La Global demand for pistachios is increasing due to the proliferation of multiple products in the cosmetics industry and their nutritional value within balanced diets.
Its high demand and low production make it a strategic cultivation for investment of large producers.
As for our region, Spain currently has a lower production rate in terms of planted area, area in full production, and production yield than other countries such as the United States and Türkiye.
According to these data we must clarify that most of the production in the Middle East It is carried out under dryland conditions since pistachios are drought-tolerant, with profitability levels still being optimal due to the aforementioned demand. However, the best production yields are obtained in irrigation systems practiced mainly in the California area, USA.
Going deeper into quantitative analysis we can detect a large difference in productivity between both cultivation media, qualifying average yields included in dry land of 1.4 Kg/tree vs. 16-18 Kg/tree that offer us irrigation practices.
In Spain it is known that water, both in terms of availability and cost, is a limiting factor when planning agronomic management strategies. Therefore, the most balanced and standardized solution in the search for equilibrium between increased production yield and available resources in pistachios is the practice and study of the so-called Controlled Deficit Irrigation (CDI) (Mitchell et al, 1984), based on the idea of reducing water inputs in those phenological periods in which a controlled water deficit does not significantly affect the production and quality of the harvest, fully covering the demand for the rest of the crop.
However, given the difference in performance shown, we must centralize because these losses could occur despite the definition.
We can summarize the practice, in 3 phenological moments precise:
- Beginning of vegetative and productive growth (from sprouting to rapid end of fruit growth), so the lack of water at this stage can directly affect the size and calibre of the fruit despite encouraging the fruit to open.
- From mid-May to early July (from maximum fruit growth to the beginning of seed growth), having the disadvantage in this case that it can increase the percentage of fruits opened very early, causing aflatoxin problems.
- Rapid development of the seed until harvest, which can affect the individual weight of the seed, the increase in the abortion of the same and the increase in closed fruits, so in this phase we find the greatest need for correct management of the practice.
In view of this, requirements and correlated contributions continue to be studied in a precise manner to influence crop evapotranspiration (ETo) through the already known correlation ETc = Kc x ETo.
In this sense, since Cultifort, there is precise knowledge of biostimulation for the management of said variable through the technical use of the so-called osmoregulators, in order to have a cellular level resistance response consisting of a decrease in water potential in plant tissues, which results in a better use of the water supplied and, therefore, there is no decrease in turgor or photosynthetic productivity.
Therefore, the objective of osmotic adjustment through osmoregulators is to maintain constant turgor of the target cell by phenology through the accumulation of osmotically active substances, causing a decrease in osmotic potential and regulating water loss through stomatal control, such as specific organic acids, some simple sugars and certain amino acids.
Among the range of Cultifort nutritional solutions, Foliton, BVC EVOLUTION (Formerly BVC 2021) y Cultimar Plus They function as osmoregulators, which help in the management of water stress in pistachio cultivation.
