Olive Cultivation in the Southern Hemisphere: Flowering, Water Requirements and Oil Quality Responses to New Crop Environments

TORRES, MARIELA; PIERANTOZZI, PIERLUIGI; SEARLES, PETER; ROUSSEAUX, M. CECILIA; GARCÍA-INZA, GEORGINA; MISERERE, ANDREA; BODOIRA, ROMINA; CONTRERAS, CIBELES; MAESTRI, DAMIÁN

Frontiers in Plant Science

Frontiers Media S.A

Año: 2017 vol. 8

Olive (Olea europaea L.) is a crop well adapted to the environmental conditions prevailingin theMediterranean Basin. Nevertheless, the increasing international demand for olive oiland table olives in the last two decades has led to expansion of olive cultivation in somecountries of the southern hemisphere, notably in Argentina, Chile, Perú and Australia.While the percentage of world production represented by these countries is still low,many of the new production regions do not have typical Mediterranean climates, andsome are located at subtropical latitudes where there is relatively little information aboutcrop function. Thus, the primary objective of this review was to assess recently publishedscientific literature on olive cultivation in these new crop environments. The reviewfocuseson three main aspects: (a) chilling requirements for flowering, (b) water requirementsand irrigation management, and (c) environmental effects on fruit oil concentration andquality. In many arid and semiarid regions of South America, temperatures are high andrainfall is low in the winter and early spring months compared to conditions in much ofthe Mediterranean Basin. High temperatures have often been found to have detrimentaleffects on olive flowering in many olive cultivars that have been introduced to SouthAmerica, and a better understanding of chilling requirements is needed. Lack of rainfall inthe winter and spring also has resulted in an urgent need to evaluate water requirementsfrom the flower differentiation period in the winter to early fruit bearing. Additionally, insome olive growing areas of South America and Australia, high early season temperaturesaffect the timing of phenological events such that the onset of oil synthesis occurssooner than in the Mediterranean Basin with most oil accumulation taking place in thesummer when temperatures are very high. Increasingmean daily temperatures have beendemonstrated to decrease fruit oil concentration (%) and negatively affect some aspects of oil quality based on both correlative field studies and manipulative experiments. Froma practical standpoint, current findings could be used as approximate tools to determinewhether the temperature conditions in a proposed new growing region are appropriatefor achieving sustainable oil productivity and quality.