WCN March 2020

More documents

Recommendations

Info

UNDERSTANDING PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF WINTER CHILL IN PISTACHIOS By MITCH LIES | Contributing Writer Gurreet Brar hopes to determine not only what it will take to boost pistachio yields following warm winters, but the reason why trees fail to produce in the absence of winter W chill and whether and why treatments improve yield. The understanding, Brar said, will help researchers provide a science-based solution to what has NDERFUL PISTACHIO ROOTSTOCK TREES NOW AVAILABLE! Exclusive from Wonderful Nurseries for our Grower Partners. WONDERFUL PISTACHIO ROOTSTOCK TREES True to our “Growers First” commitment, Wonderful Nurseries is now offering our proprietary Wonderful Pistachio Rootstock (WPR) trees to our grower partners. This is your opportunity to reap the benefits of over 20 years of meticulous research and development into promising selections of UCB-1 rootstock. We believe this rootstock can yield more pistachios per acre than any other rootstock in the market. To stand behind our product, Wonderful Orchards has designated over 17,000 acres for planting through 2019. To find out how you can become eligible to purchase these exceptional Wonderful Pistachio Rootstock trees, call Director of Sales Dustin Hooper, at 661-301- 7399, for all the details and to schedule a visit today. SERVING YOUR VINE, ALMOND AND PISTACHIO TREE NEEDS WonderfulNurseries.com 661.758.4777 © 2020 Wonderful Nurseries LLC. All rights reserved. WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL NURSERIES and the accompanying logos are trademarks of Wonderful Nurseries LLC or its affiliates. The Wonderful Pistachio Rootstock Trees are the subject of U.S. Plant Patent Nos. PP26915, PP26916, PP27318, PP27319 and PP27436. become a persistent problem in recent years: low chill accumulation in winter months. Brar, an assistant professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at California State University, Fresno, is in the midst of four-year study analyzing several issues surrounding chill requirements in pistachios. Among issues he is studying: How trees respond to changes in temperature, or the physiology of chill accumulation and dormancy break in pistachios; and how pistachio trees respond to horticultural oil, an input that growers use to offset low chill accumulation. Researchers in Brar’s lab are collecting flower buds from early January through March from sprayed and nonsprayed pistachio blocks and analyzing the buds for their sugars, starches and other enzymes and metabolites. “What that is going to give us are the complete changes that occur in the buds, so we can pick out what is going to be our best strategy to manipulate dormancy break,” said Brar, who holds the Rodger B. Jensen Professorship in Pistachio Physiology and Pomology at Fresno State. Brar proposed the project to the California pistachio industry in the wake of some severe yield declines in recent years that were precipitated by warm winters. Like cherries and walnuts, in order to bloom and leaf-out properly in the spring, pistachios have a high chill accumulation requirement during the winter months, Brar said. The average winter temperatures in the Central Valley, meanwhile, have been on the rise since the 1950s, leading to erratic bud breaks in commonly grown pistachio varieties. In the spring of 2015, for example, Brar said, high winter temperatures caused the male pollinator variety Peters to not bloom at all in some orchards and led to erratic bloom in Kerman, the most commonly produced 10 West Coast Nut March 2020
variety in California. Fahrenheit temperatures climbed into the 60s during much of the winter and even into the low 70s, Brar said. “In many areas of the Central Valley, the pistachio trees did not bloom out normally and did not leaf out normally,” he said. “There were very low yields industry-wide. And for many years, we have seen that pattern.” He added that researchers predict average winter temperatures in Central Valley “will be much warmer by the end of the 21st century.” To date, growers have largely turned to horticultural oils to help offset low chill accumulation during winter months, Brar said. The effects of horticultural oils, however, are not fully understood and their performance has been erratic. “Industry people do not really know what the oil is doing,” he said. “So, every year, hundreds of thousands of acres across the state are being sprayed with oil, and we are getting mixed results. Nobody really knows what makes the oil work. It is hit or miss.” In a separate research project, one of Brar’s graduate students had begun testing a handful of rest-breaking agents, or RBAs, including plant growth regulators and horticultural oils, to see if there are some promising compounds available that could be worth further study. But that research was discontinued. “We thought we should first try to answer basic physiological questions, such as what is the oil doing in the bud,” Brar said. “Once those questions are answered, then we can figure out what we need to do. “We need to focus on what we are looking at first,” he said, “with the eventual