Determination of table olive characteristics of new olive varieties obtained by crossbreeding of Gemlik and Memecik variety

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the physical and chemical characteristics of 10 hybrid type table olives obtained as a result of a national level hybridization program in the Olive Research Institute. Material and Methods: The samples selected from Memecik x Gemlik and Gemlik x Memecik combinations, which came to the pre-elimination stage in the project, were evaluated in terms of table olives characteristics. These products were obtained in four olive seasons. Olives were subjected to some physical and chemical tests and analyzes. The main olive processing techniques (green split olive, natural turning black olives and Spanish style green olives) were applied to test the suitability of the cultivar candidates to processing techniques. Results: The olive variety candidates, GM 41, GM 39, MG 11 and MG 5 attracted more attention than the main varieties of the cross breeding project, “Memecik” and “Gemlik”, in terms of some table olive characteristics like high flesh/pit ratio and the number of olive fruits per kilogram. Especially, The variety, GM 41 was found to be significantly important candidate for the natural black olive processing because of having high number of olives per kilogram. Conclusion: As a result of this study, it was concluded thata the hybrid variety candidates, MG5 and MG13 were found to be promising in terms of table olive characteristics and registered as HAYAT and ARSEL, respectively.