Evaluation of different mechanical fruit harvesting systems and oil quality in very large size olive trees

Abstract

n 2006 and 2009, trials were carried out in the Apulia region in Southern Italy to evalu-ate the possibility of mechanizing olive harvesting in groves of old and very large trees. The trees belonged to the cultivars ‘Cellina di Nardò’ and ‘OgliarolaSalentina’. They were 60-100 years old and 7-9 m tall with a canopy volume of 140-360 m3. In the first half of November 2006, with a mechanical beater mounted on a tractor plus hand-held pneumatic combs, the harvesting yield was close to 90% of the total olives present in the canopy, and the harvesting working productivity was around 60 kg of harvested olives h-1worker-1. With a self-propelled shaker attached to the main branches the harvesting yield was about 73% in ‘Cellina di Nardò’, and 40% in ‘OgliarolaSalentina’, while the harvesting working productivities were around 103 and 85 kg of harvested olives h-1worker-1, respectively. In the second half of No-vember 2009, in ‘Cellina di Nardò’, with a mechanical beater mounted on a tractor plus nets on the ground or a catching frame (reversed umbrella) mounted on another tractor, the harvest-ing yield was about 97%. The working productivity was about 98 kg of harvested olives h-1worker-1 with the mechanical beater plus nets and around 133 kg of harvested olives h-1worker-1 when the mechanical beater was combined with a reversed umbrella. The oil obtained from the mechanically harvested olives was always of high quality. A basic economic evaluation of the harvesting costs is also reported.