Lack of dormant chilling is a major problem in producing pistachio trees in locations with warm periods during the winter time. In the past years, some locations in California have received insufficient winter chilling which has led to late bloom and crop reduction. Horticultural oil has been used as a rest-breaking agent to promote bud break and improve production. However, there is limited information regarding the merit of chill portion spray timing and the physiological mechanism behind bloom advancement by oil application. In the present study, three locations in California, North (Colusa County), Central (Madera County) and South-Western Fresno County (Cantua Creek) were selected for oil spray applications while Hydrogen cyanamide (Dormex®) was sprayed at Cantua Creek site. Tree of cv. Kerman (female) and Peters (male) on UCB-1 rootstock were sprayed with horticultural oil (IAP 440) @ 6% v/v or Dormex @4% at various chill portion (CP) accumulation milestones. Bloom period from bud swell to full bloom, tree yield, yield components, non-structural carbohydrates and macro and micro nutrients in buds and bark of pistachio shoots were analyzed. NMR-based metabolomics analysis was conducted to investigate the changes in metabolic profiles induced by exogenous oil or Dormex® application. Results showed that oil spraying in two southern locations advanced bud break but not in the northern site showing each location respond to oil spray differently. In Cantua site, Dormex® and oil spray at CP55 could significantly increase the yield while in Madera, oil spray at CP59 showed the highest yield. Results also showed that oil spray at different CPs and Dormex® could change the trend of soluble sugars and starch in bark and bud of pistachio trees. In Cantua, Dormex® significantly increased nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), sulfur (S), boron (B), copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn) mobilization towards bud swell. Moreover, oil spray increased N, P, S in all CPs at all locations. A multivariate analysis conducted to compare the metabolite changes in control samples of bark and bud with these two rest-breaking agents led to the identification of nine metabolites that show a significant change in at least one of the comparisons (Creatine, Aspartate, Sucrose, Asparagine, Succinate, Fumarate, Leucine, Adenosine, and Uridine). It seems that oil and Dormex® applications can significantly increase the yield of pistachio trees by advancing bud break, improving bloom synchrony and also, by changes in carbohydrate, nutrients and metabolite changes in bark and bud of pistachio tree.
