نشریه علوم و فناوری پسته
پیاپی 9 (بهار و تابستان 1399)

In recent years, the growth of pistachio production in Iran has not been in line with the global growth of this product, one of the important reasons for which is the improper nutrition of pistachio orchards, especially nutrition with low consumption elements. Due to the salinity and calcareous soil of pistachio cultivation areas, high pH and bicarbonate concentration, it is difficult to absorb iron from soil by pistachio trees. In order to evaluate the methods of application of iron chelate and its different concentrations on the quantitative and qualitative properties of pistachio and iron uptake, a factorial experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The first factor consisted of iron chelate foliar solution (spraying without electrostatic head and surfactant, electrostatic, surfactant and electrostatic + surfactant) and the second factor, iron chelate concentrations (distilled water as control, 0.5, 1, 5 1 kg of iron chelate per thousand liters of water). The results showed that the interaction effect of electrostatic spray treatment with surfactant and iron chelate concentrations had only significant effect on leaf iron concentration and fresh and dry weight of pistachio kernel. The results of the mean comparison showed that the data on leaf iron concentration and dry and wet brain weight were significantly different. So that the highest concentration of leaf iron (302.9 ppm in dry matter) was observed in the treatment of surfactant and electrostatic head and 1.5 kg of iron chelate in one thousand liters of water, which was 3 times higher than the control treatment. The highest dry kernel weight (12.4 g) and wet kernel weight (22.25 g) were observed in the treatment of surfactant and electrostatic head and 1.5 kg of iron chelate per thousand liters of water, which were 3.5 and 7 g, respectively. Control treatment increased weight gain. The percentage of blankness (8.16%) in the treatment of 1.5 kg of kalat iron per thousand liters of water was observed, which was a 3% decrease compared to the control treatment. The concentration of iron in pistachio kernels (52.41 ppm in dry matter) was observed in 1.5 kg of iron chelate treatment per thousand liters of water, which increased up to 3 times compared to the control treatment. The percentage of dehisced nuts (65.25%) in the treatment of 1.5 kg of iron chelate in one thousand liters of water was observed, which increased by 10% compared to the control treatment. Also, the highest concentrations of pistachio kernel iron (42.65 ppm in dry matter) were observed in the electrostatic and surfactant solution treatment, which increased 3 times compared to the control treatment. The highest percentage of dehisced nuts (63.91%) was in electrostatic and surfactant solution spraying, which increased by 4% compared to the control treatment. In general, in this study, electrostatic solution spraying with surfactant with a concentration of 1.5 kg of iron chelate per thousand liters of water had a better effect on the concentration of leaf iron and pistachio kernel, percentage of laughter and wet and dry weight of pistachio kernel than control.

Gravity separator (dry pond) is one of the common separation equipment that is widely used in pistachio processing units. In this study, the performance evaluation of the gravity separator in separating of blank pistachio nuts as well as other low density part of crop was aimed. For this purpose, complete separation of the pistachio nuts by water was considered as separation criteria, and based on this, the relative separation index (R.S.I.) was defined to evaluate the performance of the gravity separator. Gravity separator performance in separation of two varieties pistachio nuts (Fandoghi and Momtaz) was evaluated using the index for different outlet gates adjustments including regular adjustment (both outlet gates in second position). This study indicated that Relative Separation Index of Momtaz variety was significantly higher than Fandoghi. Regardless of the variety, the highest value of R.S.I. was 64.5%. The results showed increasing of R.S.I. from 79% to 93% (compared with water separation) can be achieved by changing the facility adjustment. On the other hand, it was revealed that by changing the settings of the dry pond, although better performance can be achieved in the Relative Separation Index, but this leads to a sharp increase in the quantity of rejected output from the apparatus.

