Click here to view properly.
 
   
  In January, APG launched the "The Perfect Chinese New Year Gift" promotions: Sofa Talk on the Perfect New Year's Gift; preparation for Chinese New Year's Eve Dinner; and cooking with American pistachios, with recipes created by Chef Martin Yan. The promotion featured the popular social media influencer, Four Seasons Barbie, and nutritionist, Nicole Huang, who spoke about American pistachios' many health and fitness benefits.

The promotions, that were live-streamed on Yizhibo and posted on Weibo, including a media outreach campaign, which resulted in 50 digital placements, were viewed over 54 million times by consumers.

  
     
   
 

The fifth episode of APG's Friday Fuel Up with nutritionist Chen Zhikun and Sports Vlogger (video blogger) Feifei was live streamed on April 1. Feifei is the chief editor of Sina Sports-Health, and the Bikini Champion of the Beijing Fitness Competition. She shared her stories about preparing for the Bikini Competition and how she balanced work and fitness. She also spoke about the importance of nutrition and exercise, and her experience as the program director and emcee of the first fitness talk show in China.
116,000 consumers watched the live-stream show, a record high among the five episodes. The show's pre-promotion, live-stream viewership and post-promotion, were viewed more than 3.1 million times.
 
   
  From October to December 2021, APG collaborated with Men's Health magazine in South Korea for a series of interviews. The final interview featured entertainer Andreas, who talked about his workout and healthy snacking routines, and shared his recipes with American pistachios. The final interview was published in the December issue of Men's Health, which was also shared on their Instagram and YouTube channels. To date, the articles have been viewed over 560,000 times, and the social media posts and YouTube videos have reached nearly 100,000 consumers.  
     
   
 
APG sponsored India's Got Talent show for 13 weeks, beginning January 15. The sponsorship included APG's logo displayed on the show's digital and video promotions and at the bottom of the screen during the live programs, as well as an advertising spot showing APG's complete protein commercial.

Watched by millions of TV viewers, and social media fans India's Got Talent is an Indian reality television series shown on Sony Liv OTT app, a video-on-demand service from Sony Pictures Networks India Pvt. Ltd. The sponsorship generated more than 20 million views of APG's brand and message.
From February through March, APG also sponsored India's top radio program, Suhana Safar with Anu Kapoor. With the sponsorship of this popular radio show, more than 10 million consumers heard APG's commercials that ran 14 times per day, and their name mention as a sponsor in the show's promotions.
American pistachios were promoted at 21 flagship stores of Star Bazaar across India. Retail displays filled with them were sold throughout the month of February, and during this timeframe, sales of American pistachios more than doubled.
 
     
   
 
APG is conducting a series of Zoom interviews, APG Zoom Talk, with journalist Michela Vuga, in Italy. On December 1, the series kicked off with Michellin Star Chef Andrea Berton, one of Milan's most decorated chefs. While Chef Andrea Berton prepared savory and sweet recipes with American pistachios, he spoke about their versatility as ingredient as well as their nutritional properties.
 
   
 
Then on March 3, Olympic ice-skating couple Nicole Della Monica and Matteo Guarise were the featured guests on APG Zoom Talk. They spoke about the importance of healthy foods such as pistachios for performance and recovery, especially for winter sports. To date, articles generated from the event have been viewed over 115 million times.
 
   
   
 
In Italy, APG collaborated with the famous food blogger/influencer, Lidia Forlivesi of @Nonsolofood, for a holiday pistachio DIY gift idea: "Aperitif Christmas Kit." The kit, which included a recipe for Curry-Dusted Pistachios, and the recipe and ingredients for a festive Moscow Mule, was hand delivered to journalists from key health and lifestyle publishing groups. A press release was also distributed to all of Italy's health, fitness and lifestyle media. Articles, generated from the media outreach and press release, were viewed by nearly 80 million consumers.
 
     
   
 
APG's 100-calorie sample packages of pistachios were included in the goody bags, along with other nutritional snacks at fitness events in Germany and Italy. Participants not only sampled delicious pistachios but also read about their nutritional benefits that were strategically located on the back of the APG sample pack.
 
     
  GROPIUSRING RUNS IN HAMBURG, GERMANY
NOVEMBER 2021 – MARCH 2022		  
  Over 600 runners received a sample pack of pistachios after crossing the finish line of each run.  
   
  ALPINE SKI WORLD CUP IN ITALY, DECEMBER 20-22, 2021  
  12,000 sample packs were distributed to skiers, ski instructors and spectators at the event.  
   
     
 

On March 3-4, APG exhibited at The National Food Day Conference in Spain. 300 medical and pharmacy professionals attended the first meeting, on nutrition, that was organized by the National College of Pharmacists. Their goal: promote the importance of healthy eating through healthy diets, such as the Mediterranean Diet.
 
 
     
   
 
In February, APG began conducting a series of nutrition and health podcasts called Pistachea, where topics such as fitness, healthy diets and the nutritional benefits of American pistachios are covered. The podcasts are shown on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, ebooks and Google Podcast. To date, over 1,200 have listen to the podcast and more than 52,000 people have been reached.
 
     
   
 
The onslaught of COVID-19 has had immediate effects on world trade, such as countries imposing export restrictions, travel bans, and port congestion. But what about the long term effects on exports, particularly California's dairy, processed food and beverage, and specialty crop industries? One thing we know for sure, the world we do business in will never be the same. The CalAgX short course will help you navigate through new regulations and standards, as well as develop your export skill sets to grow your business beyond our borders.
 
