Traditional olive tree response to oil olive harvesting technologies

Abstract

Traditional olive tree growing is a symbol of the Mediterranean basin agriculture. Technological development of this mostly rainfed crop has been reduced and related with employment in rural areas. In order to improve the harvesting process of this crop, this study analyses the available technologies used for fruit detachment and the introduction of a continuous harvesting system, based on a tractor-drawn canopy shaker, to work around the large canopy trees. Results showed that harvest efficiency of mass mechanical systems, such as a trunk shaker (90.5%) and canopy shaker (78.8%), was lower than that of manual harvesting and hand-held harvesting systems (98%). However, these last systems led to high debris production because they mainly extend the harvest time to increase harvest efficiency. Canopy shaker system applied the forced vibration directly to the fruit-bearing branches. This characteristic recognised that vibration transmission plays a less important role on the fruit detachment process. The continuous harvesting process around the large canopy trees in traditional olive orchards enabled relatively high harvest efficiency values to be achieved, considering the trees were not adapted to mechanical harvesting. High harvesting efficiency values were obtained mainly where the rods were in contact with the canopy. An adaptation of the tree through pruning is required to avoid large irregularities in the tree canopy, reduce fruiting inside the canopy that is unreachable by the canopy shaker rods and facilitate the penetration of the rods into the canopy in order to achieve higher harvest efficiency values.