Pistacia vera can be propagated by seed sowing, grafting, plant division, layering and tillering. Pistacia vera likes the light, and the garden is best in the sunny mountainous area with deep calcareous and well-drained light sandy loam at an altitude of 600 ~ 1200m. It can tolerate 0.2% saline-alkali soil, and the soil can grow normally with pH value of 6.5 ~ 7.8.
Young trees enter the fruiting age later. If they are seedlings, it will take 7-8 years to bear fruit, rootstock seedlings will take about 5 years, and grafted trees will take 3-4 years. Generally, the yield per plant of nuts is about 15kg. Early-maturing varieties ripen in 1 10 days (mid-August), while late-maturing varieties ripen in 130 days in late August. Pistacia pistachio is heavy in falling flowers and fruits, and the fruit setting rate is generally 20% ~ 30%, and there are different years. However, in the construction of the garden, measures such as configuring pollination trees, assisting pollination at flowering stage, properly thinning flowers and strengthening management can improve the fruit setting rate. [Edit this paragraph] The main varieties are pistachios in Central Asia and Mediterranean. The latter is neither drought-resistant nor cold-resistant. Generally, when the temperature drops to -9℃, freezing injury will occur. At present, Xinjiang is cultivated in Central Asia, and the main varieties are:
Early-maturing pistachio is mainly produced in Shufu County, Xinjiang, with weak tree potential and shiny leaves. Its oval shape is composed of three leaflets and compound leaves, and its ear is triangular, with a longitudinal and transverse diameter of 0.9 cm× 9.5 cm, with an average of 65,438+06 lateral branches per ear and 65,438+0 ~ 2 fruits per lateral branch. Its fruit is nearly oval, the top and sunny side are red, and the nuts are very small, with an average single core.
Pistacia pistachio is mainly produced in Shufu and Shule counties of Xinjiang, with medium tree potential, dark green leaves, sparse hairs and oval shape, and compound leaves are composed of three leaflets. The fruit is large, oval, yellow and white, and the top is thin. The average fruit weight is 0.62g, and the longitudinal and transverse diameters are 2. 1 cm×1.3cm. The fruit-setting rate is low, and it blooms in late April and matures in mid-late August in Kashgar.
Pistacia longifolia grows vigorously with dark green leaves and large leaves. It consists of 3-5 leaflets. The fruit is oval, with red surface and large fruit. The average weight of single fruit is 0.76 g, the longitudinal and transverse diameters are 2.5 cm× 1. 1 cm, and the oil content is 54.6%. High fruit setting rate and high yield. It is the most promising variety. At present, Kashgar, Xinjiang is the most planted. It blooms from the end of April to the beginning of May and matures in early September. Coffee bean: It can be a plane tree native to tropical America, and its fruit can be made into cocoa powder and chocolate after fermentation and baking. Long before Columbus discovered America, the inhabitants of tropical Central America, especially the Mayans and Aztecs, knew the use of cocoa beans. They not only make cocoa beans into drinks, but also use them as a trading medium. Cocoa beans were introduced to Europe in the16th century and refined into cocoa powder and chocolate. Cocoa butter is also extracted. Cocoa trees grow in tropical and humid lowlands, and are often found in tall shade. The trunk is solid, with a height of12m, elliptic and leathery leaves, up to 30cm long, and branches and leaves spread like umbrellas. The flowers are pink, small and smelly, and are born directly on the branches. The fruit is called cocoa, with a length of 35cm and a diameter of 12cm. It is oval with 10 ridges on its surface, ranging from tan to purple. Cocoa fruit contains 20 to 40 seeds (that is, cocoa beans). Beans are about 2.5 cm long and are wrapped in pink sticky pulp. After four years of cultivation, each cocoa tree can produce 60 to 70 fruits every year. After harvesting, the cocoa beans are taken out, fermented for several days, dried, dusted, baked and ground into paste, which is called chocolate paste. After the chocolate pulp is pressed again, it can be made into cocoa butter and cocoa powder, and various chocolates can be made by adding ingredients such as cocoa butter.
