Article from
VSCNews, Vegetable and Specialty Crop News
by Jaci Schreckengost
Researchers and Growers Working with Olives
The possibility of a commercial olive industry in the Southeast has
caused many growers and researchers to begin looking at what could be
attainable.
Peter Andersen, professor of horticulture at the
University of Florida (UF), said north Florida and south Georgia are
two areas of the Southeast looking at the possibility of olives as a
commercial crop.
More research is needed on aspects of olive
production, including pruning, which can affect the amount of flowers
on a crop and the number of fruit the crop produces.
Anderson
said Georgia and Florida growers have both been adding to their acreage
and testing new upkeep methods and production systems.
“We don’t
really have the long-term data that’s required to promote the crop for
north Florida or south Georgia, although some growers with a pioneer
mentality have put in a fair amount of acreage. So we’ll see in the
next several years how they perform,” Anderson said.
Along with
growers, researchers are involved in examining practices for the
possibility of an olive industry. Andersen said that while there is not
extensive research at UF’s North Florida Research and Education Center,
there are around five varieties being grown for testing.
Eleanor
Phillips, an entomology and nematology graduate student at UF, works in
Jennifer Gillett-Kaufman’s lab at the entomology and nematology
department in Gainesville, where various aspects of olive growth are
being studied.
Phillips emphasizes how important pruning is to
olive crops because of the influence overcrowding can have on the
crops. “It is important to trim back the crop to have new growth,” she
says.
Information gathered from both researchers and growers can
help work toward the possibility of a successful commercial olive
industry in the Southeast.
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