Barnea olive tree is a variety of olive native to Israel, specifically near the settlement of Kadesh Barnea (Nitzanei Sinai). Within Israel, its cultivation stands out in the south of the country with a growing weight. It has also spread internationally to countries like Peru, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand.
Barnea is a very plant variety in Australia due to its high adaptation to desert terrain. It is common to use the Colosus XL olive harvester in its harvesting when treating of a vigorous olive tree that other models of combine harvesters would have difficulties in harvesting.
Names or synonyms: Barnea is a relatively new variety if we compare with the hundreds and thousands of years of cultivation of other varieties of olive, probably for this reason synonymies have not yet emerged.
Characteristics of the Barnea Olive Tree
The Barnea olive tree has some interesting characteristics that encourage its planting in Israel and other countries.
Productivity: the Barnea olive variety has an early entry into production and high productive capacity. Due to its high productivity, to produce table olives of a good caliber it is necessary to carry out significant pruning.
Regularity of bearing: Barnea is a variety of constant production (shortly). Its low resistance to detachment influences this, an aspect that allows the olive harvest to be brought forward.
Flowering: the Barnea olive tree has early-medium flowering, its pollen is self-compatible and it presents little ovarian abortion. Its abundant floweringcan make it an interesting choice as a pollinator variety.
Vigor and habit of the tree: The variety of Israeli origin Barnea has high vigor, it is upright habit and has a density of low crown. In areas with low salinity in the soil, its vigorous growth can be controlled using irrigation water with an electrical conductivity of 4.2 dS/m (decisiemens per meter) without loss of production.
Leaf: the Barnea olive class from Israel has leaves of medium-large size, with an elliptical shape, medium length and wide width.
Diseases: the Barnea olive variety stands out for its adaptation to arid lands with a certain salinity. It is considered a rustic variety, capable of adapting to an interesting variety of climates. It is sensitive to olive moth, it has a medium resistance to peacock spot and does not tolerate excess moisture in the soil well.
Multiplying: the Barnea olive tree of Israeli origin has good rooting capacity. The Barnea olive tree propagates well from cuttings. This characteristic facilitates its multiplication within olive nurseries.
Barnea olive, morphological characteristics
The Barnea olive has interesting characteristics that allow it a mixed use, being used for dressing in Negro and olive oil production in Israel.
Ripening: Barnea olives ripen early.
Size: the olives from the Barnea olive tree are medium size.
Shape: the Barnea olive tree produces olives with an elongated-ovoid shape, slightly asymmetrical and with a pointed apex.
Skin color: the Barnea olive has a pink-violet color at veraison and deep black when ripe.
Pulp: it has a good pulp/stone ratio, regarding its consistency for table olives. It depends on the growing conditions and time of collection. In Israel it is highly appreciated and used, however in other countries it has not given good results as a table olive, due to its low consistency compared to varieties such as Hojiblanca olives, increasing its low consistency when it begins to ripen.
Yield: olives are harvested from the Barneas olive tree in Israel with medium-high yield (17-2%).
Olive oil production per hectare in hedgerow olive groves can exceed 2,500 kg, with about 15,000 kg of olive production.
Harvesting: Barnea olives present low resistance to detachment Its low resistance to detachment facilitates its mechanized harvesting, therefore harvesters, log shakers and olive picking machines will do your job better. Although this reduces handling costs, it must be taken into account that the wind and ripening will cause a significant part of the olives to fall to the ground. To avoid this problem, it is interesting to pick them earlier.
Uses: Barnea is used both to produce olive oil and for table consumption. The olive oil produced is of good quality, with a slightly fruity and stable flavor.
Advantages: variety of olive tree very well adapted to arid lands, mixed use, very high productivity.
Disadvantages: little information about its cultivation in Spain, sensitive to Prays, high vigor that discourages its planting in a hedge in favorable climates for olive trees.
Warning
We have translated the information on our website from Spanish to English. Please note that some words may have had their meaning altered during translation.