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<pre>We live in Canterbury, New Zealand.

On Monday 8th May this year we had our first significant frost of the
autumn, between 3 and 4 degrees. Some of the new autumn growth on our olive
trees has been frosted.

About half of the olives on our trees (manzanillo, barnea, lechino, mission
and sundry others) went from being bright green-yellow (green ripe) to a
muddy "olive" colour. The fruit seemed to ooze black water. The balance of
the fruit are un-affected. Within fruit clusters 2 or 3 are affected, 2 or 3
are not. Those on the exposed edges of the tree are affected to the same
degree as those sheltered within the foliage.
There seems to be no varietal difference. The fruit has stayed firm, not
gone soft or mouldy. The flesh under the skin is still green.

We would hope to harvest in mid-June.

Questions:

Has anyone else had this same effect on the fruit?
Is it frost?
Why some fruit and not the one touching the affected fruit?
How will the affected fruit behave between now and harvest?
What do we do with the affected fruit at harvest (or before)?
If the affected fruit is pressed with the good fruit what will that do to
oil quality?

Any answers or suggestions would be welcome.


Keith Jordan-Smith
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<pre>Denise

Frosted fruit, unless harvested immediately, will have to be discarded. The
oil deteriorates rapidly! If harvested and pressed asap then the oil may
still be ok. Generally speaking, a severe frost will arrest oil development
and spoil all the fruit (your 50% apparently affected crop may be your
entire one). Some advocate the stripping of the trees immediately and put
up with the diminished (and maybe tarnished) yields resulting.

In 97 one grower with mature trees (8 years old then, don't laugh Europe)
lost his entire crop due to a late severe frost. The following year they
decided to get the fruit off asap pre-frost. They bought their harvest of
some 1.5 tonne of solid green fruit to me for processing. The yields were
minimal. In 99 frosts were again a management problem but were harvested
after a particularly severe one. Yields/taste were of quite good quality
although not what one would expect under ideal conditions. This year
harvest is still about 4 weeks away as we move into our southern winter. We
(and they) hope for a mild beginning.

Olives, as with grapes, suffer from frost damage in similar ways.
Management of the grove can take a leaf from the grape/wine industry.
Smoke/wind/bare earth/moisture all assist.

Regards
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<pre>Denise
You wrote recently about frost

> Olives, as with grapes, suffer from frost damage in similar ways.
> Management of the grove can take a leaf from the grape/wine industry.
> Smoke/wind/bare earth/moisture all assist.
>

Can you elaborate on each of smoke, wind etc. (I've given up smoking!)
What is
the contribution of smoke, wind, bare earth, and moisture. Turning on
the
sprinklers at onset of frost. Would this be a help?

High ground, as I understand it, is less prone to frosts, and one should
select
trees which are more frost resistant if in a frost area. Selectecting
early
bearing trees would seem prudent so that the fruit is harvested before
frosts
set in.

Is this sound?
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<pre>on 18/5/2000 10:28 am, Andrew Brown at drewbrow@senet.com.au wrote:

> Can you elaborate on each of smoke, wind etc. (I've given up smoking!) What is
> the contribution of smoke, wind, bare earth, and moisture. Turning on the
> sprinklers at onset of frost. Would this be a help?

Smoke presumably goes with fire: in frost-prone vineyards in France, the use
of braziers to directly heat the vines during prolonged severe frost is
known, but fires are probably most effective through the creation of
convection currents that prevent freezing air from ponding around the
plants.

Wind is useful for the same reason: artificially produced by helicopter,
normally for late spring frosts that can damage flowering in grapes.
(Incidentally, I have seen a video of helicopters being used to move pollen
around inside a French olive grove, to improve fruit set).

Bare earth under your trees is better than grass, because grass acts as an
insulator limiting the heat absorbed by the earth during the day, and
preventing it from being radiated back up during the night. Long grass may
also hinder the movement of air through the grove, encouraging frost.

Moisture is used in vineyards to protect flowers and buds against late
spring frosts. Water is sprayed onto the buds, and as it freezes it
effectively insulates the bud, preventing damage. I would imagine that
spraying an entire mature olive grove might present logistical problems.

> High ground, as I understand it, is less prone to frosts

Cold air is heavier than warm air, and so flows - like water - downhill. It
will collect in "ponds" in hollows, against shelter belts, in valley bottoms
etc. My grove, on a flat paddock above a river valley, was completely
unfrosted yesterday morning at 7am, while the valley bottom was white. In
Tuscany, the olive groves are generally on the hillsides, not in the valley
bottoms where they would be badly frosted every year... Any comment, Brian?

> and one should select trees which are more frost resistant if in a frost area.
> Selecting early bearing trees would seem prudent so that the fruit is
> harvested before frosts set in.
>
> Is this sound?

Yes, but we don't know what constitutes an early bearing tree (see other
thread for details).

