Sprouts seasonal elongation of two olive cultivars in a high-density orchard

doi:10.4236/as.2013.48054

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Vol.4, No.8, 376-381 (2013) Agricultural Sciences

http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/as.2013.48054

Sprouts seasonal elongation of two olive cultivars in

a high-density orchard

G. Strippoli1, G. A. Vivaldi1, S. Camposeo1*, F. Contò2

1Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of Bari Aldo Moro Via Amendola, Bari, Italy;

*Corresponding Author: [email protected]

2Department of Economics, University of Foggia Largo Papa Giovanni, Foggia, Italy

Received 21 May 2013; revised 22 June 2013; accepted 15 July 2013

which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

ABSTRACT

The new high-density cropping systems (>1200

trees ha−1) represent a very interesting proposal

for olive orchard profitability. It is crucial to

know the morphology and the dynamics of

sprout elongation of a cultivar in order to fully

assess its suitability for a high-density olive

orchard. For this reason we planned a research

on two cultivars, Coratina and Arbequina, in a

high-density orchard. The apical sprouts elon-

gation of Arbequina early stopped at fruit set

without a further step, while Coratina showed a

little growth flux after pit hardening. Similar

trends showed the lateral proleptic sprouts.

Only the sylleptic sprouts of both cultivars had a

second period of activity. In all cases, the

sprouts elongation finished at the end of sum-

mer, when oil accumulation started. Coratina

showed higher apical shoot growth and inter-

nodes mean length than Arbequina. On the con-

trary, Coratina showed lower lateral proleptic

shoot growth and nodes number than Arbequina,

but the same internodes mean length. No sig-

nificant differences were observed between cul-

tivars for growth, nodes number and internodes

mean length of sylleptic shoots. The differences

observed between the two cultivars could be

explained considering their different vigour. The

introduction of this innovative cropping system

is allowed to register a considerable reduction

of production costs. The result is a considerable

increase in the economic performance of the

olive grove and a consequent reduction in the

unit cost for kg of oil. These data are very useful

for varietal choice and field management in

high-density orchards and then for new olive

breeding programs.

Keywords: Arbequina; Coratina; Proleptic Axis;

Sylleptic Axis; Growth Flux

1. INTRODUCTION

Today the millennial olive tree cultivation all over the

world can be defined in a change of epoch: it tends

quickly to move from traditional low-density (<200 trees

per hectare) to modern medium-density cropping sys-

tems (300 - 400 trees per hectare) and overall to new

high-density cropping systems (>1200 trees per hectare),

which represent a very interesting proposal for olive or-

chard profitability [1]. The high-density cropping sys-

tems are characterized by strong reduction of production

costs thanks to total mechanization, from planting to har-

vesting [2]. Cost reduction allows you to make new com-

petitive companies with production facilities archaic. The

improvement of productivity is fundamental in contexts

that are now confronted with major international chal-

lenges, and the cost containment is essential for the sur-

vival of the farm. This cost reduction must then neces-

sarily be accompanied by sustainable production policies

as now required from Europe and from the market [3].

The high-density cropping systems are based on early

bearing (3rd year from planting), yield stabilization start-

ing from 5th - 6th years from planting (8 - 10 t per hectare

per year) with very negligible alternate bearing and con-

tinuous harvesting [1,4].

Several physiological and agronomic aspects are al-

ready started to be studied for high-density olive or-

chards: light interception [5], soil management [6], irri-

gation [7, 8], harvesting time [9]. Moreover, in the lit-

erature some vegetative and productive parameters are

considered in order to assess the varietal response since

considerable differences are observed among different

cultivars, mainly depending on both growth habit and

vigour [1,2,4, 10]. In fact the beneﬁt of these new sys-

tems mainly depends on the availability of cultivars with

G. Strippoli et al. / Agricultural Sciences 4 (2013) 376-381 377

compact habit and slow canopy growth, owned by Ar-

bequina and Arbosana, two Spanish cultivars on which

these systems were calibrated up to now [2]. It is crucial

to know the morphology and the dynamics of sprout

elongation of an olive cultivated genotype in order to

fully assess its suitability for a high-density olive orchard.

The first one to define and introduce the study of plant

morphology was Goethe, the famous German writer [11].

It has long been accepted that the plants are modular

organisms that develop through repetition of elementary

botanical entity, continually subject to change during

ontogeny [12]. The study of the plant architecture has

been developed as a new scientific discipline about 40

years ago, coming from the earlier works on plant mor-

phology [13]. At first, plant architecture investigations

have focused on canopy analysis of the tropical species

[14]; then these concepts were applied on temperate for-

estry tree species [15,16] and only more recently on fruit

tree species, such as apple [17], apricot [18], and peach

[19]. Although the architecture of some plants consists in

single vegetative axis, most of the tree species show a

more complex architectture, composed of several axes

(sprouts, shoots, branches) one derived from the other by

means of a repetitive process known as branching [20].

