How many years does a pistachio tree generally take to bear fruit?

The pistachio tree is also called Pistacia vera (pistachio), a deciduous small tree of the genus Pistacia in the family Anacardiaceae, native to Syria, Iraq, Iran, the southwestern part of the former Soviet Union and southern Europe, later introduced to remote areas of China, a deep-rooted drought-tolerant tree species, with a taproot that can reach 7 m into the soil layer and horizontal lateral roots that can reach 10-15 m, and a tree age that can reach as long as 300 years. Let us take a look below at how many years the pistachio tree takes to bear fruit!

How many years the pistachio tree takes to bear fruit

The pistachio tree is a plant with a long tree age and slow growth. For a seedling grown from seed, counting from the first year of planting the seed, it takes at least six years to bear fruit, and the fruiting rate increases year by year; from the fourteenth year to the seventieth year after planting is the full fruiting period. A grafted seedling begins to bear fruit in the third year, and by the sixth year it can enter the full fruiting period. A robust and healthy pistachio tree can yield 100-200 kg of fresh fruit per tree per year when picked, while an ordinary pistachio tree yields 70-130 kg of fresh fruit per tree per year, with a dry fruit rate of 30%.

Growth habits of the pistachio

1. Soil: The pistachio tree has strong adaptability to soil and can grow in almost all types of soil, especially preferring deep, thick, light, or dry calcareous sandy loam and yellow loam. It can also grow in clay loam, gravelly soil, shallow chestnut soil, light loam, mildly salinized soil, etc., with a soil pH of 7.7-8.0. It can also grow and bear fruit on gravelly barren mountain land and semi-desert land. Its growth requires trace elements such as potassium and iron, and it is not tolerant of saline-alkali conditions; it cannot grow in places that are too damp and shaded or where water accumulates.

2. Watering: In suitable planting areas for the pistachio tree, the annual precipitation is generally in the range of 200-400 mm, where it grows well and bears plump fruit. In areas with annual precipitation below 80 mm, it can still grow tenaciously, flower and bear fruit, but a lack of water during the sensitive water-demand period in summer will cause the fruit to have no harvest at all.

3. Temperature: The pistachio has a relatively strong ability to adapt to temperature and can adapt to temperatures from 73.4 degrees to below zero at the same time. Of course, the pistachio tree needs a sufficiently cool winter to break bud dormancy and a long, hot, dry summer to ripen the fruit. Fruit set is better within the range of a maximum of 43.8 degrees Celsius to minus 32.8 degrees Celsius.

Excellent varieties of pistachio

1. Long-fruited pistachio: The fruit shape of the long-fruited pistachio is a long oval, with a red blush surrounding it in the fruit. The top of the fruit is pointed, with a longitudinal diameter of 2.5 cm and a transverse diameter of 1.1 cm. The tree has a very high fruit-setting rate and strong high-yield capacity. It is a large-fruited variety, grows robustly, and has the greatest development prospects.

2. Early-maturing pistachio: The tree vigor of the early-maturing pistachio tree is relatively weak, the branches of the fruit tree are curved and drooping, and the fruit shows lenticels. The lenticels are white in color, round in shape and very prominent. The fruit-setting rate is medium. The fruit produced is approximately oval, with a longitudinal diameter of 1.9 cm and a transverse diameter of 1.0 cm. At the top and sunny side of the fruit, a red color appears, and the skin stripes on the fruit are obvious.

3. Short-fruited pistachio: The tree vigor of the short-fruited pistachio tree is medium, the leaf surface is relatively smooth, with sparse fine hairs covering it. The fruit-setting rate is relatively low, and the fruit produced is oval in shape. The color of the fruit is yellow-white, with a longitudinal diameter of 2.1 cm and a transverse diameter of 1.3 cm.

4. Notorolo: The Notorolo pistachio tree belongs to the Central Asian group. The pistachio fruit it produces is relatively large, and the flavor of the fruit is not very good. In the fruit, the seed is green and the cracking rate is high.

5. Dahan: The Dahan pistachio tree has very vigorous growth and belongs to a late-flowering variety. The fruit it produces has the characteristics of high quality, high yield and large fruit size, and its quality ranks among the best among pistachios.

6. Kerman: The Kerman pistachio tree is a female plant and has the characteristics of large fruit and high yield. Serious biennial bearing is one of the phenomena of this fruit tree, while empty shells and shells that do not split are its remaining phenomena. The tree vigor is very vigorous. Late flowering, high-quality fruit, large fruit and high yield are its advantages. The single nut weight of the fruit is 1.3 g, and the kernel is green with good quality.

7. Sarile: The tree vigor of the Sarile pistachio tree is moderate, and it has the characteristics of strong high-yield capacity and easy fruit setting. The fruit-setting rate is very high, and large fruit, white kernels and top-grade quality are all characteristics of this fruit.