The olive tree is one of the oldest traditional crops in the Mediterranean regions. The oil extracted from its fruit has been used for centuries as food and for various purposes, such as a raw material for lighting and medicinal products.
The olive industry is currently thriving due to high demand and profitability, thanks to a successful food campaign highlighting the therapeutic and nutritional properties of olives. It has a promising future and a growing cultivation area. Spain and Italy are the world’s leading producers, followed by Greece, Turkey, and Tunisia.
It requires a few hours of cold and many hours of heat for its development (3–4 months elapse between sprouting and flowering, and 6–7 months from flowering to harvest). The most serious weather conditions are dry winds and high temperatures during flowering, which cause widespread ovary abortion and consequently lower yields.
It is tolerant of calcareous soils, although there are differences depending on the variety (the Hojiblanca variety performs very well). It is highly tolerant of Salinity. It is a light-loving plant, so a lack of light reduces flower formation or causes the flowers to be nonviable due to insufficient assimilates in the leaf axils.
Traditionally, unnecessarily wide planting patterns have been used; the average planting density used to be 72 trees per hectare, although values of 312 trees per hectare are currently recommended, reaching up to 400 in irrigated systems. In rain-fed systems, the density should not exceed 300 trees per hectare. Planting patterns are rectangular, with dimensions of 7 X 5 or 6 X 4.
Yields increase with irrigation, since irrigation becomes necessary when precipitation falls below 800 mm; the most suitable system is localized drip irrigation at a rate of 1,800–1,900 liters per tree per year, distributed throughout the months of April, May, June, July, August, and September at a rate of 100 liters per tree per day.
Another, perhaps more effective alternative is to concentrate irrigation during the hottest months, which would result in 70 liters per day per tree in April, 90 liters per day per tree in May, 110 liters per tree per day in June, 130 liters per tree per day in July, 110 liters per tree per day in August, and 90 liters per tree per day in September.
Selecting the dripline: A wide range of options ensures the proper selection of dripline tubing. The combination of emitter model, flow rate per emitter, and spacing between emitters not only ensures the delivery of the water rates specified in the irrigation strategy but also guarantees a large volume of moist soil available for root development in both surface-level localized irrigation and RGS systems.
Digital Farming: In addition to selecting the appropriate dripline tubing, the use of AZUD QGROW equipment for the precise management of water and nutrient inputs—based on data from soil, plant, and weather sensors—allows for:
