Pistachio Growers Association Inc.

Pistachio Growers Association Incorporated

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Current Research Activities:

The Research Field Officer, Dr. Jianlu Zhang, continues the five year HAL project PS06001: “Facilitating the development of the Australian pistachio industry”. He is investigating ways the industry can increase yields and improve nut quality with the proposed outputs and outcomes:

Practical application of Calcium will be developed to control Stylar End Lesion of nuts
A large scale Nitrogen application trial is being carried out to determine the optimum levels applied to maximise gross returns
Continued work on pruning, including mechanical pruning, to control biennial bearing and increase yields and reduce costs
Continued work on thinning of nut clusters, to control biennial bearing and increase yields
Establishment of winter chill hours required for Sirora pistachios
Establishment of Australian leaf analysis standards for Sirora pistachios
Continue to investigate the use of reflective mulch to increase crop yields
Continue benchmarking of orchards

Dr Daniele Giblot Ducray, has completed the three year HAL project PS06002: “Challenges to the Australian pistachio industry - bacterial dieback and nut quality”. The aim of this project was to develop management strategies for the control and prevention of pistachio bacterial dieback and for the reduction of golden stain. The pistachio bacterial dieback component of this project extends work from previous projects by this research team in which the pathogen responsible for pistachio dieback was identified and characterised. The project evaluated chemical and cultural management strategies for controlling the disease within infested orchards. Strategies for the long term management of the disease were established to accommodate the intended expansion of the industry over the next 5-10 years. The application of PCR-based diagnostic methods were evaluated for a range of naturally infected plant tissues to establish diagnostic protocols for routine monitoring of propagation material and samples collected from established orchards. The genetic diversity of the bacteria was investigated to identify the likely origin of the pathogen and better understand its mechanisms of pathogenicity.

To access the reports for the completed projects listed in the table below, click Project Results and then select Pistachio from the industry drop-down list and follow the prompts.

Project No	Title
PS400	Preliminary assessment of early damage to pistachio nuts from insects in Australian orchards
PS608	Pistachio canker and dieback
PS95001	Improvement of packout and quality of Australian pistachios
PS00003	Californian pistachio study tour
NT00004	Participation at the third international symposium on pistachios and almonds, Zaragoza, Spain, May 2001
PS97002	Managing 'canker' and dieback in pistachios
NT99004	Pistachio canker epidemiology
NT02007	Molecular techniques to identify and detect the bacteria associated with pistachio dieback
PS05001	Californian pistachio study tour, November 2005
PS03003	Facilitating the development of the Australian pistachio industry
PS04015	Pistachio canker epidemiology

The research projects have been facilitated by HAL in partnership with Pistachio Growers Association Inc. Projects have been funded by contributions from industry. The Australian Government provides matched funding for all HAL's R&D activities.