Journal of Nuts
Volume:3 Issue: 2, Summer-Autumn 2012

Temperature reduction in early spring, especially corporate with buds swelling, sometimes causes severe damages. Most of the fruit trees in tropical and semi-tropical regions, especially in more critical conditions, moderate, at early spring are subjected to the frostbite and winter cold injuries. This study aimed to evaluate the amount of proline, total protein, and soluble sugars during the phonological period of buds under the late spring cold. So the research as factorial in completely randomized design with two factors, first factor was sampling time (1-mid- February 2- swelling of inflorescence buds 3-flowering 4-fruit set) and the second factor was four local pistachio cultivars of Damghan city (Shahpasand, Khanjari, Abasali, and Akbari cultivar) was established in three replications in the Damghan’s regions. The results indicated that the highest amount of proline under cold stress in flowering stage was reported in Khanjari cultivar and the lowest amount in Shahpasand and Akbari cultivar. Also the result indicated that the highest amount of protein in flowering was observed in Khanjari cultivar and lowest amount in Akbari and Shahpasand varieties. Due to temperature reduction the total amount of proteins during the dormancy and swelling were decreased but during the flowering and fruit setting the total amount of protein was increased. During the winter, sugars were accumulated but their level decreased in early spring.

Iran is the first producer and exporter of Pistachio in the world. The research is on codification of advertisement strategies in coherence with the export of pistachio in Kerman province by SWOT model. Objectives of the research were determining the most important advertisement strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of Kerman exporting pistachio and proposing appropriate strategies. At first according to the evaluations done on interior and exterior environment of exporting pistachio advertisement of Kerman province, a list of strong and weak points, opportunities and threats was observed. And after doing a survey by means of questionnaire from authorities (pistachio exporters of Kerman province) the statistical "T" test applied to confirm or deny the strong and weak points, opportunities and threats. Then by weighing each of the confirmed above mentioned factors through Likret spectrum and estimating the total weights, average weights and finally approximate weight, priorities were clarified. Eventually for eliminating or lessening the weak points, threats and improving and strengthening the strong points and available advertisement opportunities in accordance with Kerman province pistachio exporting, using SWOT analytical method appropriate strategies were submitted such as identifying and segregating new markets and using international advertisement agencies for promotion and competing with rivals in view of the superior quality of Kerman’s pistachio.

Simple sequence repeat (SSR markers or microsatellites), based on the specific PCR amplification of DNA sequences, are becoming the markers of choice for molecular characterization of a wide range of plants because of their high polymorphism, abundance, and codominant inheritance. Different methods have been used for the analysis of the SSR amplified fragments being submarine agarose electrophoresis the more suitable method for the routine application. In this work we have performed a comparative study of the utilization of four different types of low melting (Metaphor®, Sea Kem®, and MS-8®) and regular (LD-2®) agaroses and two different staining protocols using Ethidium Bromide and Gel Red Nucleic Acid Gel Sating®. Almond cultivars assayed included the Spanish cultivars ‘Antoñeta’, ‘Marta’, ‘Penta’, ‘Tardona’ ‘Desmayo’ and ‘Guara’, the French cultivars ‘Ferragnés’ and ‘R1000’, the USA cultivar ‘Mission’, the Tunisian cultivar ‘Achaak’, the Italian cultivar ‘Tuono’ and the Australian cultivar ‘Chellaston’. SSR detection using Metaphor® agarose gel electrophoresis was the most efficient with higher resolution and would be able to resolve most of allelic variation in comparison with the other three agaroses assayed. In addition, gel staining using Ethidium Bromide showed similar results than the GelRedTM Nucleic Acid Gel Stain® although it is much more toxic. The use of MetaPhor® agarose and GelRedTM Nucleic Acid Gel Stain® appears good indicated for molecular characterization of mapping of population due to its good resolution in comparison with the rest of agaroses, less toxicity in comparison with the use of Ethidium Bromide, and lower cost and easier routine application in comparison with the automatic capillary sequencing.

