Feb 25, 2021Get the early-blooming pistachio cultivars pruned earlier
It’s probably already a little late and varies with the year, but it is important to train/prune the early flowering pistachio cultivars such as Gumdrop, Golden Hills and Lost Hills by around Feb. 1 or so.
The big buds on the end of those long branches wake up first in the spring, and send out chemical messages to the buds below them not to push. If the plan is to cut those long shoots for tree training or maintaining tree size, the idea is to cut those terminal buds off before they wake up, otherwise, you may end up with damaged branches.
Long branches are normally cut to encourage branching and/or reduce overall tree size, however, if you do not want branches to branch further, there is no requirement that they be cut at all. There’s always another opportunity next year.
– University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources
