FIELD STUDIES FOR MECHANICAL HARVESTING BY USING CHEMICALS FOR THE LOOSENING OF OLIVE PEDICEL ON CV. KORONEIKI

Olive harvesting of cv koroneiki consumes 40 to 60% of the total growing expenses.
Mechanical harvesting of this variety using vibrators is limited mainly because the ratio between fruit mass and strength of the pedicel, compared to other varieties is relatively small.
The mechanization using only vibrators must be followed by a manual harvesting which makes the cost of harvesting very high.
Chemicals of various kinds were tested for many years, to promote the loosening of pedicel and therefore increase the natural ratio between fruit mass and peticel strength.
Field trials were carried out in medium size and load olive trees of cv Koroneiki at full maturation stage.
Mechanical harvesting using multidirectional vibration and various types of small harvesting machines were examined, alone or in combination with the chemicals CGA 13586 and ethephon in low concentrations.
Harvesting by using only vibrators was not effective and no more than 50% of the fruit was removed.
The chemicals used promoted the loosening of pedicels, 6 to 12 days after treatment, with the quickest action shown by CGA 13586. They were effective and decreased fruit removal force (FRF) and over 90% of the fruits was removed by mechanical shaking and 100% by using small harvesting machines.
Leaf dropping was minimal in the case of CGA 13586 and in the treatments with ethephon did not exceed the 11%. As a conclusion, 15–25 trees were harvested per hour by mechanical shaking and 8-15 trees with small harvesting machines.
Those trees had already been sprayed with chemicals a week before the harvesting and increased the workers production 4 to 8 times.

III International Symposium on Olive Growing

I. Metzidakis

Olives, ethephon, CGA 13586, mechanical harvesting

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1999.474.39