FIELD PRELIMINARY STUDY OF A MULTIDIRECTIONAL SHAKER FOR OLIVE HARVESTING IN THE SOUTH OF TUNISIA

In spite of its big tree size and small fruit which is highly resistant to abscission ‘Chemlali’, a cultivar from soothern Tunisia, can be mechanically harvested. In fact, the use of a multidirectional shaker at an advanced stage of ripening allowed as much as 80% of fruit abscission. This rate ranged from 65% for heavy bearing trees (>100 kg per tree) to 100% for low fruiting trees (<25 kg per tree). Otherwise the use of shakers improved clearly the quality of harvested olives as fruit injuries and broken shoots were substantially reduced. However the need for complementary manual harvesting risks to increase the harvest cost.