Alternate bearing in olive - A review

Alternate bearing is a wide spread phenomenon in many fruit tree species and cause severe labour, marketing and economical problem. The term “alternate or biennial” bearing designate the production of a heavy fruit crop “On” year followed by a light fruit crop or trees may not bear a crop at all the next “Off” year. Alternate bearing is a widespread problem for growers of fruit trees, occurring in both evergreen and deciduous trees. It is more pronounced in old productive trees (more than 10 years) in comparison with the young productive trees (about 3-5 years).