‘Gumdrop’, a New Early Harvest Pistachio Cultivar

Abstract

‘Gumdrop’ is a new female pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) cultivar for California. It matures earlier than all commercial cultivars with equivalent yield and nut quality to ‘Kerman’. ‘Gumdrop’ can be harvested about 10–12 days before ‘Golden Hills’ pistachio (Parfitt et al., 2007) and 24 days before ‘Kerman’, the standard pistachio cultivar grown in California (Parfitt et al., 2012). ‘Gumdrop’ has very good yield, nut quality, and processed nut appearance similar to ‘Golden Hills’ and ‘Kerman’. ‘Gumdrop’ blooms about 5 days before ‘Golden Hills’ and 10–11 days before ‘Kerman’. ‘Gumdrop’, ‘Golden Hills’, and ‘Kerman’ comprise a harvest series, maturing over a 24–30 day period. The early nut maturity of ‘Gumdrop’ will permit pistachio growers to extend their harvest period. The earlier maturing date of ‘Gumdrop’ also makes it less susceptible to insect damage from navel orangeworm, a major pest of pistachio implicated in the occurrence of aflatoxin contamination. An application for a U.S. Plant Patent was submitted on 4 Apr. 2016.