But this is a product of the cocoa tree. Cocoa tree is a tropical plant, which only grows in hot climate. In this way, its cultivation is limited to the land between 20 latitudes north and south of the equator Assuming fertile soil conditions and careful cultivation, once it survives, cocoa trees can grow in sufficient sunshine. Cocoa plantations (artificially planted cocoa trees) are usually located in valleys or coastal plains, and must have evenly distributed rainfall and fertile and well-drained land.
The first fruit
After pruning and careful cultivation, most kinds of cocoa trees will begin to bear fruit in the fifth year. With the best care, some tree species will have a good harvest even in the third and fourth years.
Cocoa tree is an evergreen tree. Its huge and smooth leaves are red when they are young and turn green when they are mature. When mature, the height of artificially planted cocoa trees is 15 to 25 feet, but the height of wild cocoa trees can reach more than 60 feet. The life expectancy of cocoa trees is still under speculation. It is generally believed that after 25 years, the economic function of a cocoa tree may be considered as the end, and it is suitable to replant young cocoa trees to replace it. Cocoa trees bear fruit (or pods) all year round, but the harvest is usually seasonal. Because cocoa trees are freely cross-pollinated, pods form various species, including Latin American species, exotic species and Trinidad species.
Harvest cocoa beans
Picking ripe cocoa beans is not an easy task. Cocoa trees are fragile and shallow, so workers can't risk climbing up to pick pods from tall branches.
The growers equipped the pickers who went to work in the fields with long-handled hand-shaped steel knives. Steel knives are used to touch and cut off the tallest pods without hurting the soft bark of cocoa trees. The machete you carry with you is used to pick pods that grow on low branches and are within reach.
What should I do after picking it?
Collectors and pickers together collect pods into baskets and transport them to the edge of the field. Where the pods are broken. If the method is correct, the wooden shell of the pod can be split by waving a machete once or twice. A well-trained crusher can crush 500 pods per hour.
It takes patience to finish the harvest. Usually, 20 to 50 milky cocoa beans are dug from a standard pod, and then the shell and inner membrane of the pod are discarded. Dry cocoa beans in ordinary pods weigh less than 58 grams. To be exact, it takes 400 cocoa beans to make 1 pound chocolate.
Cocoa beans are still very different from the end products we are familiar with. Milky cocoa beans will soon turn lavender or purple when exposed to the air. At this time, they don't look like chocolate, nor do they smell as familiar as chocolate.
Shipped crops
Cocoa beans or seeds taken from pods are packed in boxes or piled up for packaging. Wrapped around cocoa beans is a layer of pulp, which begins to heat up and ferment. Fermentation lasts for three to nine days, which removes the bitter taste of cocoa and produces raw materials with chocolate characteristics. Fermentation is a simple process. Sugar in cocoa beans is converted into acids, mainly lactic acid and acetic acid.
The fermentation process raised the temperature of cocoa beans to 125 degrees Fahrenheit, killing bacteria and activating existing enzymes, forming a mixture, which produced chocolate flavor when baking cocoa beans. The final result is dark brown completely fermented cocoa beans, which indicates that cocoa beans are now ready to enter the drying process.
Like all fruits rich in water, cocoa beans must be dried to be preserved. In some countries, the drying process is very simple: just spread cocoa beans on a plate or bamboo mat and bake them in the sun. When wet weather interferes with this drying method, manual methods can be used. For example, cocoa beans may be taken indoors and dried under a hot air duct.
If the weather is fine, the drying process usually takes several days. In this gap, farmers often turn over cocoa beans. They used this opportunity to select cocoa beans for export and to select flat, broken or germinated cocoa beans. During the drying process, cocoa beans will lose almost all the water and more than half the weight.
After the cocoa beans are dried, they are ready to be shipped at the price of 130 to 200 pounds per bag. They are rarely stored in warehouses unless they have to wait for the shipping center inspected by the buyer.