Preliminary observations about the performance of 13 varieties according to the super high density oliveculture training system in Apulia (southern Italy). (Special Issue: Integral mechanical harvesting of oil olives and the influence of growing systems.)

摘要

Because of the impossibility of effective interventions to modernize the traditional olive growing designs, we suggested, in a past work, the adoption of the super high density model as innovative therapy to allow the Italian olive oil production to continue to be present on the national and international markets. In the present work the results obtained at Valenzano, near Bari (southern Italy) with regard to both vegetative and productive aspects throughout the first three years of a large varietal population are presented. Data concerning the performance of 13 varieties, obtained by rooted cutting and/or by micro propagation are discussed. 'Arbequina', 'Arbosana' and 'UranoReg.', by cutting, confirmed their naturally controlled growth habit, dense and regular foliage, early and consistent cropping capacity. Promising results were given by micro propagated 'Koroneiki' and 'UranoReg.'. On average, in the third year 'Arbequina', 'Arbosana', 'Koroneiki' and 'UranoReg.' bore a crop of 5.71 ha-1 of fruits and of 1.01 ha-1 of extra virgin oil. The performance of 'UranoReg.' by cutting is particularly worthy of attention: it bore a crop of 5.5 kg tree-1 (i.e. 9.13 t ha-1) of fruits in the third year after plantation. On the basis of 16.5% oil output, the oil production of 'UranoReg.' at the third year was 1.54 t ha-1. The remaining varieties showed severe limitations in terms of vegetative and/or productive parameters.