Cold soil, salt and hull split decide a pistachio year.
PistaPrime reads all three from your soil sensors and cultivar-aware degree tracking, so a Stage II deficit is planned instead of guessed. In field beta on instrumented Central Valley pistachio blocks.
Patent-pending. Simulated data in the public demo; your data stays yours.
Five calls on every ranch card
What PistaPrime watches while you farm.
STRESS
Stress buffer, same day
Same-day crop-stress signals, read from the soil profile and the tree, not just a raw moisture number.
COLD SOIL
Roots active or not
Cold roots stop drinking before any meter shows it. The dashboard shows when uptake is actually happening, so early-season sets are not wasted.
SALT
Salt level, for the flushing decision
Root-zone salt shows in the dS/m read, not in the canopy. You get the read; your adviser makes the flushing call. Physiological calibration is underway; no accuracy figure is published for it.
WATER YEAR
Allocation burn rate, live
Percent of your GSA allocation used and an end-of-year projection, updated as you pump.
HULL SPLIT
The window, from degree tracking
Cultivar-aware growing-degree tracking projects the hull split window so Stage II deficit irrigation is planned, not guessed. 2026 forecasts are frozen prospectively.
Hull split · the window
Deficit irrigation only pays if the timing is right.
PistaPrime tracks degree accumulation for your variety (Kerman, Golden Hills, Lost Hills), projects the window as the season progresses, and flags the Stage II start while there is still time to plan water orders around it.
Projections are decision support in field beta; physiological calibration is underway, and your agronomist sees the same screen you do.
The season, in order
Wet dirt is not always a safe deficit call.
When roots are cold or the root zone is salty, water can sit in the profile while the tree still goes short. PistaPrime layers cold-soil and salinity context from your own sensors onto the moisture number, block by block (patent-pending).
Cold-soil uptake check before the first sets, so water is not applied to roots that are not drinking yet.
Degree accumulation tracked for your variety. Stress buffer and salt reads on every ranch card.
Your adviser sees the hull split window and the salt reading, and makes the call. Two blocks with the same wet soil can get different calls.
The salt reading, so your adviser can decide on a flush if root-zone salt built up over the season, and a live burn rate against the water year.
The SGMA math is brutal for pistachios
Many Central Valley allocations sit well below what a mature pistachio orchard would use in an unrestricted year. That gap closes with stage-timed deficits, salt management and a live burn rate. Every acre-foot you use goes into a tamper-evident record for GSA reporting; the record does not by itself establish measurement accuracy, water savings or regulatory compliance.
Pistachio grower questions.
Do I need new sensors?
No. Platform works with probes such as Sentek, METER, Irrometer and AquaSpy at $20/acre/year. IrriMAX is self-serve; other brands connect through concierge setup. Platform, on your existing probes: free for 90 days from when your probe data connects. Sign up October through December and it stays free through March 31. Then $20 per acre per year, 20-acre minimum: the paid plan starts on Day 91 (or April 1) unless you cancel in writing by Day 88 (or March 28 for winter sign-ups). Managed at $80/acre/year adds install by our CCA-led field team and weekly field walkthroughs. SWEEP and EQIP cost-share can cover part of the sensor cost. You file as the applicant. Eligibility, award size and payment timing vary, and funding is never guaranteed.
My operation is pistachios and citrus. Does one dashboard cover both?
Yes. Mandarin and citrus blocks run alongside pistachios, and every ranch card gets crop-specific calls.
$20/acre/year Platform. Platform, on your existing probes: free for 90 days from when your probe data connects. Sign up October through December and it stays free through March 31. Then $20 per acre per year, 20-acre minimum: the paid plan starts on Day 91 (or April 1) unless you cancel in writing by Day 88 (or March 28 for winter sign-ups). $80/acre/year Managed with our CCA-led field team. Questions: info@agwaterai.com