--
Gareth Renowden, Limestone Hills, New Zealand
Words, olives and truffles
Office +64 (0)3 355 9552 Home +64 (0)3 314 9921
"I knew she carried a snorkel in her handbag, but would she use it?"(Sir
Henry)
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<pre>In Canterbury (N.Z.) frost problems can also be caused by over use
of shelter limiting air movement. Shelter here is very important for
pollination in spring with the NW winds but it can create pockets
that the cold air will sit in during winter.
Wind machines (large motor powered wind mills) are currently
being widely used to prevent frost in grapes throughout New
Zealand, but this requires thier to be a warmer layer of air above to
mix in. Some locations do not have this. (can actually cause more
damage if colder air above, as a vineyard in central otago found out!)
Sprinkler irrigation due to the temperature of the water will
increase air temperatures slightly 1-2C if your lucky. Smoke pots
used to be common in the fruit industry here but are not being used
much now as they tend to leave residue on the fruit and up set the
neighbours. (Not so good under the Resource Managment Act
1990)
The cherry and apple industry in central Otago use over head
sprinklers at flowering on a frost night to freeze the flowers, as the
flower is warmer than the surrounding air in its ice casing and is
not damaged. This could be hard to achive in olives?

Best technique is site selection and grove managment, aim for air
flow in the grove and when trees air young remove weeds etc, not
neccesary to have bare earth around tree.

Iain Latter
Lincoln
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<pre>In this discussion on frost in olive groves, I was chilled by the suggestion to
use sprinklers in the winter when temperature goes near zero. In the first
place, zero degrees centigrade is of no concern for the olive, at least in the
winter. In case of late frosts, if you really want to cultivate the olive in
that place, use any system you like (fans, helicopters, stoves, bare soil,
etc), but do not use over head sprinkler irrigation; the theory of how the
water protects tissues from freezing is right, but what will protect trees from
branch and limb cracking due to the excessive weight? You must irrigate all
night if you want the effect to take place, and the branches get covered by a
layer of ice. If this layer extends to leaves it becomes too heavy to bear for
the tree. The system is very smart, but it can only be used with deciduous
trees, when there are no leaves, or shoots are extremely small.
Andrea Fabbri
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<pre>
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<pre>The discussion on frost and harvesting makes for interesting reading.
I also reside in Canterbury[nz] but being inland live in an area where
frosts are common, 81 frosts last winter ,going as low as minus 10 degrees.
As already suggested we do need R&D on cvs and time of harvest.Due to the
varied conditions here in NZ each grove will probably be different and one
will have to discover the 'best' for their places by a system of trial and
error.
On the dayof 6 may which started this discussion temperature in my grove was
minus 6, but as I have no fruit to speak of yet damage was limited to a few
growing tips on tree foliage.The few fruit on Frantoio was also muddy in
colour and damaged.
Question
As cv selection and early fruit development with subsequent early harvest
appear to be of importance for Canterbury conditions the question remains.
Does anyone know what frost hardy cv s are known to be early oil
accumulators?
And
What level of frost causes fruit damage in these cvs.
I have planted mainly Lechino for the reason of early oil accumulation with
the view of harvesting before mid may when frost frequency starts to
increase.
Only time and further reseach will prove otherwise.

Neville Burt
----- Original Message -----
From: Andrea Fabbri <fabbri@ipruniv.cce.unipr.it>
To: <OliveOil@egroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 18, 2000 7:36 PM
Subject: Re: [OliveOil] Olives and frost


> In this discussion on frost in olive groves, I was chilled by the
suggestion to
> use sprinklers in the winter when temperature goes near zero. In the first
> place, zero degrees centigrade is of no concern for the olive, at least in
the
> winter. In case of late frosts, if you really want to cultivate the olive
in
> that place, use any system you like (fans, helicopters, stoves, bare soil,
> etc), but do not use over head sprinkler irrigation; the theory of how the
> water protects tissues from freezing is right, but what will protect trees
from
> branch and limb cracking due to the excessive weight? You must irrigate
all
> night if you want the effect to take place, and the branches get covered
by a
> layer of ice. If this layer extends to leaves it becomes too heavy to bear
for
> the tree. The system is very smart, but it can only be used with deciduous
> trees, when there are no leaves, or shoots are extremely small.
> Andrea Fabbri
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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<pre>On 18 May 2000, at 8:36, Andrea Fabbri wrote:

> In this discussion on frost in olive groves, I was chilled by the suggestion
to
> use sprinklers in the winter when temperature goes near zero. In the first
> place, zero degrees centigrade is of no concern for the olive, at least in the
> winter. In case of late frosts, if you really want to cultivate the olive in
> that place, use any system you like (fans, helicopters, stoves, bare soil,
> etc), but do not use over head sprinkler irrigation; the theory of how the
> water protects tissues from freezing is right, but what will protect trees
from
> branch and limb cracking due to the excessive weight? You must irrigate all
> night if you want the effect to take place, and the branches get covered by a
> layer of ice. If this layer extends to leaves it becomes too heavy to bear for
> the tree. The system is very smart, but it can only be used with deciduous
> trees, when there are no leaves, or shoots are extremely small.
> Andrea Fabbri

As i said i don`t think this is a possable solutions to frost in olives,
site selection and grove managment being the only true control of
frost.

Iain Latter
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> beMANY! has a new way to save big on business calls. Click here and keep
saving every month.
> http://click.egroups.com/1/4118/1/_/137757/_/958631799/
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> TODAY'S FEATURED SITE: http://sadoun.home.att.net/webringform.htm
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> To see more olive related sites visit: http://www.egroups.com/links/OliveOil
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ~~~~~~~ Life is healthier with OliveOil ~~~~~~~
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
</pre>
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