     
 
WHEN: WHERE:
Thursdays | 9:00 am - 11:00 am Live Online Training via Zoom
 
Start Date: May 12, 2022
End Date: Jul 14, 2022		 Registration Fee:
$199 Individual (1 Participant)
$299 Company (Up to 3 Participants)
 
     
 
To SAVE 25%, Enter Promo Code CALAGXWEB
 
     
     
   
     
  Robert H. Beede
UC Cooperative Extension Farm Advisor, Emeritus		  
     
 
Bud break and bloom was observed and reported by all those I spoke with. They said it was about a week ahead of "normal," making the bloom period shorter. There was good synchrony between the males and females for both Golden Hills and Kerman orchards. Field observations suggest this has resulted in a higher percentage of fruit clusters with nutlets, at the same stage of development, which should result in better nut removal on the first shake at harvest. Obviously, this general statement does not represent ALL pistachio orchards in the state. Tree age, winter soil moisture status, tree health, effective chilling hours, winter freeze events, and boron and zinc nutrition are all factors that can influence leafing date and uniformity. Wise pistachio growers with orchard weather stations should take time to review the chill portion accumulation as well as the temperatures during bloom. Regular observations on bud break, bloom development rate, and male overlap then should be recorded. Doing this annually provides a very valuable data base for assessment of current season growing conditions and historical reference.
   
Craig Kallsen, UC Farm Advisor for subtropical crops and pistachios in Kern County, published a heads-up newsletter, April 12, describing male and female flower buds not expanding on Kerman and Peters. He attributed this to the sudden and excessive heat experienced in the southern San Joaquin Valley, April 7 and 8. Craig also published a paper in 2017 that showed a significant correlation between reduced yield and bloom time temperatures in excess of 80ºF. Kerman growers might want to take a careful look at their trees to see if they find evidence of this.
   
This is another drought year, but we had sufficient winter rain to make plenty of weeds grow. Use a sweep net to monitor those weeds in areas surrounding your orchard, as well as within the orchard. Don't mow without checking to prevent a sudden rise in epicarp lesion from disturbed vegetation.
   
Tissue sample in mid- to late-May if you are under a marginal macronutrient application program, or have a heavy crop requiring early nutrition assessment. Nitrogen and potassium are the two key elements best assessed by this analysis timing. Boron levels can also be adjusted should they be 60ppm or less in May.
   
Use your orchard weather station to monitor growing-degree-day accumulation, which helps estimate harvest date. Growing degree days should also be used in combination with cutting the shells in half for estimation of the shell-hardening development stage. Recent research shows that the shells continue to harden as harvest approaches, but the rate of increase is incremental, compared to the rate during Stage 1 (bud break to shell hardening). Depending upon bud break and bloom date and growing degree days, shell hardening should occur by late-May to early-June.
   
Macro nutrition typically begins in mid- to late-April, and continues throughout the season in the form of multiple, small applications, or fewer, larger applications. Fertilizer use efficiency is better when applied frequently in small quantities. In addition to 25 pounds of N required for tree maintenance, 28 pounds of N per 1000 pounds in-shell nuts are required for crop production. Potassium is required at 24 pounds actual K per 1000 pounds in-shell; phosphorous fertilization needs is only three pounds per 1000! Ninety percent of these macros are needed in Stage 3 kernel filling.
   
Be diligent on weed control and vegetation management, since water is at a premium this year. Also sweep the vegetation in the orchard middles before mowing, and assess the need to apply plant bud insecticides prior to neighboring grain fields or alfalfa harvests to avoid mass migration of plant bugs into your orchard. To minimize entire orchard treatment, reduce costs, respond quickly to unexpected cuttings, try treating the first twenty rows of the orchard by ground, or cross aerial apply the edge of the orchard twenty trees deep if your rows run perpendicular to the cut field.
   
Water is going to be costly this year for many. If you started with a full profile in January, you could go until mid-May before irrigating. If water availability allows, refill the profile to a depth of four feet by mid-June, so that you do not limit the onset of kernel filling in late-June to early-July. Take into account your soil salinity in determining your crop water requirement; pistachios grown in soils with salinity of 6-8 ds/m have 26 percent less water use than low salinity orchards. Soil salinity of 8-11 ds/m reduces water use by 40 percent. This is UC research recently completed by Dr. Zaccaria's team, including Blake Sanden, Soil and Water Advisor, Kern County, Emeritus.
   
You should be on your second-tree-training-pass in second leaf orchards. Don't delay in making your first-primary-tipping-pass and remove too much growth. It will slow plant development in branch girth and regrowth of the laterals. Be sure there are vegetative buds visible in the axils of the leaves before tipping tender Golden Hills shoots. Tipping too early results in lateral shoots growing further from the tipping point that expected. Growers with newly planted trees need to farm hard to get those clonal trees to 3/8" diameter by mid-July. Irrigations should be carefully scheduled, and nitrogen should be applied in small quantities, and no later than about two weeks prior to budding. Keep calling and talking to your budder about the progress of your trees. These guys are on the run and need to know when they can swoop into your field and maximize bud-take for you! Remember!! It's ALL ABOUT TIMING AND EXECUTION!!
   
  Happy Farming!