Articles
VEGETATIVE AND PRODUCTIVE BEHAVIOUR OF FOUR OLIVE ITALIAN CULTIVARS AND ‘ARBEQUINA’ ACCORDING TO SUPER INTENSIVE OLIVE TRAINING SYSTEM IN CENTRAL ITALY
Article number
924_26
Pages
211 – 218
Language
English
Abstract
In the last years, super intensive olive groves are being planted worldwide to increase yield and reduce cost, plus to eliminate labour availability problem by using over-row modified grape harvesters.
All over the world the super intensive oliviculture method is based, essentially, on cultivars Arbequina and Arbosana. The benefit of this new training system mainly depends on the availability of cultivars characterised by compact trees, early bearing and low vigour.
Since the Italian germplasm of olive is characterised by many well-known cultivars such as Frantoio and Leccino, and it does not include Arbequina and Arbosana, a trial to evaluate the adaptability of four Italian cultivars to the super intensive olive training system and to mechanical harvesting by an over-row modified grape harvester was set up in Umbria region, in central Italy, a place characterized by cold winter and short dry summer, assuming as reference the Arbequina cultivar.
The parameters determined were: tree characteristics (tree height, crown width, trunk diameter), bearing earliness, yield per tree, harvester efficiency and fruit losses, olive characteristics during ripening and at harvesting time. Arbequina showed the most precocious reproductive stage, followed by Maurino, on the contrary the latest bearing was Frantoio with only 18% of productive trees at the second growing season.
In 2009 Maurino and Leccino achieved the highest yield (around 3 kg of olive/tree), followed by Arbequina (2.3 kg of olive/tree), and Frantoio and Moraiolo the lowest with 1.7 and 1.3 kg of olive/tree respectively.
The harvester efficiency was very good all over.
At the third growing season Arbequina, Moraiolo and Maurino resulted to be less vigorous than Leccino and Frantoio. Up to now, among the four Italian cultivars, Maurino seemed to be suitable for super intensive oliviculture in terms of vegetative growth and reproductive aptitude.
All over the world the super intensive oliviculture method is based, essentially, on cultivars Arbequina and Arbosana. The benefit of this new training system mainly depends on the availability of cultivars characterised by compact trees, early bearing and low vigour.
Since the Italian germplasm of olive is characterised by many well-known cultivars such as Frantoio and Leccino, and it does not include Arbequina and Arbosana, a trial to evaluate the adaptability of four Italian cultivars to the super intensive olive training system and to mechanical harvesting by an over-row modified grape harvester was set up in Umbria region, in central Italy, a place characterized by cold winter and short dry summer, assuming as reference the Arbequina cultivar.
The parameters determined were: tree characteristics (tree height, crown width, trunk diameter), bearing earliness, yield per tree, harvester efficiency and fruit losses, olive characteristics during ripening and at harvesting time. Arbequina showed the most precocious reproductive stage, followed by Maurino, on the contrary the latest bearing was Frantoio with only 18% of productive trees at the second growing season.
In 2009 Maurino and Leccino achieved the highest yield (around 3 kg of olive/tree), followed by Arbequina (2.3 kg of olive/tree), and Frantoio and Moraiolo the lowest with 1.7 and 1.3 kg of olive/tree respectively.
The harvester efficiency was very good all over.
At the third growing season Arbequina, Moraiolo and Maurino resulted to be less vigorous than Leccino and Frantoio. Up to now, among the four Italian cultivars, Maurino seemed to be suitable for super intensive oliviculture in terms of vegetative growth and reproductive aptitude.
Authors
A. Tombesi, P. Proietti, G. Iacovelli, S. Tombesi , D. Farinelli
Keywords
high-density, oil quality, ripening, ‘Frantoio’, ‘Leccino’, ‘Moraiolo’, ‘Maurino’
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