Compatibility of Six Commercial Pistachio Cultivars on Tissue Culture of Badami-Zarand rootstock in Kerman Climate

Since now all pistachio rootstocks in most Iranian pistachio orchards are seed cultivation and heterogeneity cause differences in the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of each cultivar and it is also impossible to reproduce superior rootstocks with seed cultivation. Therefore, use of tissue culture and research about compatibility of cultivars with tissue culture is one of the research priorities of pistachio research centers in Iran. The aim of this study was the investigation of the compatibility of six commercial pistachio cultivars with tissue culture rootstock of Bademi Zarand. This experiment was carried out in a randomized complete block design with six pistachio cultivars (Kaleh Qouchi, Rezaei Zodras, Fandoghi, Forootani, Akbari and Ahmad Ahaghi) in three replications at Kerman Pistachio Research Station for four years (2012-2016). The results of average comparison showed that Ahmad Aghaei had the highest growth and highest adaptability to the tissue culture and also highest concentration of leaf nutrients and Akbari cultivar had the least compatibility with tissue culture rootstocks. So that the length of this year's branch and the graft branch, stem diameter below and above the graft in Ahmad Aghaei cultivar were 36, 84, 67 and 39% more than Akbari and also P and Fe concentration in Ahmad Aghaei leaves were 42.85 and 101% more than Akbari respectively. Results of Pearson correlation analysis showed significant correlation coefficients among some growth properties and nutrient concentration in this study. There were positive correlations among leaf potassium concentration with length of this year's branch and the graft branch, calcium concentration with stem diameter, stem diameter with the number of lateral branches and radius of the tree crown. According to the results, it seems Ahmad Aghaei cultivar is more compatibility than other cultivars with Badami-Zarand tissue culture rootstocks in Kerman climatic conditions.