The economic importance along with high nutritional value of pistachio has necessitated further research on this agricultural product. One of the most important problems in the production, consumption and export of pistachio is its contamination with various microorganisms at different stages. Pistachio kernel is considered as a fatty seed and this makes it very susceptible to fungal and bacterial contamination and as a result, its shelf life would be reduced. Peracetic acid is a strong oxidizer which can rapidly remove a wide range of microorganisms and is also environmentally safe. In this research, pistachio seeds were treated with different concentrations (0, 5, 10, 12.5 and 15%) of peracetic acid for 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2 and 5 min. Then the growth of bacteria, fungi, and common microflora were evaluated. The results indicated that the treatment of pistachio with 10% peracetic acid for 0.5 min, reduced the contaminating microflora more than 99%. Therefore, disinfection of pistachio nuts with peracetic acid can be done in pistachio terminals (inside washing tank) to improve its quality before introducing to the market.

Drought stress is one of the most important factors limiting pistachio growth and yield in Iran. In this study, in order to investigate the effect of drought stress on the concentration of low-consumption and high-consumption mineral elements of rootstocks and hybrids between species of the genus pistachios, the experiment was conducted as factorial based on a Completely Randomized Design with four replications in the research greenhouse of Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources during 2019-2020. The treatments were consisted of ten pistachio rootstocks Ahmad Aghaei, Akbari, Sorkheh Hosseini, Garmeh, Fandoghi and interspecific hybrids (Ahmad Aghaei × Integerrima, Akbari × Integerrima, Sorkheh Hosseini × Integerrima, Garmeh × Integerrima and Fandoghi × Integerrima) and three levels of drought including control (field capacity), mild stress (65% of field capacity) and Severe stress (30% of field capacity) were applied on 3 months old the seedlings for 84 days. At the end of the experiment, the amount of nutrients in the leaves and roots of the plants were examined. The results showed that drought stress had significant effects on the mineral status of the leaves and roots of the studied rootstocks. According to the results, different physiological responses were observed between the seedlings in their response to water stress. With increasing stress levels, fandoghi rootstock the lowest and the hybrid rootstocks of Sorkheh Hosseini × Integerrima, Ahmad Aghaei × Integerrima and Akbari × Integerrima showed the greatest increase in the absorption of N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Zn, Fe, Mn and Cu between the rootstocks. The rootstocks of Ahmad Aghaei, Sorkheh Hosseini, Garmeh × Integerrima, Akbari, Garmeh and Fandoghi × Integerrima were ranked next in most traits in terms of drought tolerance, respectively. Based on the results of the present study it seems possible from the rootstocks of Sorkhe Hosseini × Integerrima, Ahmad Aghaei × Integerrima and Akbari × Integerrima was used as a rootstocks for dry-tolerant genes to modify cultivars with high yield potential in arid regions.

Pistachio is one of the most important and valuable orchard products in Iran, and its compatibility with unfavorable growth conditions, especially drought and salinity, causes its high production in the country. The study aim was to investigate the effect of soil characteristics on pistachio yield and their rating for applying in land suitability assessment studies. So, 124 pistachio orchards were selected in Kerman, Fars, Khorasan-Razavi, Isfahan and East-Azarbaijan provinces. In each orchard, a soil profile was studied and a land use questionnaire completed. After the necessary physical and chemical analyzes, multivariate regression was performed by the stepwise method between yield (dependent variable) and different soil characteristics (independent variables). By creating simple regression relations between effective soil characteristics on yield, the characteristics rating was determined for different land suitability classes. The results showed available potassium, salinity, ESP, sand and CaCO3 had the highest variation, and pH, organic carbon and available phosphorus had the lowest one. The results of stepwise regression showed the input of salinity, ESP, gypsum, CaCO3, gravel, available phosphorus and potassium to the equation were significant (P<0.01). The variables entered into the regression model with NRMSE=0.280 determined 75% of the variance related to the dependent variable (yield). In simple regression relations, salinity, ESP, gypsum, CaCO3 and gravel had negative influence and organic carbon, available phosphorus and potassium had positive influence on yield. The validation of soil variables ratings with R2=0.82 and NRMSE=0.224 distinguished acceptable accuracy of the proposed table which can be confidently applied for use in land suitability assessment.

Pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) is one of the most important agricultural products and export ‎items in Iran, which alone accounts for about one third of non-oil revenues in the agricultural ‎sector. Although pistachio is known as a plant adapted to environmental stresses, drought and ‎salinity are the most important factors in reducing production and one of the main problems ‎to achieve the real potential of this crop in Iran. The subject of the present project was to ‎evaluate the drought tolerance of two new genotypes ‎‎"Jookar1" and "Jookar2" as compared to two common native rootstocks "Badami Zarand" and ‎‎"Qazvini", which have tolerance to drought stress. In this regard, genotypes Jookar1 and ‎Jookar2 along with Badami Zarand and Qazvini were conducted in a factorial completely ‎randomized design (CRD) with five replications and five observations in each replication ‎in two ‎consecutive years (2018 and 2019). Evaluation of drought tolerance of rootstocks was done ‎at ‎three levels of normal (5-day irrigation cycle), mild stress (10-day irrigation cycle) and ‎severe stress (15-day irrigation cycle) using by morpho-physiological traits ‎related to water ‎stress. The results of irrigation treatments in the first and second year of the experiment ‎showed that there were significant differences between different levels of drought in all ‎morpho-physiological traits with the exception of stem water percentage and the number of ‎main root branches. Analysis of traits related to vegetative growth and physiological traits ‎related to plant water status showed that Jookar2 in mild stress and Badami Zarand and ‎Jookar1 in optimal and severe stress were selected as superior rootstocks. Although Jookar2 ‎showed significant sensitivity to drought in the early stages of growth in the first year of the ‎experiment and both vegetative growth and leaf area decreased significantly, this sensitivity ‎decreased in the second year of the experiment. Evaluation of morphological characteristics ‎of roots, crown and stem also confirmed the superiority of Jookar2 in mild drought stress ‎condition. However, no significant differences were observed between the four rootstocks ‎under normal and severe stress conditions. The clustering of the rootstocks based on all the ‎evaluated traits showed that in all three irrigation conditions, Badami Zarand and Jookar1 ‎were located in the same subgroup, which indicated the close genetic proximity of these two ‎rootstocks. Evaluation of three indices of uniformity, stability and viability in ‎greenhouse and orchard conditions screened Badami Zarand, Jookar1 and Qazvini as suitable ‎rootstocks. There was no damaged seedling in the orchard condition. The ‎findings showed that Jookar1 can be identified as a tolerant rootstock compared to Badami ‎Zarand and Qazvini which are considered as the best rootstocks in Iran and drought tolerance ‎of them has been confirmed in several researches. Jookar1 showed acceptable drought ‎tolerance and higher vegetative growth. Jookar2 was also significantly superior to the other ‎rootstocks in the mild drought stress, but its uniformity and viability were lower than the ‎other rootstocks after germination. In this study, Badami Zarand and Jookar1 were selected as ‎the best rootstocks that had desirable vegetative growth, drought tolerance, uniformity, ‎stability and viability.