goal of determining where do we need intervention and at what time and with what compounds.” Ultimately, Brar said, new varieties bred for less chill-accumulation requirements could provide the solution to warm winters. But developing new varieties, he said, could take decades. “When we think about having a totally different climate in the Central Valley at the end of the century, we know that we need to do long-term breeding programs to come up with varieties that can produce a decent crop in a low-chill scenario,” Brar said. “But right now, the goal is to do some kind of intervention, maybe by using growth regulators or find some other chemical inputs that can help trees wake up normally even in a low-chill year.” Brar compared the research approach to research of fertilizer inputs. “We all add nitrogen, potassium, sulfur and micronutrients to the trees,” he said. “And because of research, we know that when there is fruit on the tree, we need the most nitrogen. And we learned that at bloom we need boron, because boron is needed for flower development. And we learned that through research. “So that is what we are doing in trying to manage chill in pistachios,” he said. Brar has three researchers in his lab focused on the project, including two conducting lab work and one in the field collecting samples and monitoring oil sprays and harvest, as well as documenting when bloom occurs in relation to the different treatments. Researchers are compiling nut growth, nut quality and yield data, as well as data on percentage of blanks. Temperature gauges enable researchers to follow chill accumulation at the different sites. Researchers expect to have first-year data compiled by this spring. Brar said it could be several years before the research yields results growers can take to the field. “By the end of four years, we will at least know what changes are occurring in the trees,” he said. “Then it will take another two to four years to test the potential rest-breaking agents, the chemical compounds that will break the rest of the tree.” Several compounds under consideration for use as rest-breaking agents currently are registered for use in pistachios, Brar said. Others aren’t, but researchers plan to pursue registration of those compounds if an interest is showing in doing so, Brar said. Kraemer & Co. Mfg., Inc. Nut Drying & Storage Facilities Almonds • Pecans • Pistachios • Walnuts • Burners • Fans • Drying Systems • Storage & Handling • Custom Manufacturing • Spiral E-Z Let Downs • Installation & Service Let Kraemer & Co. Design and Build the Facility that is Right for Your Needs Comments about this article? We want to hear from you. Feel free to email us at article@jcsmarketinginc.com Walnut Drying Bins Bin Features • Knock Down Kit • Modular • Corrugated / Galvanized Construction • Do-It-Yourself Option • Low Lead Time • 6 Ton Capacity 3778 County Road 99 W Orland, CA 95963 530-865-7982 │ Fax: 530-865-5091 CA Cont. Lic. #485-547 │ Web: www.kcomfg.com March 2020 www.wcngg.com 11
Page 1 and 2: WEST COAST NUT March 2020 ISSUE SPO
Page 3 and 4: By the Industry, For the Industry P
Page 5 and 6: Apply less, expect more? There’s
Page 7 and 8: Walnut yields were measured from a
Page 9: They may be unseen, but they should
Page 13 and 14: For more information 818-249-4647 w
Page 15 and 16: June 3, 2020 Turlock, California Al
Page 17 and 18: Terra Nova has made tremendous prog
Page 19 and 20: Introducing the Precision Fit 8 Cab
Page 21 and 22: economics and logistics (control ov
Page 23 and 24: POWERFUL MARKETING DRIVES POWERFUL
Page 25 and 26: The potassium nitrate experts Three
Page 27 and 28: solve one of your pressing problems
Page 29 and 30: September 17-18, 2020 Visalia, Cali
Page 31 and 32: Ag Tech Mobile software can provide
Page 33 and 34: Introducing the Superpowers of Peca
Page 35 and 36: Pollinator protection starts with e
Page 37 and 38: MAXIMIZE YOUR YIELD POTENTIAL Key f
Page 39 and 40: COMPOST 100% Fully Composted Dairy
Page 41 and 42: Innovative by Nature at Bloom and P
Page 43 and 44: PISTACHIO TREES platinum pistachio
Page 45 and 46: Potassium A Vital Nutrient for tree
Page 47 and 48: Budded pistachio trees in nursery.
Page 49 and 50: MAXIMIZE YOUR YIELD POTENTIAL Key n
Page 51 and 52: June 3, 2020 Turlock, California ST
Page 53 and 54: out and help meetings with Californ
Page 55 and 56: Under the Instagram handle @Califor
Page 57 and 58: It wasn’t until one of his Soil S
Page 59 and 60: CO-JACK Rodent Control System Brigh
Page 61 and 62:
time. Like pocket gophers, they als
Page 63 and 64:
About 800 hazelnut growers recently
Page 65 and 66:
3. Have a written contract with the
Page 67 and 68:
The Adverse Effect Wage Rate is det
Page 69 and 70:
NEW Distributor of March 2020 www.w
Page 71 and 72:
PHEROCON ® NOW PPO-HR L 2 + ® MO
Page 73 and 74:
to mate and SIT is hoping the steri
Page 75 and 76:
tion. Ethanol fuel cells can be use
Page 77 and 78:
Register Now for June 24, 2020 Alm
Page 79 and 80:
August/September 2019 Adopting Dive
Page 81 and 82:
March 2020 www.wcngg.com 81
Page 83 and 84:
Cankers caused by P. syringae have
show all

WCN March 2020

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?