Olive cultivation in the southern hemisphere: flowering, water requirements and oil quality responses to new crop environments

MARIELA TORRES; PIERLUIGI PIERTANTOZZI; PETER SEARLES; CECILIA ROUSSEAUX; GEORGINA GARZÍA-INZA; ANDREA MISERERE; ROMINA BODOIRA; CIBELES CONTRERAS; DAMIÁN MAESTRI

Frontiers in Plant Science

Frontiers Media S.A

Año: 2017 vol. 8 p. 1 - 12

1664-462X

Olive (Oleaeuropaea L.) is a crop well adapted to theenvironmental conditions prevailing in the Mediterranean Basin. Nevertheless,the increasing international demand for olive oil and table olives in the lasttwo decades has led to expansion of olive cultivation in some countries of thesouthern hemisphere, notably in Argentina, Chile, Perú and Australia. While thepercentage of world production represented by these countries is still low, manyof the new production regions do not have typical Mediterranean climates, andsome are located at subtropical latitudes where there is relatively  little information about crop function. Thus, theprimary objective of this review was to assess recently  published scientific literature on olive cultivationin these new crop environments. The review focuses  on three main aspects: a) chilling requirements forflowering, b) water requirements and irrigation  management, and c) environmental effects on fruit oilconcentration and quality. In many arid and  semiarid regions of South America, temperatures arehigh and rainfall is low in the winter and early  spring months compared to conditions in much of the  mediterranean Basin. High temperatures have  often been found to have detrimental effects on oliveflowering in many olive cultivars that have been  introduced to South America, and a betterunderstanding of chilling requirements is needed. Lack of  rainfall in the winter and spring also has resulted inan urgent need to evaluate water requirements  from the flower differentiation period in the winterto early fruit bearing. Additionally, in some olive  growing areas of South America and Australia, highearly season temperatures affect the timing of  phenological events such that the onset of oilsynthesis occurs sooner than in the Mediterranean Basin  with most oil accumulation taking place in the summerwhen temperatures are very high. Increasing  mean daily temperatures have been demonstrated todecrease fruit oil concentration (%) and  negatively affect some aspects of oil quality based onboth correlative field studies and manipulative  experiments. From a practical standpoint, currentfindings could be used as approximate tools to  determine whether the temperature conditions in aproposed new growing region are appropriate for  achieving sustainable oil productivity and quality.