I have 6 plants (4f, 2m) still in pots that I've yet to put into an orchard, but they have climate requirements that are very challenging -- the females are wind pollinated by the males, they need / appreciate cold winters, they really don't like wet feet, but they want a lot of heat through summer, though they really don't want much humidity (well the plants don't care, but you'll have issues with salmonella if you don't have very dry summers).
The world's avocado industry essentially comes from a single tree - the mother Hass. Apparently at a conference years back, organisers gave out bud wood from it, so there're clones spread across the world now (the original is now dead).
Lots of different root-stocks, it should be added.
One of the exceptions is South Africa, where other varieties are common, but Hass is still a majority. Also note that there are new "Hass" varieties that are essentially mutations of the original Hass (it would seem; often it is not certain what the actual DNA of the variant would be or how it came to be).
Note that the Dominican republic is usually listed as a top 3 producer, but none of it is Hass and none of it is exported.
"In Iran, more than 50 varieties are cultivated, not counting the great number of wild pistachios. But even today, the vast majority of California’s pistachio trees are Kerman."
would be interesting if local producers got into this. given the prevalence of boutique tomatoes and the like, I could see this working.
how far off from Turkish pistachios are they? I can get those through nuts.com and a few other places and they are certainly different from what we encounter in the super market.
How do you source/buy these different kinds? I've mostly had Californian pistachios, and I think they're amazing. But I keep hearing about the Iranian/Turkish varieties which is probably where the pistachio plant is native to.
Whenever I see things like this, I wonder why are they talking about gallons per nut or tree or whatever? Shouldn't it be relative to how many grams protein/fat/carbs it produces per gallon compared to other food sources?
I thought the same. Look at Banana Industry the disease first wiped Gros Michel and now seriously threatens Cavendish. That wouldn't be such problem if only one cultivar wasn't so widespread.
> from one seed? So a disease could wipe it all out.
It depends what you mean by 'wipe it all out'
There are plenty of pistachio varieties, grown all over the planet, so the disease would need to spread far and wide -- but this is what many country's border controls are specifically designed to stop.
There's about 30 named fruiting pistachio varieties (compare ~3,000 apple, or ~500 edible banana) so we're at some greater risk, but if you were to ask a random sample of consumers to identify the different pistachio varieties by sight/taste I expect you'd find most would struggle.
A disease could even wipe out a population from a wide variety of ancestors. The thing that matters if any of the ancestors has encountered a type of this disease before and has found a way to be resilient for it (and pass it on into its genes).
[+] [-] Jedd|6 years ago|reply
I have 6 plants (4f, 2m) still in pots that I've yet to put into an orchard, but they have climate requirements that are very challenging -- the females are wind pollinated by the males, they need / appreciate cold winters, they really don't like wet feet, but they want a lot of heat through summer, though they really don't want much humidity (well the plants don't care, but you'll have issues with salmonella if you don't have very dry summers).
[+] [-] gravelc|6 years ago|reply
Lots of different root-stocks, it should be added.
[+] [-] mikorym|6 years ago|reply
One of the exceptions is South Africa, where other varieties are common, but Hass is still a majority. Also note that there are new "Hass" varieties that are essentially mutations of the original Hass (it would seem; often it is not certain what the actual DNA of the variant would be or how it came to be).
Note that the Dominican republic is usually listed as a top 3 producer, but none of it is Hass and none of it is exported.
[+] [-] targonca|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cat199|6 years ago|reply
"In Iran, more than 50 varieties are cultivated, not counting the great number of wild pistachios. But even today, the vast majority of California’s pistachio trees are Kerman."
would be interesting if local producers got into this. given the prevalence of boutique tomatoes and the like, I could see this working.
[+] [-] Shivetya|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] imagiko|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jonbaer|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] frosted-flakes|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] makerofspoons|6 years ago|reply
And we grow them in the desert of all places.
[+] [-] seiferteric|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|6 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] lawlessone|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Hitton|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Jedd|6 years ago|reply
It depends what you mean by 'wipe it all out'
There are plenty of pistachio varieties, grown all over the planet, so the disease would need to spread far and wide -- but this is what many country's border controls are specifically designed to stop.
There's about 30 named fruiting pistachio varieties (compare ~3,000 apple, or ~500 edible banana) so we're at some greater risk, but if you were to ask a random sample of consumers to identify the different pistachio varieties by sight/taste I expect you'd find most would struggle.
[+] [-] aequitas|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pvaldes|6 years ago|reply
This is impossible, obviously, and should not be intended to be taken literally