COMPARATIVE TEST OF TWELVE OLIVE CULTIVARS IN THE REGION OF RIBERA D’EBRE (TARRAGONA, SPAIN)

In the second half of the 1990s most olive regions in Spain raised the study for the adaptation of some olive cultivars to the various producing areas through a national network of trials.
Specifically in Catalonia, three olive oil cultivar trials were established.
In this paper are presented the results obtained in a trial, which was set in 1998 in Mora d’Ebre, south-west of the province of Tarragona, which included 12 cultivars.
The trees were planted at a frame of 7×7 m (204 olive trees/ha). The main agronomic observations were carried out during an eleven year period (3rd to the 13th year of planting) and the fruit characteristics for a nine-years period (2003-2011). Outstanding cultivars are ‘Picual’ (37.4 kg/tree), ‘Picudo’
(36.7 kg/tree), ‘Empeltre’ (35.1 kg/tree) and ‘Arbequina’ (33.8 kg/tree). As far as their accumulated yield at the 13th year of planting, there exist significant differences: ‘Picual’ (183 kg/tree) is the most producing cultivar, followed by ‘Arbequina’ (171 kg/tree) and ‘Picudo’ (165 kg/tree) and finally ‘Empeltre’ and ‘Frantoio’ (about 150 kg/tree). The results of this trial show differences in the adaptation of some cultivars to the inland zone of Tarragona, where ‘Picual’, ‘Arbequina’, ‘Empeltre’ and ‘Frantoio’ have agronomically overpassed the other cultivars.

VII International Symposium on Olive Growing

J.F. Hermoso, A. Romero, J. Tous

Olea europaea, cultivars, agronomic adaptation, vigor, productivity

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2014.1057.64