STUDIES ON THE EFFECT OF DIFFERENT HARVEST TIMES ON THE SEEDLING DEVELOPMENT OF PISTACIA VERA L.

In Turkey, South-eastern Anatolia is one of the favourable ecological region for pistachio growing in the world. In the near future 1.7 million hectares in this region will be irrigated by GAP Project (South-eastern Anatolia Project). Pistachio growing will attain much more importance when conditions for irrigation are completed. Therefore, seedling rootstocks requirements will increase in the coming years.

In the present study, germination and seedling production potential of the nuts harvested at different stages of maturation was examined in Kirmizi and Uzun cvs. at important pistachio cultivars of Turkey.

After the first year results, different soaking time treatments in water and GA₃ have been added to the experiment. The highest percentages of seed germination were found to be 72% for Kirmizi and 54.6% for Uzun after 48 hours water soaking treatment at September 13 and September 6 respectively. GA₃ and water soaking pre-treatment at all tested combinations water soaking could considerably suggest to be an economical treatment in germinating nuts. However, both 24 hours water + 24 hours 500 ppm GA₃ and 48 hours water + 48 hours 500 ppm GA₃ markedly improved germination. Results also indicated GA₃ and water treatments did not have an effect on developmental criteria, shoot length, root length and root weight of normal seedlings.