Scientia Horticulturae 96 (2002) 359–363

Short communication

Propagation of pistachio rootstock by

rooted stem cuttings
Ali A. Almehdi, Dan E. Parfitt*, H. Chan
Department of Pomology, University of California, One Shields Ave., Davis, CA 95616, USA
Accepted 22 April 2002

Abstract

Clonal propagation of pistachio rootstocks (e.g. UCB-1) from cuttings will permit nursery
production of cloned rootstocks and encourage selection of superior rootstock genotypes rather
than the genetically variable seedling rootstocks currently produced. UCB-1 was propagated from
leafy cuttings using five pruned mature seedling-derived trees for 2 years. Three shoot lengths, three
cutting positions and three indole butyric acid (IBA) concentrations were tested. Significant rooting
ability differences were found among genotypes (trees), cutting positions, and collection year, but not
for shoot lengths and IBA concentrations. All these factors except genotype may be controlled during
nursery production. Care must be taken to select genotypes with good propagation potential for
evaluation and production. Rooting percentages greater than 40% may be obtained from selected
UCB-1 trees. Therefore, clonal production of rootstocks is practical and provides the opportunity for
the development of superior genotypes.
# 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Pistacia atlantica; Pistacia integerrima; Pistachio; Propagation; Rooting; UCB-1

1. Introduction

All pistachio rootstocks are presently produced from seed. Since Pistacia is an obligately
outcrossing genus, individual seedlings are genetically variable. This is manifested as
obvious morphological differences among progeny and less easily quantified characteristics
affecting performance of the scion-rootstock combinations. UCB-1 hybrid rootstock is one
of the two primary rootstocks used for propagation of pistachio in the US. It is produced
from seed of a controlled cross between a P. atlantica female and a P. integerrima male.
The ability to clonally propagate these rootstocks is highly desirable, since it will permit
the selection and production of uniform and genetically superior genotypes.
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: þ1-530-752-7031; fax: þ1-530-752-8502.
E-mail address: deparfitt@ucdavis.edu (D.E. Parfitt).

0304-4238/02/$ – see front matter # 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 3 0 4 - 4 2 3 8 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 0 6 1 - 4
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Tissue culture propagation of UCB-1 and P. vera (Parfitt and Almehdi, 1994),
P. atlantica (Picchioni and Davis, 1990), and P. terebinthus (Pontikis, 1984) is possible
but is not appropriate for many nursery situations where facilities or technical expertise
to conduct an effective micro-propagation system are absent. Pistacia chinensis (Dunn
et al., 1996a,b) and P. vera (Al Barazi and Schwabe, 1982) have been rooted from
stem cuttings. However, pistachio rootstocks, which are P. atlantica, P. integerrima, or
P: atlantica  P: integerrima hybrids (e.g. UCB-1) have not been propagated from cut-
tings. Propagation of UCB-1 from cuttings will permit selection of superior genotypes and
the production of uniform rootstocks with conventional nursery practices.
Prior research with other tree species has shown that genotype (Kester and Sartori, 1966;
Fancher and Tauer, 1981; Cunningham, 1986), position on the shoot from which the cutting
is made (Pelletreau, 1983; Barnes, 1989), indole butyric acid (IBA) concentration
(Al Barazi and Schwabe, 1982), and date of shoot collection (Dunn et al., 1996b) are
variables that affect rooting percentage, and were, therefore, evaluated in the present study.
A secondary objective of this study was to determine whether accumulated degree-days
could be used to predict the best time for harvesting cuttings that would root well, since
Dunn et al. (1996b) had used accumulated degree-days to determine the proper timing for
collecting P. chinensis cuttings.

2. Material and methods

Severe pruning of mature source trees has been shown to increase the number of rootable
juvenile shoots (Howard, 1994) and this approach was used in our study to induce juvenile
shoots. Four 11-year-old UCB-1 seedling trees were pruned to half-a-meter long main
scaffolds in 1998 to induce juvenile shoots. Several regenerative shoots, each containing
three buds, were retained on the scaffolds in 1999. Shoots were collected when they had
grown to 30, 60, or 90 cm in length. Accumulated degree-days data was available from
CIMIS (a repository of climatological data developed by the California Department of
Water Resources and UC, Davis) for the collection dates. Collected shoots, with leaves
attached, were placed in water, misted during transport, and stored overnight at 4 8C.
Shoots were cut into 20 cm cuttings after removing the terminal 10 cm. The cutting
position describes the part of the shoot from which the cutting was taken. Upper cuttings
were taken from 30 cm shoots, upper and middle cuttings were taken from the 60 cm
shoots, while upper, middle and lower cuttings were taken from 90 cm shoots. Leaves were
removed from the cuttings except for two leaves at the top, which were trimmed to two
leaflets each. The bases of the cuttings were dipped in 0, 40 and 80 g/l of IBA potassium
salt for 30 s. Spermine hydrochloride of 800 mg/l was added to all auxin treatments. The
lower 5 cm of the cuttings were planted in 4 cm  4 cm  7 cm solid medium blocks
[Oasis plugs (Grow Tech. International, San Juan Bautista, CA)] and placed under
greenhouse mist (4 s/2 min and 4 s/4 min, day and night, respectively). Temperature
was 24  2 and 16  2 8C, day and night, respectively. Bases of the cuttings were
maintained at 24  2 8C constant temperature. Rooting data was taken after 6 weeks.
Rooted cuttings were potted in a 60% humus fir bark, 20% peat moss, 20% perlite and
1.4 kg/l oyster shell lime soil mix and fertilized with 15:30:15 N:P:K every 2 weeks.
 A.A. Almehdi et al. / Scientia Horticulturae 96 (2002) 359–363 361

An average of 20 cuttings (four replications of five plants) comprised each treatment. The
experiment was done in 1998 and was repeated in 1999. The arcsine square root transforma-
tion (Steel and Torrie, 1960) was applied to the data to provide a normally distributed data
set for the ANOVA. General linear models ANOVA was performed with SYSTAT statistical
software (SYSTAT 9 for Windows, 1999). Accumulated degree-days were compared to
shoot length on a per tree basis with simple product-moment correlations.

