The PGA Chill Newsletter no. 4, the final report for the 2021 winter season is available, outlining the dynamic chill unit accumulation in different Pistachio growing locations in Victoria, New South Wales, and South Australia. The data has been prepared by Dr. Jianlu Zhang and PGA’s new Researcher Dr. Maha Mahadevan.
Records show insufficient chill accumulation for 2021 season (1st March to 31st August) in few pistachio growing regions, particularly the Riverland in SA and Sunraysia in VIC. This would potentially impact pistachio production for the season.
Key information :
- Riverland did not reach 59 Dynamic Chill units requiring growers to take up mitigation action such as oil or polymer sprays.
- Sunraysia showed sufficient Dynamic chill units, however, had below average hours less than 7 degrees Celsius (alternate model for chill requirement)
A survey has been set up to collect and compile information on the actions taken to mitigate the issue, the impact it has on uniformity, earliness of bud burst, flowering, and nut set ultimately yield and quality. Capturing and uploading photos would be a great visual representation.
Provision has been provided to upload photos.
This will be a highly valuable information that will help understand and model low chill mitigation practices specific to a geographical location, its interaction with weather parameters and response of the pistachio trees. It will assist develop robust and efficient mitigation strategy through future research.
Thank you in advance for taking up the survey.
