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<pre>Alan:

Thanks for the comments on the olive fruit set. It appears there are some
consistencies with what we find causes poor fruit set here.

I would also suggest that during bloom development and flowering next year
that you again observe weather and tree condition (as you did this past
year). Also, during bloom, look at the flowers (files attached of perfect
and staminate flowers) and see if there is a preponderance of staminate vs.
perfect flowers - this can suggest some types of tree stress during the
flower development period. Of course, it doesn't take many perfect flowers
to make a crop if they are adequately pollinized and ultimately get
fertilized. However, we have seen groves where almost all flowers are
staminate. Also some years are worse than others.

One other question regarding the blistering bark - are there any herbicides
used in this grove? We've seen symptoms like this when growers have used
2,4-D (I doubt you have used this but still a question)

Steve Sibbett
U.C. Farm Advisor
Phone - office 559.733.6486
Mobil 559.280.0666
FAX 559.734.2708

-----Original Message-----
From: Alan Watt [mailto:wattmeyer@one.net.au]
Sent: Friday, January 05, 2001 11:59 PM
To: OliveOil@egroups.com
Subject: RE: [OliveOil] Bark splitting syndrome




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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