3. Results and discussion

Genotype effects on rooting were highly significant (Table 1), a result consistent with
results reported by Kester and Sartori (1966), Fancher and Tauer (1981), and Cunningham
(1986) with almond, pine, and American sycamore, respectively. Therefore, selection of
source genotypes with a high propensity for rooting, as well as for other favorable
characters (e.g. disease resistance) is very important for successful commercial production.
The fact that non-juvenile source trees were successfully used in this study suggests that
field grown trees with proven performance (budded with P. vera scion) can be selected and
pruned to induce shoots for propagation of potentially superior rootstocks.
With the exception of tree no. 2 in 1999, cuttings taken from the upper or middle branch
positions had significantly higher rooting percentages than cuttings taken from the lower
position (Fig. 1a). Pelletreau (1983) and Barnes (1989) also found that rooting ability
declined toward the basal end of current year shoots. Therefore, pruning to maximize shoot
numbers rather than shoot length is desirable. Dunn et al. (1996a,b) used terminal green
softwood cuttings to obtain 44% rooting of P. chinensis. However, preliminary experiments

Table 1
ANOVA for cuttings collected in 1998 and 1999 from five tested trees (genotypes) for three cutting positions and
three IBA concentrations

Source d.f. Mean square P value

Genotype 4 0.10 0.03**

IBA 2 0.02 0.52 ns
Cutting position 2 0.32 0.00**
Year 1 1.45 0.00**
Genotype  IBA 8 0.02 0.88 ns
Genotype  cutting position 8 0.16 0.00**
Genotype  year 4 0.15 0.01**
IBA  cutting position 4 0.01 0.85 ns
IBA  year 2 0.02 0.53 ns
Cutting position  year 2 0.11 0.05*
Genotype  IBA  cutting position 16 0.01 1.00 ns
Genotype  IBA  year 8 0.02 0.99 ns
Genotype  cutting position  year 8 0.14 0.00**
IBA  cutting position  year 4 0.01 0.91 ns
Genotype  IBA  cutting position  year 16 0.01 0.99 ns
Shoot length 1 0.07 0.16 ns
Julian date 1 0.01 0.73 ns
ns: non-significant; *P :< 0:05; **P :< 0:01.
362 A.A. Almehdi et al. / Scientia Horticulturae 96 (2002) 359–363

Fig. 1. (a) Mean percent rooting for cuttings from five trees, 2 years, and three positions on the stem from which
cuttings were obtained. Data from the three IBA concentrations were combined for each of the other treatment
combinations, giving an average of 45 cuttings per mean. (b) 2-month-old UCB-1 rooted stem cutting.

showed that the use of such cuttings for UCB-1 propagation resulted in a very high
incidence of decay. Cuttings collected in the second year of the study rooted significantly
better than cuttings collected in the first year, probably due to continued pruning of the
source trees which produced rejuvenated shoots.
An unexpected result was that growth regulator concentration was not a significant effect
since Al Barazi and Schwabe (1982) had previously achieved successful rooting of P. vera
stem cuttings with more than 20 g/l IBA. However, McKenna (1997) did not find IBA
concentration to be important for ‘Paradox’ walnut rooting. Semi-hardwood cuttings may
not absorb IBA especially well, so that IBA treatments are effectively similar to controls.
Accumulated degree-days correlated well with the length of growing shoots. Correlation
coefficients (r2) of 0.82, 0.72, 0.79, 0.88, and 0.98 were observed for trees 1–5,
respectively. Shoot length and Julian date, however, did not, correlate with rooting
(Table 1). The strong association of accumulated degree-days with shoot length and
the absence of shoot length association with rooting success suggests that accumulated
degree-days are not likely to be useful as predictors of rooting. There does not appear to be
a specific optimum ‘window’ for shoot collection of UCB-1 in California, which is also
shown by the lack of relationship between rooting ability and Julian date. The positive
results that Dunn et al. (1996b) obtained for accumulated degree-day predictors may be due
to their use with P. chinensis, which has a short growing period compared to other Pistacia
species and their use in an environment with restricted growing season.
High overall levels of rooting were obtained for some of the treatment combinations
(Fig. 1a). The majority of cuttings that rooted did so in a period of 4–6 weeks. The
vegetative buds of the rooted cuttings began to grow 1–2 weeks after rooting. 91%  4% of
 A.A. Almehdi et al. / Scientia Horticulturae 96 (2002) 359–363 363

the rooted cuttings grew into complete plants (Fig. 1b). The results from this study suggest
that if appropriate source genotypes are selected, commercially useful levels of rooting
may be obtained for pistachio rootstocks. Additional manipulation of source trees and
cutting collection protocols may be required to optimize the percentage of rooted cuttings
for particular genotypes.

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