In this research, while investigating the amount of scientific output in the field of aflatoxin in pistachio, ways to improve pistachio quality and increase consumer health are presented. Therefore, the indicators such as the number and type of scientific papers, articles, or abstracts of articles presented in conferences, research projects, thesis, and published books in the field of aflatoxin in pistachio were evaluated. Data collection was done by preparing the questionnaire and completing it using the information of the actual people and the information available at educational, research and executive institutions, as well as searching through the Internet sites including Scopus, Magiran, SID, web of science and others, in 2015 to 2019. The results showed that during the evaluation period, 74 research projects were implemented, about 25.7% of which were carried out by research units of the Ministry of Jahad-e-Agriculture, including research institutes and research centers, and the rest were dedicated educational and research units of the Ministry of Science, Medical Sciences, Azad University and others. 66.2 percent of the projects are based on the fundamental approach and 33.8 percent of the projects are with the applied approach. A total of 769 scientific articles have been published in this period. During this period, 42 volumes of the book have been published. The number of patents and innovations registered in this course was 387 titles. During this time, 501 MSc and Ph.D. thesis has been prepared. Demand for healthy pistachio is growing in Iran and the world and it pointed out that desirable strategies should be defensive. A strategy should be chosen that reduces or eliminates the damage caused by the threats. In fact, to improve consumer awareness and health, a corrective approach should be taken to structure the current status of aflatoxin in pistachio.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of Owhadi interstock on the growth and quantitative and qualitative indices in Ahmad Aghaie cultivar. This experiment was carried out in a randomized complete block design for two years (2018-2019) in the pistachio orchard located in Nogh. The studied orchard was grafted in 2011. In this study, treatments included of 1) Badami Zarand /Ahmad-Aghaei cultivar (control) , 2)Badami Zarand /Owhadishort interstock (30 cm) / Ahmad-Aghaei cultivar, and 3) Badami Zarand +Owhadilong interstock (30 -60 cm) / Ahmad-Aghaei cultivar. The studied parameters included growth characteristics such as tree height, annual shoots growth (length and diameter), the diameter of the canopy, the trunk intermediate area of the interstock, the trunk area of 3 cm above and below the graft, and the number of vegetative and reproductive buds. Quantitative and qualitative yield such as the weight of fresh and dry yields, percent of blank and split nuts, and the number of nuts per ounce were measured. Finally, the quantitative data were analyzed by SPSS statistical software and the Tukey test. The results of the mean comparison showed that the lowest  and the highest of height were in control and long interstock treatments related to the height of short and long interstock, and increased 38 and 47%, respectively. But there wasn’t significant on the height of scion. Based on the results, the highest of the canopy diameter and the number of branching were observed in the control and short interstock treatment. The results of the mean comparison showed that the maximum net weight of fresh yields and ounce were observed in the control and short interstock treatments, and the minimum was in long interstock treatment, but the annual yield was affected by the cultivar. Overall, it can be concluded that the control and the short interstock treatments had the best in growth and yield factors compared to long interstock treatments.

This research was conducted to investigate the effect of salinity stress due to increased sodium chloride on some morphological and physiological characteristics in rootstocks and interspecific hybrids of pistachio and screening of tolerant rootstocks. The factorial experiment in a completely randomized design was carried out in greenhouse conditions. The factors included four rootstocks (Badami-Riz-e-Zarand, Ghazvini, and interspecific hybrids Integerrima × Badami-Riz-e-Zarand, Integerrima × Ghazvini) and three salinity levels (0, 100 and 200 mM of NaCl) with three replicates in coco peat and perlite media. The results showed that with increasing salinity level, stem height, leaves numbers, leaf area, leaf fresh and dry weight, stem fresh and dry weight, root fresh and dry weight, leaf relative water content, leaf potassium and the ratio of potassium to sodium decreased, and ionic leakage, proline, and leaf sodium increased. The highest stem height was observed in Integerrima × Ghazvini hybrid. In addition, the highest leaves numbers, leaf area, leaf fresh and dry weight, stem fresh and dry weight, root fresh and dry weight, leaf relative water content, leaf proline content, leaf potassium and the ratio of potassium to sodium were observed in Ghazvini rootstock and the lowest was related to Integerrima × Badami-Riz-e-Zarand hybrid. The most amount of leaf ionic leakage and sodium concentration of leaves were observed in Integerrima × Badami-Riz-e-Zarand hybrid. It seems that Ghazvini and Integerrima × Ghazvini hybrid are more tolerant and Integerrima × Badami-Riz-e-Zarand hybrid is more sensitive to salinity stress.

