Monopotassium phosphate for olive fruit abscission

Abstract

World olive production covers 9.5 × 106 ha and yields 2.5 × 106 t of olive oil and 1.25 × 106 t of table olives annually (IOOC, 2002). For both oil and table production, harvest represents a critical expense to the farmer, costing as much as 50% of total crop value. Particular difficul- ties are encountered in the case of immature green fruits, harvested for table olives or to obtain high-quality oil, where the efficiency of mechanical harvesting by trunk vibration is particularly low due to high fruit retention force and small fruit size.