OLIVE OIL CULTIVARS SUITABLE FOR VERY-HIGH DENSITY PLANTING CONDITIONS

The olive oil cultivar choice to establish a very-high density olive orchard on a trellis system in the northeast of Spain (Tarragona) is presented in this study.
The low-medium vigour olive cultivars used in this trial are ‘Arbequina-i•18^®‘, ‘Arbosana’, ‘Canetera’ and ‘Joanenca’ from Catalonia (Spain), ‘Koroneiki’ from Greece and ‘Fs-17’ from Italy.
The irrigated trial was planted in 1998, trained to central leader and it was spaced 1.35 x 3 m (2.469 trees/ha). A continuous straddle harvester was used in this comparative olive cultivars trial.
‘Arbequina-i•18^®‘, ‘Arbosana’ and ‘Canetera’ cultivars have got a productive behaviour clearly superior to the other varieties.
The highest cumulated yields were for ‘Arbequina-i•18^®‘ (26.383 kg/ha) followed by ‘Arbosana’ (23.907 kg/ha), ‘Canetera’ (18.323 kg/ha), ‘Joanenca’ (17.535 kg/ha), ‘Koroneiki’ (16.357 kg/ha) and ‘Fs-17’ (13.113 kg/ha). Lowest tree vigour (trunk cross section and canopy volume) were observed in ‘Arbosana’ and ‘Arbequina-i•18^®‘. With respect to diseases incidence, ‘Canetera’, is particularly more sensitive to Verticillium dahliae. The oil content, expressed as % on dry basis, was the highest in ‘Fs-17’ (57.3%) and the lowest in ‘Joanenca’ (36.9%). Thus, ‘Arbequina-i•18^®‘ and ‘Arbosana’ seem to be the preferred cultivars to design this type of very-high density orchards.

V International Symposium on Olive Growing

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

Olea europaea, cultivars, high planting system, vigour, yield, diseases incidence, fruit weight, oil yield, continuous straddle harvester

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2008.791.59