Insufficient pollination is one of the main reasons for the low pistachio yield in the country. Differences in the flowering time of male and female pistachio trees, the inadequate ratio of male to female trees in the orchard and lack of proper orientation can significantly reduce the efficiency of pollination and consequently the yield of pistachio trees. The simultaneous flowering of male and female trees is essential for successful pollination and fertilization. In this study, 56 male pistachio genotypes in Yezbar pistachio station, Qazvin Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, Qazvin province during 2020 were examined and their flowering characteristics evaluated. For this purpose, three branches of each genotype labeled in the spring and phenological stages such as flowering beginning, full bloom and end of flowering were examined. Also, male catkins were collected during the flowering period and indicators such as wet and dry weight of the inflorescence, the weight of pollen grains per inflorescence and the number of inflorescences on the branch measured. The results showed that the flowering period of the female Kalebozi cultivar in the orchard was 11 days. Flowering began on April 21, the full bloom stage on April 26, and the end of flowering on May 1. The male genotypes also had a significant difference in all traits except the fresh weight of the inflorescence at the level of 1%. Evaluations showed that among the 56 male genotypes, 530-2 and 522-2 were the earliest and the latest flowering genotypes, respectively. The longest flowering period with 13.3, 12.6 and 12.3 days were related to genotypes 526-4, 516-1 and 522-3, respectively, followed by the genotypes 502-5, 529-5 and 529-1. The shortest flowering period belonged to 521-3 with 5 days. The flowering period of genotypes 502-5, 526-4, 516-1 and 522-3 was completely consistent with the flowering of Kalebozi cultivar and covered 100% of the flowering of this female cultivar. In addition, genotypes 526-4, 526-6, 522-3, 508-3, 518-6, 525-6 and 508-4 had higher dry weight of inflorescence and production of pollen grains. In terms of the number of catkins, the genotypes 529-5, 528-4, 508-4, 526-4, 518-6, and 509-4 had more than three catkins. Genotype 526-4 can be introduced as the superior genotype for pollination of Kolebozi cultivar due to its long flowering period and being synchronous with Kolebezi cultivar and also having more pollens and catkins.

Assessing the knowledge and practice of farmers with valid questionnaires is necessary to design appropriate educational interventions to reduce the use of pesticides in agriculture. Evaluating the knowledge and practice of individuals is a fundamental principle to design appropriate educational interventions to prevent pesticide production on pistachio products. Consequently, this study was carried out for designing and validating a questionnaire to determine the knowledge and practice of the farmers on the complications, keeping, transportation and disposal of pesticides. In this study, pursuant to view of experts, farmers and review of studies, a questionnaire was designed. Then, the face validity of questionnaire was determined with opinion of farmers. The Content Validity Ratio (CVR) and Content Validity Index (CVI) of the items of the questionnaire were evaluated through perspectives of experts’ panel. The stability test of the questionnaire by test-retest analysis. The outcomes demonstrated that CVI and CVR of questionnaire’s items were ≥0.79 and ≥0.62 respectively. Finally, the questionnaire was contained 39 items in knowledge and 22 items in practice. The results of Pearson correlation coefficient indicated that knowledge (p< 0.0001, r =1) and practice (p < 0.0001, r = 0.99) had acceptable reliability. This questionnaire can be used to measure the knowledge and practice of farmers about complications, keeping, transportation and disposal of pesticides and educational interventions.

Pistachio soft hull is substances that have a high potential for recycling and entry into production. Compost production is one of the ways to reuse and optimize them. In this study, the pistachio soft hull was collected and air dried, divided into two equal parts (T1 and T2 treatments) and stacked on either side of a chassis. A sample of primary wastes was sent to the laboratory and concentrations of macro- and micro-nutrients, organic matter, EC and pH were measured. Based on the results of previous studies and the deficiency of some elements in the prototype, some chemical compounds were added to one part of the waste (T2). The moisture content of the treatments was monitored regularly and the aeration was performed monthly. Samples were transferred to the laboratory monthly from two treatments for chemical tests and analyzed. Treatments were harvested and dried after the carbon to nitrogen ratio reached the permissible levels. The results of monthly tests were analyzed by a completely randomized design with the Duncan test at 5% level. The results showed that although the concentration of nutrients increased during the composting process, the increase in chemical fertilizers accelerated the decay process and also increased the concentration of nutrients. Elements added from the source of chemical fertilizers to the T2 treatment were significantly higher than the T1 treatment. EC, pH, phenol, and carbon to nitrogen ratios decreased.