Nursery propagation, field adaptation and carbon sequestration potential of Pistacia chinensis (Chinese Pistachio

Abstract

The study was conducted to assess appropriate means of nursery propagation andto evaluate field adaptation and carbon sequestration potential of Pistacia chinensis- a root stock for edible nut bearing pistachio. The trial was conducted at Debre Zeit and Wondo Genet in 2006. Matured seeds of the species with protective seed coats were sown on standard soil mixture (SSM) that comprised 3 % top soil, 2 % cow dung and 1 % sand and their germination was compared with seeds with protective seed pods that were sown on composted farm yard manure (FYM). Two independent experiments were conducted in completely randomized design with four replications, each replication containing one hundred pure viable seeds. Mean comparisons of germination percentages revealed highly significant differences between the treatments (seeds with protective seed coats sown on farm yard manure) and control groups (seeds with protective seed coats sown on standard soil mixture) at P<0.05. Thus, the most viable means of propagating Pistacia chinensis under the nursery conditions of Debre Zeit was sowing seeds with pods on farm yard manure. In a separate experiment, seeds without pods were also sown in replicates on standard soil mixture and their germination was compared with that of intact seeds (Seeds with their pods) sown on standard soil mixture. Mean comparisons of germination percentages for seeds without pods disclosed a highly significant decline as compared to the control groups i.e. intact seeds at P<0.05. Height and collar diameter of trees averaged 194.61cm and 4.82 cm for Debre Zeit and thus are found significantly different from their counterparts (141.1cm for height and 3.35cm for diameter) at Wondo Genet.There was no significant difference between survival percentage of trees at Debre Zeit (82.6%) and Wondo Genet (90.6%) based on comparison of error bars. To calculate the carbon sequestration potential of established trees, a total enumeration on height and diameter of 75 trees on research plot at Debre Zeit was carried out and the resulting data was fed to established allometric relations. The total amount of carbon sequestered by the trees calculated through allometric relations amounted to 1.33tons/ha/year.