ISHS Acta Horticulturae 791: V International Symposium on Olive Growing
INCREASING FRUIT SIZE IN TABLE-OLIVES |
| Authors: | R. Birger, F. Abd-ElHadi, A. Ronen, E. Cohe, Y. Ankorion, A. Najjar |
| Keywords: | adjuvant, NutriVant, foliar nutrition, plant hormones |
| Abstract:
Table olives are being accepted as a more intensive crop than oil olives, and produce better returns to the grower. This crop receives more inputs such as additional irrigations and fertilizers in order to improve fruit yield and quality. A problem occurs at years when fruit load is quite high, forcing a decrease of the fruit size. Thus, when the offering to the industry is high, the industry puts a bottom line on accepted fruit size (e.g. 15 mm). Undersized fruit is rejected at a total loss to the grower as oil content is too low for oil. On the other hand, increasing premiums are paid for higher fruit sizes according to size grouping by the industry (e.g. 15-16, 17-18, 19-20 mm etc). Field trials were laid out in Israel during the years 2002 and 2003, looking for alternative ways to solve this problem. The target was to increase the partial part of the large fruits, without losing yield. Trials were done with the Manzanillo cv. for table olives, grown under intensive cultivation. Beside the known techniques of using pruning or fruit thinning (NAA), some new methods were tried such as spraying the canopy with plant hormones such as cytokinines (CPPU) or auxin (2-4:DP), or a special designed foliar fertilizer "SON" (Summer Olive NutriVant) 8-16-40+FV, to young fruitlets at various timing and concentrations, either as separate or combined treatments. The best results were obtained with the "SON" 3% fertilizer treatment, applied one time at 2 weeks after full bloom. | |
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