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Pistachio is one of the most important export and cash-generating horticultural products of Iran. This product has been cultivated since ancient times on a large area of agricultural lands in the provinces of Kerman, Yazd, Khorasan, Semnan and Qom. Qom province, with a cultivated area of 14,000 hectares of yield and non-yield pistachio trees, is one of the pistachio-producing provinces of the country. Considering that most of the old and fruitful pistachio orchards in Qom province are of inferior and non-commercial varieties such as Fandoghi, and due to improper maintenance and training, the trees do not bear significant fruit and their economic life has ended. This research was conducted to graft the pistachio orchard located at the Kashan Abshirin Agriculture and Industry Company, located at kilometer 45 of the old Qom-Kashan road, using abdominal bud grafting in the spring to change the fandoghi variety to the commercial varieties Akbari and Ahmad Aghaei in a one-hectare orchard and compared them. For each cultivar, 3 replications and in each replication 10 trees per one row were considered in the orchard. For comparison, the control treatment was also considered with the same number of replications and trees. The factors studied after top- working included vegetative indices (current year branch growth rate, branch diameter, number of leaves, leaf length and width, and number of vegetative and reproductive buds) and after reaching fruiting age, quantitative and qualitative yield indices including crop yield, fruit length and width, kernel length, width and diameter, ounce and carat, and percentage of closed and porosity kernels were studied. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS software and Duncan's range comparison. The results of the comparison of the mean data showed that the Akbari and Ahmad Aghaei cultivars grafted onto pistachio trees did not differ significantly in terms of branch length, branch diameter, number, length and width of leaves, and number of vegetative and reproductive buds. However, both Akbari and Ahmad Aghaei cultivars had greater branch length, branch diameter, leaves number, length and width and number of vegetative and reproductive buds compared to the control (ungrafted fandoghi). Also, Akbari and Ahmad Aghaei pistachio trees had an average of 0.5 and 0.9 kg of yield per tree, respectively, 3 years after grafting, while the control trees had not reached fruiting.
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