TY - JOUR

T1 - Site specific management in an olive tree plantation

AU - Fountas, S.

AU - Aggelopoulou, K.

AU - Bouloulis, C.

AU - Nanos, G.D.

AU - Wulfsohn, Dvora-Laio

AU - Gemtos, T.A.

AU - Paraskevopoulos, A.

AU - Galanis, M.

PY - 2011

Y1 - 2011

N2 - Yield and soil mapping were carried out in 2007 and 2008 in a 9.1 ha commercialolive tree plantation for olive oil production. The orchard is in the southernPeloponnese, where olives are cultivated extensively for extra virgin olive oil production.The field is planted in rows with about 1650 trees in total. Weed control was practicedduring the previous 3 years using post emergence herbicides under no-tillage over about2/3 of the field, and over the remaining 1/3 by mechanical weeding using a rotary cultivator.For yield mapping, olives were collected manually using rods to shake the treeshoots and letting the olives fall onto a plastic net covering the ground. Sacks ofapproximately 58 kg capacity were filled with olives from as many adjacent trees as wereneeded to fill a sack. The location of the sacks, or group of closely placed sacks, wasidentified using a commercial GPS (5 m resolution). In addition, 91 cores of soil weretaken at a depth of 0–30 cm on a 30-m systematic sampling grid corresponding to a densityof 10 soil samples per ha. The soil properties measured were penetration resistance, soiltexture, organic matter, pH, P, NO3–N, K, Mg, Zn, Mn, Fe, B and Ca contents. The effectof the method of weed control on the soil condition for post emergence herbicides underno-tillage versus rotary cultivation was evaluated on the basis of soil organic matter content and penetration resistance. The data were analyzed using both descriptive statisticsand geostatistical methods. Maps were created as a basis for site-specific management of P,K and lime, and these were applied 15 days after harvest in the winter of 2008. The resultsindicated considerable spatial variation in yield and soil properties. The soil organic mattercontent was about 22% greater and the penetration resistance about 26% less in the areasunder no-tillage. The mean pH increased from 5.9 to 7.0 as a result of lime application inthe areas with pH below 6.5.

AB - Yield and soil mapping were carried out in 2007 and 2008 in a 9.1 ha commercialolive tree plantation for olive oil production. The orchard is in the southernPeloponnese, where olives are cultivated extensively for extra virgin olive oil production.The field is planted in rows with about 1650 trees in total. Weed control was practicedduring the previous 3 years using post emergence herbicides under no-tillage over about2/3 of the field, and over the remaining 1/3 by mechanical weeding using a rotary cultivator.For yield mapping, olives were collected manually using rods to shake the treeshoots and letting the olives fall onto a plastic net covering the ground. Sacks ofapproximately 58 kg capacity were filled with olives from as many adjacent trees as wereneeded to fill a sack. The location of the sacks, or group of closely placed sacks, wasidentified using a commercial GPS (5 m resolution). In addition, 91 cores of soil weretaken at a depth of 0–30 cm on a 30-m systematic sampling grid corresponding to a densityof 10 soil samples per ha. The soil properties measured were penetration resistance, soiltexture, organic matter, pH, P, NO3–N, K, Mg, Zn, Mn, Fe, B and Ca contents. The effectof the method of weed control on the soil condition for post emergence herbicides underno-tillage versus rotary cultivation was evaluated on the basis of soil organic matter content and penetration resistance. The data were analyzed using both descriptive statisticsand geostatistical methods. Maps were created as a basis for site-specific management of P,K and lime, and these were applied 15 days after harvest in the winter of 2008. The resultsindicated considerable spatial variation in yield and soil properties. The soil organic mattercontent was about 22% greater and the penetration resistance about 26% less in the areasunder no-tillage. The mean pH increased from 5.9 to 7.0 as a result of lime application inthe areas with pH below 6.5.

KW - .

U2 - 10.1007/s11119-010-9167-4

DO - 10.1007/s11119-010-9167-4

M3 - Journal article

VL - 12

SP - 179

EP - 195

JO - Precision Agriculture

JF - Precision Agriculture

SN - 1385-2256

ER -