ANR Scientists Develop New Pistachio Varieties

 

Harvesting the advance selection experimental plot by hand for nut yield and quality

The cultivar 'Kerman' is planted on more than 95% of current pistachio acreage. While Kerman has been an extremely successful variety, growers would benefit from a variety that produces a higher proportion of split nuts. Also, although the U.S. pistachio industry prides itself on producing large, unstained nuts, a new selection with even whiter and larger nuts would give the U.S. a further market advantage. In addition, the almost exclusive planting of a single cloned variety makes the pistachio industry genetically susceptible to new plant diseases.

 

 
Development of this new selection began in the late 1980's when existing pistachio germplasms were crossed by Dr. Dan Parfitt, U.C. Davis researcher, and Kern County Farm Advisor Joseph Maranto in a project funded by the California Pistachio Commission. The resulting seeds were planted in a seedling test plot. Craig Kallsen, pistachio farm advisor in Kern County, became actively involved in the project in 1995. As the trees grew, measurements were made of precocity, flowering and harvest dates, cluster type, nut size, split percentage, nut staining and other characteristics. Ten promising genotypes were selected, grafted on to rootstocks and planted in randomized and replicated test plots in 1997. During the fifth year of growth in 2002, a single cultivar emerged with the potential of being a replacement for Kerman, or at least a viable option. This selection has been named 'West Wind'. Testing will continue for a few additional years.
 

 
The pistachio cultivar 'Kerman' has been so successful over the past 30 years that it has been almost exclusively planted by U.S. growers. As a result of ANR development and testing, a contender named 'West Wind' has emerged with the potential of being a viable alternative to Kerman. West Wind matures at the same time as Kerman and appears to have as much as a 10% better nut-split percentage, while producing equal or better yields of larger-sized nuts with less shell stain.
 

Supporting Unit: Kern County
 
Craig Kallsen
UCCE, Kern County
1031 S. Mt. Vernon Ave.,
Bakersfield, CA 93307

E-mail: cekallsen@ucdavis.edu
office phone: 661-868-6221
FAX: 661-868-6208