IN PISTACHIO (PISTACIA VERA L.)

This study is based on the comparison of production data, in terms of crop quality, of eight female pistachio cultivars: ‘Aegina’, ‘Ashoury’, ‘Avdat’, ‘Avidon’ ‘Kerman’, ‘Larnaka’, ‘Mateur’ and ‘Napoletana’ on native rootstock P. terebinthus L. The experiment was conducted at the El Chaparrillo Research Station, Ciudad Real, Spain (3°56’W, 39°0’N; altitude 640 m). Data have been collected during four years, and tree age was between 11 and 14 years.
It has been studied the influence of climatic factors on the reproductive physiology of the crop in the aspects related to the commercial quality of the yield: percentage of dehiscent and blank fruits.
However, other factors are probably interrelated to understand all these relationships.
A close relationship with temperatures has been shown.
Heat units above 30°C. (UC30) during the growing season (from May to September) had the best significances with the percentage of split fruits.
High temperatures during the vegetative growth of the tree increase the percentage of split fruits, with maximum temperatures in June being those of major influence.
Moreover, the percentage of blank fruits showed better relationship with the temperatures of April, when flowering and pollination occurs; generally it is observed that the minimum temperatures of this month affect the final percentage of blank fruits.

VI International Symposium on Almonds and Pistachios

M.C. Gijón, H. Memmi, D. Pérez-López, J.F. Couceiro, A. Moriana, E. Martínez, J. Guerrero

crop quality, heat units, split fruits, blank fruits

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2014.1028.40