Consulting and Technology for the cultivation of the pistachio

Index of Articles
Consulting and technology for the cultivation of the Pistachio
Skills: What have we done?
Experience
Past and current clients
How we operate and how you can contact us

Our understanding of this crop is based on the scientific aspects of the knowledge and study of: soils, botanical ecosystem, climatic conditions, varieties and their comparative behavior, physiology, nutrition and fertilization, pollination, pruning, irrigation, harvesting, and processing of the fruit. We are also specialists in the reproduction of young plants grafted in the nursery.

In 1978, we imported from S & J Ranch - Madera (CA), 200 trees grafted from the productive variety Kerman on rootstock "feet" of Pistacia Atlantica, and from the pollinators Peters and "02-18". We also imported around 80 kilos of Atlantica seeds DIRECTLY from the USDA's Chico Station (CA).

As a result, our seeds for the nursery are not only genuine seeds from Chico, but in addition they are of unsurpassable quality. To reproduce the Californian experience with the actual agricultural conditions of the Iberian Peninsula was (and still is) a great challenge. We needed decades of experience in the cultivation of the pistachio in order to gradually adapt our operational protocols. We have always had the support of our friends in Sacramento and the San Joaquin Valley, as without them, we would not have been able to achieve success on our own. We are permanently grateful to the University of California - Davis.

The soil and environmental conditions of the Peninsula, as well as the cultivation practices, have more in common with the Middle East than the California environment. This is why we had to add to our American experience, developing a similar experience in the pistachio regions of the Middle East.

We have studied the cultivation of the pistachio nut at the Research and Agricultural Development Center in Gaziantep, Turkey, with Dr. Celal Kuru and at the University of Regina Faculty Association (URFA) with Dr. Bekir Ak and later at the University of Aleppo (Syria). Iran is the world's base for the cultivation of pistachios and there was much to learn in our visits to Kerman and to the Valley of Rafsanjan (Iran). The result of this exploration and study of the pistachio in the Middle East has been essential for completing and adapting the understanding of pistachio cultivation on the Iberian Peninsula.

UC Davis formed the basis of our technology but to this basis we have gradually added the synthesis of the experience from Turkey and Iran, and particularly, in relation to plant nutrition; the contributions of Dr. Mansoor Torabi in Kerman.