As Warm Winters Mess With Nut Trees' Sex Lives, Farmers Help Them 'Netflix And Chill'
"In love, timing is everything, the saying goes. The same is true for fruit and nut
orchards in California's Central Valley, which depend on a synchronized springtime bloom for pollination. But as winters warm with climate change, that seasonal cycle is being thrown off."
"Cold is a crucial ingredient for California's walnuts, cherries, peaches, pears and pistachios, which ultimately head to store shelves around the country. The state grows around 99% of the country's walnut and pistachio crop."
"Over the winter, the trees are bare and dormant, essentially snoozing until they wake up for a key reproductive rite."
"'In the pistachios, the females need to be pollinated by the males trees,' says Jonathan Battig, farm manager for Strain Farming Company in Arbuckle, Calif. 'Ideally, you'd like the males to be pushing out the pollen as the females are receptive.'"
"In Battig's orchard, one male tree is planted for every 20 female trees, though an untrained eye couldn't tell them apart."
"'I know by just looking at them,' says Battig. 'The buds on the males are usually more swollen.'"