When to Harvest Pistachios

Q. When should I harvest pistachio nuts from my five-year-old tree? In October the nuts were yellowish green with a red blush covering them.

The red blush on the nuts means they are close. Harvest after the "meat" has filled the kernel and start to split open.

A. The red blush is an indicator that your harvest season has arrived or perhaps even late. It’s better to look at the number of split nuts on the tree. The general time for harvesting may start as  late as late August or early September and extend through the middle or even end of October.

The nut will start to split when its ready to harvest. Turning red may be a bit late.

            The time to harvest is when the nut inside the husk fills the shell and can be removed. Commercial growers look at the number of split nuts on the tree and whether it might rain or not. Rain will mold pistachio nuts if they are split open. Pistachios are grown in arid or desert parts of the world where, like dates, rain is considered a foe. When harvest time is near nothing beats taking a few nuts off the tree and see if the “meat” is plump and separates easily from the shell.

In some parts of the world there is enough rainfall to grow "wild" pistachios which means they are grown, usually on government land, without supplemental irrigation.

            Drying the nuts off the tree enhances flavor, causes more of the nuts to open and the “meat” to separate further from the shell. If rain is predicted soon, harvest them before they mold on the tree.