
America’s Pistachio Industry Came from a Single Seed - thedday
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/where-are-pistachios-from.html
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Jedd
Pistacchios are tricky plants to cultivate.

I have 6 plants (4f, 2m) still in pots that I've yet to put into an orchard,
but they have climate requirements that are very challenging -- the females
are wind pollinated by the males, they need / appreciate cold winters, they
really don't like wet feet, but they want a lot of heat through summer, though
they really don't want much humidity (well the plants don't care, but you'll
have issues with salmonella if you don't have very dry summers).

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gravelc
The world's avocado industry essentially comes from a single tree - the mother
Hass. Apparently at a conference years back, organisers gave out bud wood from
it, so there're clones spread across the world now (the original is now dead).

Lots of different root-stocks, it should be added.

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mikorym
With a few exceptions; 80% of the market is Hass.

One of the exceptions is South Africa, where other varieties are common, but
Hass is still a majority. Also note that there are new "Hass" varieties that
are essentially mutations of the original Hass (it would seem; often it is not
certain what the actual DNA of the variant would be or how it came to be).

Note that the Dominican republic is usually listed as a top 3 producer, but
none of it is Hass and none of it is exported.

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jonbaer
"This California pistachio is brought to you courtesy of the Internal Revenue
Service and the Shah of Iran" ...

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frosted-flakes
This is a quote from the article.

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targonca
Sanctions aside, Iranian pistachios taste so much better.

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Shivetya
how far off from Turkish pistachios are they? I can get those through nuts.com
and a few other places and they are certainly different from what we encounter
in the super market.

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anthonybsd
Pretty far. Iranian pistachios are identical to Californian pistachios, just
red in color. Commenter above probably is influenced by the red dye and in a
blind taste would fail to distinguish between the two. Turkish/Armenian
pistachios on the other hand are smaller, more elongated and if salted
typically are packaged with coarser salt. I prefer the latter, although they
can be more pain to peel.

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makerofspoons
And those pistachio trees use a whopping 57 gallons of water a day in early
July: [https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/4/6/1376064/-The-
Nut-A...](https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/4/6/1376064/-The-Nut-About-
Pistachios)

And we grow them in the desert of all places.

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seiferteric
Whenever I see things like this, I wonder why are they talking about gallons
per nut or tree or whatever? Shouldn't it be relative to how many grams
protein/fat/carbs it produces per gallon compared to other food sources?

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technofiend
>Whenever I see things like this, I wonder why are they talking about gallons
per nut or tree or whatever?

Because most people can relate to gallons and water rights are measured in
terms of liquid volume. In a drought-prone area having a conversation about
where the water is going is discussed in those terms instead of how many grams
protein/fat/carbs it produces per gallon compared to other food sources.

~~~
seiferteric
But its not a useful metric if you are not comparing against other food
sources on an equal basis.

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technofiend
Sure if you're going to argue efficiency of gallons to calories, but it misses
the point. Agricultural water use in California is extremely wasteful because
of decades old water sharing and pricing agreements. Talking about curbing
those inefficient and wasteful uses is more important because farmers need to
pay fair and reasonable prices for water first. Once that happens they'll
decide on their own the most effective use of the water they have.

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lawlessone
from one seed? So a disease could wipe it all out.

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Hitton
I thought the same. Look at Banana Industry the disease first wiped Gros
Michel and now seriously threatens Cavendish. That wouldn't be such problem if
only one cultivar wasn't so widespread.

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ceejayoz
Well, bananas are worse off, as they're all clones. Pistachios may have shared
ancestry, but there'll be at least _some_ genetic diversity in the crop now
(as well as the originals back in Iran etc.).

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pvaldes
> came from a single seed

This is impossible, obviously, and should not be intended to be taken
literally

