Articles
Characterizing varietal differences of pistachio development and nut quality at harvest
Article number
1406_14
Pages
91 – 96
Language
English
Abstract
Pistachio nut quality and hull integrity can be improved by understanding the underlying nut development.
While ‘Kerman’ is the most popular cultivar grown in California, the ‘Golden Hills’ cultivar is gaining popularity due to its earlier harvest times compared to ‘Kerman’. There is a need to better understand ‘Golden Hills’ development to customize management practices to the cultivar and address issues in nut quality.
Here, we aimed to characterize how the developmental timing differs between ‘Golden Hills’ and ‘Kerman’ pistachios by comparing hull ripening and kernel maturation in response to each cultivar’s accumulated heat over the 2021 and 2022 growing seasons.
We selected two commercial orchards under the same management practices near Fresno, California and sampled pistachios over late stages of development.
We characterized nut quality traits such as, tissue texture and color, kernel size and weight, and shell split. ‘Golden Hills’ trees consistently bloom one week earlier.
The ‘Golden Hills’ nut development was accelerated by four weeks in kernel dry weight, and hull softening and coloring.
This led to the ‘Golden Hills’ nuts being commercially harvested four weeks before ‘Kerman’ in 2021. We found that in addition to temporal differences, ‘Golden Hills’ also underwent key developmental processes such as hull coloration, softening, and kernel growth with fewer accumulated heat units than Kerman.
Our observations indicates that each cultivar undergoes its own unique developmental timing and need to be managed differently.
Overall, our work will help to improve pistachio nut quality by guiding harvest time and other management practices between cultivars.
While ‘Kerman’ is the most popular cultivar grown in California, the ‘Golden Hills’ cultivar is gaining popularity due to its earlier harvest times compared to ‘Kerman’. There is a need to better understand ‘Golden Hills’ development to customize management practices to the cultivar and address issues in nut quality.
Here, we aimed to characterize how the developmental timing differs between ‘Golden Hills’ and ‘Kerman’ pistachios by comparing hull ripening and kernel maturation in response to each cultivar’s accumulated heat over the 2021 and 2022 growing seasons.
We selected two commercial orchards under the same management practices near Fresno, California and sampled pistachios over late stages of development.
We characterized nut quality traits such as, tissue texture and color, kernel size and weight, and shell split. ‘Golden Hills’ trees consistently bloom one week earlier.
The ‘Golden Hills’ nut development was accelerated by four weeks in kernel dry weight, and hull softening and coloring.
This led to the ‘Golden Hills’ nuts being commercially harvested four weeks before ‘Kerman’ in 2021. We found that in addition to temporal differences, ‘Golden Hills’ also underwent key developmental processes such as hull coloration, softening, and kernel growth with fewer accumulated heat units than Kerman.
Our observations indicates that each cultivar undergoes its own unique developmental timing and need to be managed differently.
Overall, our work will help to improve pistachio nut quality by guiding harvest time and other management practices between cultivars.
Authors
J.A. Adaskaveg, Y. Wei, S. Wang, G. Marino, B. Blanco-Ulate
Keywords
‘Golden Hills’, ‘Kerman’, early bloom, early harvest, kernel, shell, hull
Groups involved
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