In particular, according to the time of woody bud break-

ing on the shoot, two types of axis can be distinguished:

proleptic if they come from resting buds and sylleptic if

they derive from steady buds [21]. Analysis of shoots

vegetative growth and modelling growth dynamics of

olive tree (Olea europaea L. var. sativa Hoffm. and Lk.)

is very recent, but made in arid areas under low and

very-low densities and rainfed cropping systems [22,23].

Considering that sprouts are the fundamental units for

both yield load and vegetative growth of an olive tree

[24], the aim of our research was to study the seasonal

elongation of all types of sprouts (apical, lateral proleptic

and sylleptic) on a olive shoot in order to highlight dif-

ferent varietal behaviours under high-density irrigated

conditions.

2. MATERIALS AND METHODS

The study was carried out in the olive grove located at

the experimental farm of the Department of Agricultural

and Environmental Sciences at Valenzano (Bari, South-

ern Italy—41˚01'N; 16˚45'E; 110 m a.s.l.), on a sandy

clay soil (sand, 630 g·kg−1; silt, 160 g·kg−1; clay, 210

g·kg−1) classiﬁed as a Typic Haploxeralf (USDA) or

Chromi-Cutanic Luvisol (FAO). The site is characterised

by a typical Mediterranean climate, with a long-term

average annual rainfall of 560 mm, two third concen-

trated from autumn to winter, and a long-term average

annual temperature of 15.6˚C. The olive grove has been

planted in 2006 with self-rooted plants; the trees were

trained according to the central leader system and spaced

4.0 m × 1.5 m (1667 trees ha−1) with a North-South rows

orientation, according to the Spanish high-density crop-

ping system. Props, drip irrigation and routine cultural

practices (nutrition, pruning, disease control) were set up

as already described [1,4]. The study was conducted on

two cultivars: Arbequina, on which the high-density sys-

tem was calibrated, and Coratina, the most important

traditional Apulian olive cultivated variety [25]. The

measurements were carried out in 2009, 2010 and 2011,

respectively at 5th, 6th and 7th years after plantation. A

randomized block experimental design was adopted: for

each cultivar the measurements have been replicated on 3

blocks of 3 plants and the observations were carried out

on all plants of each block. Before woody bud breaking,

two healthy well light-exposed shoots per tree (E-W)

were labelled (18 shoots per cultivar) in the middle part

of the crown. The shoots were homogeneous, with 25 -

30 cm in length and 15 - 20 nodes as mean. After woody

buds breaking, the length of the sprouts issued by the

apical bud and by lateral buds, both proleptic and syllep-

tic, and the nodes number were measured fortnightly on

each labelled shoot. At the end of the vegetative season,

the total length and the total nodes number of the new

shoots on each labelled shoot were determined. In this

work we did not separate sylleptic sprouts coming from

the apical or the lateral sprouts.

For each cultivar seasonal data were statistically

treated by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) fol-

lowed by post hoc testing (Tukey post hoc test) using the

R 2.15.0 software (R Foundation for Statistical Comput-

ing); standard error (SE) was also calculated. For detect

statistical differences between the two cultivars at each

measurement time t test was adopted.

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1. Apical Sprouts Elongation

In all years, apical woody buds expanding began in the

early spring (80 - 90 DOY), while lateral proleptic and

sylleptic buds breaking started few weeks after (110 -

120 DOY), just before full blooming (130 - 140 DOY),

without any difference between the cultivars (Figures

1-3). A general model of olive tree sprouts elongation

provides for two periods of activity: the major one occurs

during spring before blooming and the second one, less

important, occurs during early autumn separated by a

summer rest [26]. Our data differ from this general

model and statistical differences among sprouts type and

between cultivars were observed. Indeed the apical

sprouts elongation of Arbequina early stopped at fruit set

(150 - 160 DOY) without a further step, while Coratina

showed a little growth flux after pit hardening (190 - 230

DOY) better following the general model (Figure 1).

G. Strippoli et al. / Agricultural Sciences 4 (2013) 376-381

378

Figure 1. Seasonal growth trend of apical sprouts of the Arbequina and Coratina cultivars (2009-

2011 mean values, ± SE p ≤ 0.01 n = 54). The letters denote statistical differences among different

times within each cultivar (Tukey test, p ≤ 0.05). The symbols on the x-axis denote statistical

differences between the cultivars at each time (t test, **p ≤ 0.01, *p ≤ 0.05).

3.2. Lateral Sprouts Elongation Table 1. Growth, nodes number and internodes mean length of

apical, lateral proleptic and sylleptic shoots of the Arbequina

and Coratina cultivars at the end of vegetative season (2009-

2011 mean values, ± standard error; t test, **p ≤ 0.01, *p ≤ 0.05,

n.s. = not significant).