In order to evaluate responses of a pistachio seedling rootstock (Pistacia vera L. cv. Ghazvini) to NaCl induced salinity stress and potential protective role of exogenous spermine and spermidine on NaCl induced salinity stress, a greenhouse experiment was conducted during growing season of 2009. The NaCl treatments, involving 800, 1600, and 3200 mg NaCl per Kg of soil for 90 days, suppressed growth of the seedlings and induced accumulation of Na+ and Cl- in roots and shoots. Accumulation of Na+ and Cl- in shoots was higher than in roots. Our data also showed more accumulation of K+ in the shoot than in the roots under salinity stress. The ratio of K+/Na+ in compare with control was highly significant in the shoots of stressed plants. Exogenous polyamines (PAs) prevented the growth reduction induced by salinity stress and reduced transport of Na+ and Cl- from the root to shoot and increased translocation of K+ from the root to the shoot of pistachio seedlings. We concluded that ‘Ghazvini’ rootstock appear to be a valuable seedling rootstock with a level of salt tolerance about 1600 mg NaCl Kg-1 Soil. It also concluded that application of exogenous PAs may protect pistachio seedlings from salinity stress effects.

In order to determine effect salicylic acid and Zn on characteristics of pistachio nut (Pistacia vera L. cv. Owhadi), the experiment was carried out as factorial in the framework of CRD design with three replications. The results showed that salicylic acid and Zn increased nut fresh weight and decreased blank nut percentage. The application of salicylic acid decreased splitting percentage and kernel dry weight. Simultaneous application of 250 mg L-1 SA and 0.2% Zn (Zn2SO4) decreased inflorescent bud abscission at compared to control.

The objective of this experiment was to evaluate self-compatibility of two late blooming almond cultivars and identification and introduction of suitable pollinizers from late flowering genotypes, and evaluation of pollen source effect on fruit characteristics to earn high quality nuts for Iranian almond industry. This experiment was carried out in order to determine the best pollinizer for two commercial almond cultivars, ‘Shahrood 12’ and ‘Shahrood 21’ (♀). pollen sources were ‘Shahrood ’, ‘Genco’, ‘Tuno’, ‘5-15’ and ‘Supernova’ (♂) which were applied on ‘Sharood 21’ mother trees, and ‘Shahrood 12’, ‘Feilip Ceo’, ‘Tuno’, ‘5-15’ and ‘Super-nova’ (♂). The results showed no fruit formation in non-pollinated and self pollinated flowers. However, the results from cross pollination using pollen from other cultivars showed higher fruit set using pollen of ‘Genco’ for ‘Shahrood 21’, and ‘15-5’ for ‘Shahrood 12’ (♀) cultivars. The samples of pollinated flowers were collected for further microscopic examinations. In order to evaluate the effect of pollen sources, quantitative traits of nuts were measured. The recorded traits were length (L), width (W), thickness (T) of seeds, and W/L and T/L ratios.

This work develops a statistical model to assess the frost risk in Rafsanjan, one of the largest pistachio production regions in the world. These models can be used to estimate the probability that a frost happens in a given time-period during the year; a frost happens after 10 warm days in the growing season. These probability estimates then can be used for: (1) assessing the agroclimate risk of investing in this industry; (2) pricing of weather derivatives. Autoregressive models with time-varying coefficients and different lags are compared using AIC/BIC/AICc and cross validation criterions. The optimal model is an AR (1) with both intercept and the “autoregressive coefficients” vary with time. The long-term trends are also accounted for and estimated from data. The optimal models are then used to simulate future weather from which the probabilities of appropriate hazard events are estimated.

Pistachio is one of the most important agricultural crops of Iran. It is a nut from Anacardiacea family and its domesticated species is called Pistacia vera L. Regarding to pistachio importance and usage and by the expanding of pistachio cultivate, it is necessary to improve agricultural situation and by establishing well equipped processing and packaging units near the farms, it is possible to supply high quality and quantity of products for foreign and domestic markets. In this case, aflatoxin is one of the major problems. It is Aspergillus metabolite produced in good humidity and temperature condition. Thus for pistachio safety, usage of effective scientific methods based on preventive action in pistachio production chain from planting to packaging, storingand distribution is recommended. Since quality assurance systems and process control based on ISO 22000:2005 can be a good method for aflatoxin contamination control, in this research, ISO 22000:2005 requirements were implemented in a pistachio processing unit and aflatoxin B1 content was measured by HPLC before and after six stages of processing including washing, immersing pool, wet sorting, drier, temporary storing and dry sorting. After analyzing measured data, the most reducing stage in aflatoxin content was wet sorting and drying and temporary storing had the preventing role in aflatoxin content, so they had no significant effect in aflatoxin reducing. As a whole it is concluded that OPRP and CCP have no difference important in hazard control but they are different from type of control measure aspect. Besides for implementing FSMS effectively, suitable prerequisite programs are necessary.