Olives Continued from Page 6
with mechanical pruners, followed by hand-pruning. In the fall, when olives are ready for harvest, commercial tree-shakers are used. In contrast, olive-oil producers plant trees in hedgerows and use an over-the- row harvester that contacts the canopy. “There’s not much of a problem of bruis- ing on oil olives since they are crushed, but it’s not acceptable on table olives,” Wheeler-Dykes said. When harvesting table olives by ma- chine, it can be hard to remove the fruit, resulting in about 50% yield loss, Wheeler- Dyke said. “That leaves a lot of money on the tree,” she said. Researchers at the Nickels Soil Laboratory in Arbuckle are studying a product called Accede by Valent. The loos- ening agent has shown positive results in boosting yields. The research trial is an “effort to find a perfect storm of treatments to increase that efficiency, because 50% isn’t high enough to get the industry to convert and transition over,” Wheeler-Dykes said. Research on Accede showed the loos- ening agent reduced fruit-removal force, increasing harvest efficiency, she said. Georgia Drakakaki, a UC Davis plant sci- ence professor, is part of the olive research
After olive trees are shaped by machine, an employee finishes pruning the trees by hand in this modern table-olive orchard planted for mechanical harvesting. The California Olive Committee has sponsored research to introduce more mechanization to table-olive orchards, including new harvesting equipment.
team. She has studied the effects of loosen- ing agents in multiple crops. “We are going down to the nitty-gritty of the abscission-zone formation and how it is accelerated by the application of this loosening agent,” Drakakaki said. “What we are using is a naturally occurring hor- mone; it’s a compound found in nature.“ She said ongoing research seeks to help farmers “to time their harvest to
have better efficiency.” During a field day at the Nickels Soil Lab, Wheeler-Dykes and UC research scientist Minmin Wang demonstrated the use of a hand-held pull-force tester to measure the force needed for fruit removal. Table-olive research is also underway on using a canopy-contact harvester instead of a tree-trunk shaker, said UC Davis plant sci- ence professor Louise Ferguson, who is part
of the research team. The research is spon- sored by the California Olive Committee. “I feel like people are really energized, excited and looking forward to a new way of growing table olives that might open up more options for the industry,” Wheeler- Dykes said. (Robyn Rominger is a reporter in Winters. She may be contacted at robynrominger.com.)
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June 26, 2024 Ag Alert 7
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