Pistachio hull split - how does it happen and why does it change across years?

Cover photo by Louise Ferguson

The pistachio hull is critical for protecting the kernel. Insect pests can’t get through it until it begins to break down. However, it is known that hull integrity can change across years - some years hulls stay intact until harvest, and in other years it begins to break down earlier. Shuxiao Zhang, who used to be a student at UC Davis and is now working as a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford, and Georgia Drakakaki, a professor of plant sciences at UC Davis, decided to look into this. They were able to figure out the processes that led to hull degradation, the different ways degradation occur, and they were able to link in-field conditions to hull split. The Drakakaki lab has been doing extensive research into pistachio fruit development - Phoebe has interviewed the both of them on pistachio shell split in a previous episode.

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Thank you to the Almond, Pistachio, Prune, and Walnut Boards of California for their kind donations. Thank you to Muriel Gordon for the music.