Bruising susceptibility of Manzanilla de Sevilla table olive cultivar under Regulated Deficit Irrigation

L. Casanova, M. Corell, M.P. Suárez, P. Rallo, M.J. Martín-Palomo and M.R. Jiménez

Agricultural Water Management, 2017, vol. 189, issue C, 1-4

Abstract: The olive tree (Olea europaea L.) is a Mediterranean tree adapted to drought conditions and traditionally rainfed. For irrigated olive groves, there is extensive knowledge about the effects of Regulated Deficit Irrigation (RDI) scheduling on the sensibility of different phenological stages and about the importance of rehydration in the last part of the fruit growth stage. Water stress in this period could reduce the fruit size, but the exact extent of this reduction is still unknown. Additionally, table olive varieties may be damaged during harvesting or processing. This results in bruising, superficial browning injuries that progress through the mesocarp. Bruising susceptibility is an important quality parameter in table olives, however it has been little studied in RDI research. Hand-harvested fruits of ‘Manzanilla de Sevilla’ for green processing, treated with two types of RDI and full irrigation, were bruise-induced with a standardized drop to evaluate bruising susceptibility. Bruising index (BI) and external (BAE) and internal (BAI) bruising damage were measured 3 and 24h after the bruising treatment. A full irrigation treatment was set up in order to maintain the Ψh values higher than −1.2MPa before pit hardening and −1.4MPa until harvest. RDI-1 and RDI-2 were irrigated with a full irrigation treatment until 2 and 4 weeks before harvest, respectively. Then, water was withheld until −2.5MPa. RDI-2 can save 50% of the water applied without affecting the fruit weight, volume or pulp-to-pit ratio (fresh and dry). Fruits under RDI treatments are less susceptible to bruising than fruits with a full irrigation treatment, as evidenced by the lower bruising index and the smaller external and internal damaged area. As for the bruising time line, 3h after the bruise inducement, the bruising index and external damaged area had already developed, whereas internal bruising damage continued increasing up to 24h after the bruising treatment.

Keywords: Olea europaea L.; Water deficit; Scheduled irrigation; Fruit quality; Bruise inducing; Mesocarp injuries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377417301543
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:189:y:2017:i:c:p:1-4

DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2017.04.012

Access Statistics for this article

Agricultural Water Management is currently edited by B.E. Clothier, W. Dierickx, J. Oster and D. Wichelns

More articles in Agricultural Water Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().