Question of the Week: May 25, 2017
“Neil, I have three Chinese pistachios. Two of them look fine, but the third one has been very sparse in leafing out this spring. What is wrong, and what can I do?”
Photo: Many Chinese pistachios have been shy to leaf out this spring.
Many people have asked this over the past several weeks, and there doesn’t appear to be a clear-cut answer. I contacted a former state arborist of the year, Russell Peters of Arborilogical Services in DFW. (It should be noted that Arborilogical Services is an advertising sponsor of this publication.)
Russell’s feeling is that this slow leafing is due to the extremely low temperatures experienced in early January. Certain trees, many of them female pistachios that had just borne fruit, were not as vigorous and were more susceptible to injury by the cold.
He feels that given good care and attention most of these trees will catch up fairly quickly. I would add that if you have any concerns about your trees, have a certified arborist take a look at them on site.