Internal fruit damage in table olive cultivars under superhigh-density hedgerows

This study describes fruit damage of the Manzanilla de Sevilla and Manzanilla Cacerefia cultivars under super high-density conditions at morphological and histological levels. Fruits were harvested both manually and by a grape straddle harvester. Dark spots and tissue ruptures were found throughout the mesocarp of both cultivars, particularly after mechanical harvesting. Quantitative traits previously described by our group were used to evaluate internal damage. `Manzanilla de Sevilla' always showed the highest total damaged area in the mesocarp, as well as the highest sum of the areas of all of the tissue ruptures, and number of tissue ruptures intersected by the second circumferential arc. Tissue ruptures in the exocarp were also observed in this cultivar as well as a general increase in this type of damage over time (from 2 to 24 h after harvesting). Investigation of the cuticle and epidermal cell dimensions in undamaged fruits shows that `Manzanilla Cacerefia' presents a thicker cuticle and a greater cuticle area per epidermal cell than `Manzanilla de Sevilla'. The relationship between these results and the different bruising susceptibilities of the two cultivars studied is discussed.