4 ms·

No, that's impossible. Too much water makes it rot.

Kbelicius 3y ago
To much water makes every plant rot. Also Pistachio trees are drought resistant but will give higher yields with more water.
- NoMoreNicksLeft 3y ago
  But he's not wrong... "more water" in this case is like 16-18" of rain per year. It survives well on down towards 12". This is like "does well in Arizona unirrigated" levels.
  - Kbelicius 3y ago
    He is factually wrong since he claimed that it is impossible for pistachio trees to use more water to get more yields. > No, that's impossible. Too much water makes it rot.
    - NoMoreNicksLeft 3y ago
      They're not supplementing the 12" it needs with another 3"... even in California's droughts they're getting about that much anyway. I'm guessing another "journalist" was confusing almonds and pistachios. You wouldn't happen to be a journalist yourself, would you?
  - volkl48 3y ago
    Bakersfield, CA averages 6.36" of precipitation per year, Los Banos is 9.48". The Central Valley where much of this is grown is very dry. (Merced + Fresno do a little better being closer to the mountains, but still under 12"). Anyway, the problem isn't so much in an average or good water year but in a bad one. CA is prone to lengthy droughts. (Interactive map of these crops, not recommended for mobile: https://databasin.org/datasets/57a5c9c0ddf54e75861b0621a7e41d58/ https://databasin.org/datasets/57a5c9c0ddf54e75861b0621a7e41...) ------ This is in some senses, not that big a problem for growing annual crops - just plant less/don't plant, and if you have to give up on the crop, you at least are only losing that year's crop. However, this doesn't work for tree nuts. If the tree isn't watered in the year(s) of drought - and watered significantly more heavily than usual, (because of the drought), the tree dies, and it will take a decade or more for a replacement to start yielding significant amounts of that crop again. That's a much larger loss than a single year's crop. This makes the almond and pistachio farming a much less flexible form of agriculture in an environment where water availability varies drastically.

To much water makes every plant rot. Also Pistachio trees are drought resistant but will give higher yields with more water.

NoMoreNicksLeft 3y ago
But he's not wrong... "more water" in this case is like 16-18" of rain per year. It survives well on down towards 12". This is like "does well in Arizona unirrigated" levels.
- Kbelicius 3y ago
  He is factually wrong since he claimed that it is impossible for pistachio trees to use more water to get more yields. > No, that's impossible. Too much water makes it rot.
  - NoMoreNicksLeft 3y ago
    They're not supplementing the 12" it needs with another 3"... even in California's droughts they're getting about that much anyway. I'm guessing another "journalist" was confusing almonds and pistachios. You wouldn't happen to be a journalist yourself, would you?
- volkl48 3y ago
  Bakersfield, CA averages 6.36" of precipitation per year, Los Banos is 9.48". The Central Valley where much of this is grown is very dry. (Merced + Fresno do a little better being closer to the mountains, but still under 12"). Anyway, the problem isn't so much in an average or good water year but in a bad one. CA is prone to lengthy droughts. (Interactive map of these crops, not recommended for mobile: https://databasin.org/datasets/57a5c9c0ddf54e75861b0621a7e41d58/ https://databasin.org/datasets/57a5c9c0ddf54e75861b0621a7e41...) ------ This is in some senses, not that big a problem for growing annual crops - just plant less/don't plant, and if you have to give up on the crop, you at least are only losing that year's crop. However, this doesn't work for tree nuts. If the tree isn't watered in the year(s) of drought - and watered significantly more heavily than usual, (because of the drought), the tree dies, and it will take a decade or more for a replacement to start yielding significant amounts of that crop again. That's a much larger loss than a single year's crop. This makes the almond and pistachio farming a much less flexible form of agriculture in an environment where water availability varies drastically.