THE EFFECT OF TOPICAL APPLICATION OF 1-AMINOCYCLOPROPANE-1-CARBOXYLIC ACID ON OLIVE FRUIT ABSCISSION

Hand harvesting of olives represents more than 50% of their total production cost.
Therefore, mechanical harvesting has important economic advantages over traditional manual harvest, mainly due to a great reduction in labor costs and harvesting time.
Tree shakers and other mechanical devices have been built, but they yield only 40-70% of the fruit, depending on cultivar, maturity stage, tree size, and fruit load (Rouina et al., 1999). Ethylene-releasing chemicals have been applied to olive trees in order to increase the efficiency of mechanical harvesting (Denney et al., 1994; Gerasopoulos, et al., 1999). However, these compounds also cause leaf abscission.
If leaf abscission is greater than 15-20%, the following year’s production can be compromised.
In this study we report the effects of exogenously supplied ACC on ethylene production and abscission of olive fruits.

IV International Conference on Postharvest Science

A. Ferrante, D.A. Hunter, M.S. Reid

olive, ACC, ethylene production, detachment force

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2001.553.22