Fenologia da oliveira e armazenamento a frio de azeitonas produzidas na Serra do Sudeste no Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

Since Brazil has been one of the world’s three largest importers of olive oil and table olives, olive trees have become an economic attraction in the country. Thus, olive tree cultivation has increased from year to year in Brazil and Rio Grande do Sul state is its largest producer, with about 3,464.6 cultivated hectares. However, in order to increase production, information about the culture itself, weather, management and processing is needed. This study aimed at evaluating periods of phenological stages of the main olive tree cultivars grown in the state and verifying the influence of temperature and storage period on olives. Two different experiments were carried out. Experiment 1 was conducted in olive groves that belong to the Oliva Agroindustrial Ltda, located in Pinheiro Machado, RS, and in the laboratory of plant physiology at the Universidade Federal de Pelotas, located in Capão do Leão, RS. The olive grove consisted of cultivars Arbequina, Arbosana, Frantoio, Koroneiki, Picual and Manzanilla, which had been planted in 2010, and evaluated in the 2017/2018 cycle. The following phenological stages were evaluated: pre-blooming, blooming, fructification, stone hardening, change in fruit color and ripening. Experiment 2 was carried out in a cold chamber at the Embrapa Clima Temperado and in the Laboratory of Plant Physiology at the Universidade Federal de Pelotas. The influence of temperature and storage period on the quality of olives yielded by cultivars Arbequina and Koroneiki was evaluated. In experiment 1, cultivars under evaluation exhibited differences regarding the occurrence and period of every phenological stage. In experiment 2, even though there was no relation among cultivars, temperatures and storage periods, Arbequina was found to exhibit higher concentration of total phenols than Koroneiki, which had higher concentrations of chlorophyll a and b than Arbequina.