comparative study of olive [oleae uropea I.] Removal techniques and their effects on fruit harvest

ABSTRACT

Olives produced in Jordan are harvested mainly using hand labor. The main problems facing farmers are high cost and shortage of laborers. The cost of operation can be reduced and harvest can be carried out on time if an abscission agent was used. In the year 2012 an experiment was conducted in order to study the effects of the use of Ethephon as an abscission agent. The study was carried out on Nabali olive cultivar at three different locations As-Salt, Madaba and Jerash. Treatments were consisted of five ethephon concentrations, which are 0,1500, 3000, 4500 and 6000 ppm, each concentration was repeated 4 times. Two weeks after ethephon applications, data were collected and analyzed according to the randomized completely block design. Results revealed that ethephon dosage had significant effects on harvesting productivity at 0.05 levels. This effect was more pronounced at 4500 ppm concentration at As-Salt and Madaba locations, but it was considered harmful at Jerash location due to the high leaf drop that was attributed to the heavy load of trees at this location. Results showed positive correlations within all the olive orchard locations for the percentof leaf drop and the total harvested fruits