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I ordered two pistachio trees (one male + one female) over the internet. I have just received them yesterday. Unfortunately, they didn't label them and now I can't find out which one is male/female. Can you please identify them from the photo below?

The Picture

One of them is shorter and has larger leaves.
The other one is taller and has smaller leaves.

Google doesn't help me very much. I asked the seller and he said that the one in the blue package is female. However, this is my first time shopping from him, so I don't want to be wrongly informed. Can you please confirm the genders of these trees?

ejderuby
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hkBattousai
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1 Answers1

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It's hard to know until the first flowers appear or the trees get much bigger. The male generally flowers first and produces only pollen. I think right now the size of the specimens, if they have not obviously been pruned, confirms the seller's claim that the smaller one is female since the male plants are much larger when mature. It looks like the producer has tried to keep the sexes separate with different colour packaging, so the best way forward seems to be to accept the advice offered.

It's not unusual for horticultural products to arrive without labels. Labelling is a labour intensive operation and labels are frequently lost and misapplied by random agents; pot/container colour is a more permanent marker.

Colin Beckingham
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