A regulated deficit irrigation strategy for hedgerow olive orchards with high plant density

Abstract

17 páginas, 5 figuras, 4 tablas, 78 referenciasBackground & Aims There is not a consensus on the best irrigation approach for super-high density (SHD) olive orchards. Our aim was to design and test a regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) strategy for a sustainable balance between water saving, tree vigour and oil production. Methods We tested our RDI strategy for 3 years in an ‘Arbequina’ orchard with 1,667 trees ha−1. Two levels of irrigation reduction were applied, 60RDI and 30RDI, scaled to replacing 60 % and 30 %, respectively, of the of irrigation needs (IN). We also had a full irrigation (FI) treatment as control, with IN totalling 4,701 m3 ha−1 Results The 30RDI treatment showed the best balance between water saving, tree vigour and oil production. With a yearly irrigation amount (IA) of 1,366 m3 ha−1, which meant 72 % water saving as compared to FI, the reduction in oil yield was 26 % only. Conclusions Our results, together with recent knowledge on the effect of water stress on fruit development, allowed us to suggest a potentially improved RDI strategy for which a total IA of ca. 2,100 m3 ha−1 was calculated. Both some management details and the benefits of this suggested RDI strategy are still to be tested.This work was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and innovation (research project AGL2009-11310/AGR), by the Junta de Andalucía (research project AGR-6456-2010) and by the FEDER programme. C.M. R-D, J.M. T-R and S. E-F benefited from a FPDI research fellowship from the Junta de Andalucía, a FPI grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, and a JAE-predoc fellowship of the CSIC, respectively.Peer reviewe