Peroglou, according to those who knew him, was very persuasive when he was trying to get landowners to cultivate pistachio trees. However, it’s not always easy for a landowner to abandon his traditional crops to plant a tree which they don’t know well. Which is the reason that the spread of the pistachio tree was very slow to start with.
Those who first copied Peroglou’s example were some Athenian friends who had estates or orchards in Aegina and had the financial wherewithal to do so. Among the first we find references to were: Alexandros Karapanos in Perivola; General Vasilakis Melas and his wife Eleni in Halikaki; G. Benizelos in Plakakia; and Panagiotis Giolman whose estate bordered on Peroglou’s.
The Aiginitan farmers were more cautious. There were some however who were persuaded. Panagiotis Galaris, also a neighbour of Peroglou, planted pistachio trees and would eventually sell his first few pistachios in Syros to the makers of Turkish-delight.
In 1910 Eleni Haimanda (nee Alifandi) planted a few pistachio saplings in her garden at Faros. The trees which resulted were grafted and became the large trees which are still around today. Following her example, in 1915, her husband Nikolis Haimandas went to Chios to get seeds. That seed was used to create his own plant nursery so that he could plant pistachio trees on his large estates. The newsaplings he then planted in his vineyards among the vines.