Articles
Agroecological practices applied in a young olive orchard in southern Italy
Article number
1457_47
Pages
371 – 380
Language
English
Abstract
Among the agro-ecological practices for olive, conservation agriculture (i.e., zero tillage and living mulch) represents a strategy that can improve soil fertility, limit erosion phenomena, and reduce agronomic management costs.
The study was carried out for three years (2021-2023), in the ‘Long-term trial on organic Olive (BiOlea)’, at the experimental farm of CREA – Research Centre for Olive, Fruit and Citrus Trees, located in East Sicily, Italy, (latitude 37.17”N, longitude 14.50”E, elevation 45 m a.s.l.). The experiment focused on a young olive orchard, planted with two Sicilian main olive cultivars, ‘Nocellara del Belice’ and ‘Nocellara Etnea’, grafted onto seedling rootstocks.
Inter-row minimum and zero tillage, and four species of aromatic plants as living mulch along the row were tested.
Morphological tree growth and physiological response were monitored.
A climate analysis comparing the last 30 years with the last 3 years revealed a significant difference in both temperatures and rainfall recorded during the summer period.
The conservative soil management practice, without tillage, adopted for the study did not interfere with the growth of the plants or their physiology, while the two cultivars responded differently to zero tillage.
Indeed, the ‘Nocellara Etnea’ reached larger dimensions, exhibiting greater growth potential under conditions of lower cultivation inputs, due to aspects linked to the genotype-environment interaction.
The study was carried out for three years (2021-2023), in the ‘Long-term trial on organic Olive (BiOlea)’, at the experimental farm of CREA – Research Centre for Olive, Fruit and Citrus Trees, located in East Sicily, Italy, (latitude 37.17”N, longitude 14.50”E, elevation 45 m a.s.l.). The experiment focused on a young olive orchard, planted with two Sicilian main olive cultivars, ‘Nocellara del Belice’ and ‘Nocellara Etnea’, grafted onto seedling rootstocks.
Inter-row minimum and zero tillage, and four species of aromatic plants as living mulch along the row were tested.
Morphological tree growth and physiological response were monitored.
A climate analysis comparing the last 30 years with the last 3 years revealed a significant difference in both temperatures and rainfall recorded during the summer period.
The conservative soil management practice, without tillage, adopted for the study did not interfere with the growth of the plants or their physiology, while the two cultivars responded differently to zero tillage.
Indeed, the ‘Nocellara Etnea’ reached larger dimensions, exhibiting greater growth potential under conditions of lower cultivation inputs, due to aspects linked to the genotype-environment interaction.
Publication
Authors
G. Las Casas, B. Torrisi, D. Costantino, E. Nicolosi, A. Giuffrida, S. Camuglia, F. Ferlito
Keywords
olive cultivars, minimum tillage, zero tillage, ASC, physiological response
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