April 14, 2017
CapitalPress.com
19
Everything you ever wanted to know about pistachios
By JULIA HOLLISTER
For the Capital Press
Compared to other U.S.-
grown nuts, pistachios are the
“youngsters.”
“Pistachios are not na-
tive to California,” said Bob
Klein, manager of the Califor-
nia Pistachio Research Board.
“Early goldminers likely
brought in some and there
were pistachios in the state by
the 1870s.”
However, pistachios were
mostly a novelty and didn’t
become established as an in-
dustry until the mid-1970s.
The plantings were based
on a variety that came from
seed collected by a USDA
plant explorer, W.E. White-
house, in Persia — now called
Iran — in 1929 to 1930, he
said.
In California today about
320,000 acres are planted to
pistachios: about 250,000
bearing and the rest non-bear-
ing.
“Iran has the greatest num-
ber of acres but California
commonly produces more
pistachios.” he said.
The U.S. produces 35-40
Courtesy Calif. Pistachio Research Board
Bob Klein, manager of the
California Pistachio Research
Board, advises potential
growers to do their homework.
It takes about six years before
trees bear nuts.
compete more on quality, he
said. Few Iranian pistachios
are imported.
According to Klein, pro-
spective growers should have
a lot of patience.
Pistachios are hard to grow
and require lots of capital due
to the long non-bearing period
— 6 years on average.
They are frequently plant-
ed in partnerships. Conse-
quently, the research board
tracks growing entities rath-
er than individual growers.
There are about 1,200 grow-
ing entities in California.
Trees typically flower in
late March or early April.
There are male and female
trees, about one male for ev-
ery 24 females and are wind
pollinated. Nuts are produced
only on the female tree.
“Farming in general is not
easy,” he said. “When pista-
chios were first beginning in
California, people thought
they had no pests or diseases
and were drought-tolerant.”
While they can survive
with little or no added water,
they won’t produce without
adequate water. They have
a wide number of pests and
diseases that require timely
control but compared to other
crops can be grown success-
fully in a wide range of soil
types and will tolerate mod-
estly saline irrigation water,
he said.
“While I wouldn’t say pis-
tachios are particularly sensi-
tive or difficult, growers have
to be aware of pests and dis-
eases, monitor then appropri-
ately and make sure to control
the pests in a timely manner,”
he said. “Irrigation timing can
be critical as well for a good,
high-quality crop.”
Navel orangeworm is the
most significant insect pest
for pistachios — and some
other tree nuts — and control
is difficult.
What researchers call large
bugs (stink bugs and leaffoot-
ed bugs) also can be import-
ant and control is difficult
because they are mobile, dif-
ficult to monitor and the dam-
age shows up days or weeks
after they have left.
“The nuts are harvested
fresh from the tree and tak-
en directly to the processor,
where the hull is removed and
the nuts dried to a stable mois-
ture of 5-7 percent,” Klein
said. “The timing is critical
— the hulls must be removed
within 24 hours or the shells
become stained and unsight-
ly, precluding use for in-shell
snacking.”
Dried nuts are stored in
large silos and then conveyed
into the processing plant for
sorting and sizing. Nuts can
then be roasted/salted/fla-
vored and then bagged, he
said.
“Roasting, in addition to
imparting flavor, also elimi-
nates food-borne pathogens,”
he said.
percent of the global supply
and Iran produces 25-30 per-
cent, with Turkey, Syria and
Greece accounting for most
of the rest, he said. There
is some production in Italy,
Spain, France, Chile, Argenti-
na, Australia and Afghanistan.
Iran competes on price
while California growers
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