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<pre>OK ,can someone tell me what is the maximum chilling temperature
for fruit set ,where i am the far north NZ its C12 and are there
varieties which set at "higher" temps like there are cold varieties.
Hope all you experts out there can help Cheers william
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<pre>A long time ago someone commented about their low fruit set. The
following is extracted from
http://www.act.fcic.usda.gov/pilots/...txt/olives.txt (if you can
be bothered); "A cold, wet spring is the most frequently occurring
natural peril in producing olives. Prolonged, abnormally low
temperatures during April and May (note:northern hemisphere) retard bud
development and diminish the proportion of fruit-bearing,
pistil-containing blossoms. A deficiency of pistil-containing flowers
reduces fruit set and subsequent production." 'Cold' can be measured
differently, it can be a nice warm day but if the nights are cold the
soil temperature remains low and can retard development. Bare soil near
the root zone is one method of raising temps. Entrapped air through
increased biological activity reducing the minimum temperature is
another. Take your pick.

Roger Farquhar Hunter Valley

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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<pre>Brian

If one has a 3-5% fruit set then things are going OK. Do not forget the first
abscission however, about 4-6 weeks from set. You could lose the lot or gain
enduring set of about >80% if conditions are right. If water (irrigation) is to
play a part in the scheme of things it is at this stage. Much has been written
about how much and when but if you aint got it at this stage (fruit set then
first abscission) you wont have no fruit to pick my friends.

Regards
Peter Caird
caird@origin.net.au
www.victorianolivegroves.com



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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<pre>> How bad is the fruit set? Remember 97 to 95% of the flowers not setting
> is normal.
>

Brian,

I had fruit set ... a decent looking crop of grape-seed sized berries, which
then all fell off. I would now be lucky to have a kilo per tree, last year
averaged 15kg per tree. (now 6 year old trees)

> Also I worry about the mixture of varieties used in Oz. Are the
> pollination periods compatible? This is why I believe growers should
> adopt "theme" planting until more is known on the ability of California,
> Israeli, French. Italian, Tunisian and Spanish varieties to effectively
> cross.
>

We did have a bit if a problem here with Manzanillo flowering earlier than
their pollinator, Sevillano. All the others flowered at much the same time
and have more fruit than the Manzanillo.


Mike Wilson
Hunter Valley, Australia.
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<pre>How bad is the fruit set? Remember 97 to 95% of the flowers not setting
is normal.

Also I worry about the mixture of varieties used in Oz. Are the
pollination periods compatible? This is why I believe growers should
adopt "theme" planting until more is known on the ability of California,
Israeli, French. Italian, Tunisian and Spanish varieties to effectively
cross.

Cheers Brian Chatterton.
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<pre>How have growers found fruit set this season in Eastern Australia? Ours at
Rutherglen seems fair or moderate; some such word. The big winds and
horizontal rain we experienced in NE Vic (unlike last year's very hot
winds) have had some effect on pollination, I'd say. Negative effect, that
is. So while the crop looks OK or average, it won't be the big crop that
seemed in prospect. A couple of four-year-old trees were blown down in the
first storm.

Ian Fraser
Lyric Olives
Rutherglen, Vic 3685, Australia
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<pre>Hi Ian,

The fruit set here in Tanja [on the coast, near Bega] has been terrific this
year. I am hesitant to be too enthusiastic at this stage because last year,
despite the drought, things looked good right up until harvest when we
received an enormous amount of rain which created considerable soft nose
problems. Consequently I was reluctant to press such olives for fear of
compromising the quality of our oil and production was minimal.
As is said ... "There's many a slip 'tween the cup and the lip".
I wish all olive growers well for the coming harvest.

Alan Watt
Tanja Olives



-----Original Message-----
From: Ian Fraser [mailto:fraspub@...]
Sent: Tuesday, 9 December 2003 9:22 AM
To: OliveOil@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [OliveOil] Fruit set

How have growers found fruit set this season in Eastern Australia? Ours at
Rutherglen seems fair or moderate; some such word. The big winds and
horizontal rain we experienced in NE Vic (unlike last year's very hot
winds) have had some effect on pollination, I'd say. Negative effect, that
is. So while the crop looks OK or average, it won't be the big crop that
seemed in prospect. A couple of four-year-old trees were blown down in the
first storm.

Ian Fraser
Lyric Olives
Rutherglen, Vic 3685, Australia





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<pre>Hi,
I was selling oil at a store recently and I was asked by a customer as to
why his three olive trees flowered well but did not set fruit.
He has 1 x Sevillano, 1 x Mission and 1 x Kalamata at St Ives. According to some
SHOGA members who have table olives the Mission should be a satisfactory cross
pollinator so my suspicion is that the trees just get too much rain in the St
Ives area.
Any bright ideas out there
David Wilson
Glenlee Olives

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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<pre>> Hi,
> I was selling oil at a store recently and I was asked by a customer
as to why his three olive trees flowered well but did not set fruit.
> He has 1 x Sevillano, 1 x Mission and 1 x Kalamata at St Ives. According
to some SHOGA members who have table olives the Mission should be a
satisfactory cross pollinator so my suspicion is that the trees just get too
much rain in the St Ives area.
> Any bright ideas out there
> David Wilson
> Glenlee Olives

We have a choice of several reasons why there is no fruit:

trees are too young?
lack of boron / something else in the soil and poor development of viable
flowers?
strong wind at flowering?
heavy rain at flowering?
varieties are not what they are supposed to be?
just bloody unlucky!

However, I would suspect either wind or rain is the culprit this season as
much of the Hunter has fairly ordinary fruitset following the wind and rain
in September.

Mike Wilson
Hunter Valley.
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