Similar trends showed the lateral proleptic sprouts

(Figure 2). Only the sylleptic sprouts of Arbequina and

Coratina had a second period of activity (Figure 3). In

all cases, the sprouts elongation finished at the end of

summer (255 DOY) when oil accumulation started. In-

deed during this last period, when daily temperatures

decrease, there is a strong competition between the nutri-

tional resources allocated to the vegetative organs and

those ones allocated to fruits [27,28]. In the high-density

orchard no sprouts elongation was ever observed in au-

tumn: it disagree with what commonly reported in more

arid Mediterranean climate especially for medium- low

densities cropping systems [22,23].

cv. Arbequina cv. Coratinat test

Apical

Growth (cm) 5.5 ± 0.6 8.0 ± 0.8 **

Nodes (n) 5.5 ± 0.5 6.0 ± 0.4 n.s.

Internodes mean length (mm)10.0 ± 0.1 13.3 ± 0.7 **

Lateral proleptic

Growth (cm) 4.4 ± 0.4 3.4 ± 0.4 *

Nodes (n) 4.1 ± 0.3 3.1 ± 0.2 **

Internodes mean length (mm)10.7 ± 2 11.0 ± 2 n.s.

Lateral sylleptic

Growth (cm) 4.0 ± 0.5 4.0 ± 0.7 n.s.

Nodes (n) 3.6 ± 0.4 3.1 ± 0.4 n.s.

Internodes mean length (mm)11.0 ± 3 12.9 ± 5 n.s.

3.3. Shoots Growth

In Table 1 growth, nodes number and internodes mean

length of apical, lateral proleptic and sylleptic shoots of

the Arbequina and Coratina cultivars at the end of vege-

tative season (300 DOY) are reported. Coratina showed

higher apical shoot growth and internodes mean length

than Arbequina (8.0 cm vs 5.5 cm and 13.3 mm vs 10.0

mm, respectively), but the same nodes number (5.5 - 6.0).

On the contrary, Coratina showed lower lateral proleptic

shoot growth and nodes number than Arbequina (3.4 cm

vs 4.4 cm and 3.1 vs 4.1, respectively), but the same

internodes mean length (11 mm). No significant differ-

OPEN ACCESS

G. Strippoli et al. / Agricultural Sciences 4 (2013) 376-381 379

Figure 2. Seasonal growth trend of lateral proleptic sprouts of the Arbequina and Coratina cultivars

(2009-2011 mean values, ± SE p ≤ 0.01 n = 54). The letters denote statistical differences among

different times within each cultivar (Tukey test, p ≤ 0.05). The symbols on the x-axis denote statistical

differences between the cultivars at each time (t test, ***p ≤ 0.001, *p ≤ 0.05, n.s. = not significant).

Figure 3. Seasonal growth trend of sylleptic sprouts of the Arbequina and Coratina cultivars (2009-

2011 mean values, ± SE p ≤ 0.01 n = 54). The letters denote statistical differences among different

times within each cultivar (Tukey test, p ≤ 0.05). The symbols on the x-axis denote statistical

differences between the cultivars at each time (t test, n.s. = not significant).

G. Strippoli et al. / Agricultural Sciences 4 (2013) 376-381

380

ences were observed between Coratina and Arbequina

for growth, nodes number and internodes mean length of

sylleptic shoots (4.0 cm, 3.1 - 3.6, 12.9 - 11.5 mm, re-

spectively).

As shoot development was the result of the two com-

plementary phases, known as organogenesis and disten-

sion [29], consequently in the climatic and cultural con-

ditions under study these phases should be in general

concentrated and sped up in spring, particularly for the cv.

Arbequina.

At all measurement times, Coratina showed ever sig-

nificant higher apical sprouts growth values with respect

to those ones of Arbequina (Figure 1). On the contrary,

Arbequina showed significant higher lateral proleptic

sprouts elongations with respect to those ones of Corat-

ina, except for the first two times (Figure 2). Finally, no

different sylleptic sprouts growth values were observed

between the cultivars at all measurement times (Figure

3).

The differences observed between the two cultivars

could be explained considering their different vigour,

already stated in the literature: Coratina is a cultivated

variety with a medium vigour, while Arbequina is a low-

vigour genotype [1,2,4].

4. CONCLUSION

These are the first data on seasonal elongation of all

types of sprouts (apical, lateral proleptic and sylleptic) on

an olive shoot under high-density irrigated conditions.

The introduction of this innovative cropping system al-

lows a considerable reduction of production costs. In

traditional olive groves most of the production costs are

definitely linked to the farming operations carried out

manually. These operations are fully removed in this

context as performed by continuous machines response-

ble for the management of the olive. The result is a con-

siderable increase in the economic performance of the

olive grove and a consequent reduction in the unit cost

for kg of oil [30]. These data are very useful first of all

for varietal choice and field management, such as fertili-

zation and pruning not only in high-density orchards, and

then for new olive breeding programs.

5. AKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research had the financial support of the National Research

Program (PRIN-MIUR, Project “Biological processes and environmen-

tal factors involved in the vegetative growth, fruiting and oil quality

control in superintensive olive (Olea europaea L.) plantings”.

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