INVESTIGADORES
MAESTRI Damian Modesto
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Effect of different water deprivation levels, applied during the pre-flowering ? flowering period, on vegetative, reproductive and yield traits of olive trees (Olea Europaea L.)
Autor/es:
PIERLUIGI PIERANTOZZI; MARIELA TORRES; ROMINA BODOIRA; DAMIÁN MAESTRI
Lugar:
San Juan
Reunión:
Simposio; VIIth International Symposium on Olive Growing; 2012
Resumen:
The improvement of water use
efficiency in olive cultivation is an issue of vital importance, with
environmental and economic implications. In Argentina, the climatic pattern of the olive
production areas is characterized by a marked water deficit during winter and
spring months. An irrigation experiment was carried out in an olive orchard at
Córdoba province (Argentina) during two consecutive crop years.
During the pre-flowering ? flowering period four regulated deficit irrigation
(RDI) treatments were imposed to olive trees (Olea europaea cv. Arbequina and Manzanilla) at 0, 25, 50 and 75 %
of Etc (estimated crop
evapotranspiration),
plus a control treatment at 100 % of Etc during all year. Data from the first
crop year showed that water deficit reduced significantly the current-year
vegetative shoot growth, resulted in weakening of flowering, decreased fruit
set and had a clear negative impact on tree productivity. Differences among
treatments in oil, oleic acid and total phenol contents were mainly due to
differences in fruit maturity at the time of harvest. A strong drop in
flowering, fruiting and yield parameters was observed during the second crop
year. As a result, a marked difference in fruit production was found between
the first (?on?) and the second (?off) crop years, suggesting a strong
alternate bearing pattern for both olive varieties analyzed. The maintenance of
the fully-irrigated condition throughout the whole irrigation experiment did
not sustain fruit yield performance in the second year. The low production of
less irrigated treatments was insufficient to compensate induction of buds from
one year to other. Results clearly showed that pre-flowering ? flowering
phenological phases are affected markedly by water availability indicating
strong crop sensitivity to water deficit in such period.