430 Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment, Vol.

9 (3&4), July-October 2011

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Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment Vol.9 (3&4): 430-433. 2011
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Effects of different soil management practices on production and quality of olive
groves in Southern Albania
Bardhosh Ferraj
1
, Zydi Teqja
1
, Lush Susaj
1
, Ndoc Fasllia
2
, Zef Gjeta
2
, Ndoc Vata
1
and Astrit Balliu
1
*
1
Agricultural University of Tirana, Horticultural Department, Koder Kamez, 1029, Tirana, Albania.
2
Ministry of Agricultural
Food and Consumer Protection, Tirana, Albania. *e-mail: aballiu@ubt.edu.al
Abstract
The experiment was conducted in three consecutive years from 2006 to 2008, in Vlora region, south of Albania, in a 25 years old olive grove, planted
with a local cultivar named Kalinjot. The plot was situated in an uniform hill with a sloping gradient of 5 to 6% and a planting density of 200 plants
ha
-1
(7 m7 m). A randomized complete block design (RCBD) with 5 replications and plot size of 245 m
2
containing 11 olive trees was used. The
weather was dry in the summer with a typical Mediterranean distribution of precipitation from autumn to spring, and no irrigation was conducted
throughout the whole experimental period. Several crop management practices were applied: Conventional (no intervention, fallow and grazing),
chemical control (glyphosate and diuron applications) and organic (cover crop and straw mulching). Production of olives per plant (POP), drupe
mean weight (DMW), drupe oil content (DOC) and drupe oil acidity (DOA) were recorded for a 3-year period. The different soil management
practices influenced the olive production per plant and drupe oil content under the rainfed growing conditions. Compared to common conventional
farmer practices, organic soil management practices and chemical control of weeds provided higher yield due to reduced competition of olive tree for
soil water reserves, thanks to reduced number of weeds and improved soil physical properties. Organic mulching and mixed leguminous cover crops
seems to be the most sustainable practices in terms of yearly production and nature preservation.
Key words: Fallow, grazing, organic mulching, leguminous cover crop, weed chemical control, olive drupe production, olive oil quality.
Introduction
Olive tree is considered one of the most important fruit tree to
Albanian economy. It is widely spread and cultivated alongside
Ionian and Adriatic coastline. Albania counts about 5 million olive
trees scattered across 118,639 small agricultural farms. The annual
olive oil production ranges from 5000 to 6000 tons
9
, with revenues
reaching about 30 million, while oil consumption is 2.1 litres per
capita. Kalinjot is the most widespread olive cultivar in Albania,
occupying over 55% of the area under olive trees. Due to the high
environmental adaptability and high oil content, Kalinjot
continues to dominate the variety structure of new olive orchards
in Albania.
Actually farmers are applying quite extensive soil management
practices of olive groves, while obviously better soil management
practices are needed to improve olive growth and productivity.
The soil has to maintain a good structure, allowing roots to explore
the maximum possible volume. It should be well aerated, with
regulated ratios of air and soil water; not too much water to induce
erosion and water logging, and not too little to safeguard the
olive tree functionality, especially during the crucial periods of
plant development and fructification
7
. High-yielding olive trees
develop buds of optimal length, promote flower bud induction,
give a good percentage of fruiting, and stimulate fruit development.
Hence, maintaining good availability of water, nutrients and
carbohydrates during the crop cycle are essential to avoid any
shortfall in bud formation
3
.
Maximal oil yield and quality are key components of oil olive
production that must be maintained if an orchard is to remain
economically viable
5
. In recent years, the greater awareness of
sustainable development in the economic and social sectors was
associated with a growing interest in organic agriculture, which is
defined as a cultivation system that seeks to produce crops of
maximum nutritional quality while respecting the environment and
conserving soil fertility, by means of optimal utilization of local
resources without the application of synthetic chemical
products
2
.
The aim of the present work was to evaluate the effect of the
different types of crop management (conventional, integrated,
and organic) and weed control (tillage, mulching, and herbicide
application) on the yield and production quality of olive orchards.
Materials and Methods
The experiment was conducted in three consecutive years from
2006 to 2008, in Vlora region, south of Albania. The experimental
plot was situated in a 25 years-old orchard, planted with a local
cultivar named Kalinjoti, widespread in Albania and known to
its large environmental adaptability and high oil content. The plot
Received 23 June 2011, accepted 28 September 2011.
Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment, Vol.9 (3&4), July-October 2011
431
was situated in a uniform hill with a sloping gradient of 5 to 6%,
and a planting density of 200 plants ha
-1
(7 m7 m). A randomized
complete block design (RCBD) with 5 replications and plot size of
245 m
2
containing 11 olive trees was used. A sample of 2 randomly
selected olive trees was monitored to collect experimental data.
No irrigation possibilities existed in the plot and no irrigation was
conducted throughout the whole experimental period. The climate
was dry in the summer with a typical Mediterranean distribution
of precipitation from autumn to spring.
Prior the experiment to commence a deep tillage was performed
to unify the soil subsurface, in terms of water permeability, aeration
and weeds population. Further on, several crop management
practices were applied; conventional (control with no intervention,
fallow and grazing), chemical control (glyphosate and diuron
applications) and organic (cover crop and straw mulching).
Conventional practices were adopted as common farmers soil
management practices. In the control variant, no intervention at
all was applied throughout the course of experiment and weeds
were left freely grown. In case of grazing variant, cereals were
sown at end of autumn (25 kg of seeds per hectare), and grazing
was conducted by natural pasturing of 5 sheep/variant from
January to May. The fallow system was conducted and maintained
by mechanical tillage in January at the depth of 17-20 cm, and a
subsequent tillage (15-17 cm) in the end of April or beginning of
May.
Chemical control of weeds was conducted through the
application of respectively glyphosate (Roundup 36), 6 L/ha
diluted in 500 L water, and diuron (Toterban 50), 4 L/ha diluted in
800 L of water. Diuron was spread over the soil after tillage in
January, while glyphosate was spread over vegetation cover
during May, when most of weeds reached 10 cm height.
The cover crop was composed by a mixture of leguminous and
cereal crops (2:1). Plants were seeded in October and foraged as
green grasses in May. Meantime, the organic mulching was
conducted by soil coverage with a 10 cm thick wheat straw. Prior
to mulching the mechanical tillage was conducted in December
and mulching itself was laid down during January. Except of
control (no intervention) and organic mulching where no fertilizers
were used, to the rest of variants a common fertilization program
was adopted as basic dressing. Fertilizers were broadcasted by
hand during January. A common and unified pesticide application
program, also, was applied to all variants to control plant pests
and diseases.
Production of olives per plant (POP), drupe mean weight (DMW),
drupe oil content (DOC) and drupe oil acidity (DOA) were recorded
for a 3-year period. POP was obtained as average per plant by
hand harvesting the drupes from all trees in the sampling area
within each plot. DOC was determined by crushing small olive
samples in a mortar by hand and determination of oil content with
the Soxhlet method and oil acidity by the titration method with
potassium hydroxide (0.1 N KOH). DMW was obtained by
weighing 1000 drupes per sample, while weed density was
expressed by the total number of grasses and small shrubs counted
in a fixed frame (0.5 m0.5 m). Data obtained were subjected to
ANOVA conducted by MSTAT-C. The significance of differences
among mean values was tested by LSD test.
Results and Discussion
Appropriate soil management is essential to enhancing soil quality
and sustaining and improving olive production. Production of
olives per plant (POP) was affected by the soil management
practices and by the years (Tables 1 and 2). Control (no
intervention) and grazing recorded the lowest yield, while there
was meantime a high acidity level. As McGarry
6
noticed, soil
structure degradation is regarded as the most serious form of land
degradation caused by conventional farming practices. Our data
confirms that grazing should be considered as the most
inappropriate method of soil management. Generally speaking, it
seems that conventional land management practices are not
appropriate to optimize water flow into, and its retention within
the root zone of the crop. Thus, it seems that poor yields in such
cases are mostly related to an insufficiency of water conservation.
Organic mulching and fallow practice provided in our case the
highest yield, as well as the lowest rate of drupes acidity. It could
Table 2. Mean values of yield per plant (POP) according to different
soil management practices over years (mean values, different letters
indicate significant difference at P<0.05).
Management Variant Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
No intervention 20.5 ij 25.1 fghij 26.7 efghi
Grazing 19.1 ij 25.9 efghi 26.7 efghi
Conventional
Fallow 31.2 cdef 36.6 abcd 38.7 ab
Glyphosate 24.2 ghij 32.5 bcde 35.4 abcd Chemical control
Diuron 21.9 ij 30.8 cdefg 33.7 abcd
Cover crop 23.8 hij 30.4 defgh 31.0 cdef Organic
Mulching 36.5 abcd 37.5 abc 40 a
Management Variant
Yield
kg/plant
1000 fruit
weight g
Oil content % Fruit acidity %
Weeds
plants/m
2

No intervention 24.1 c 330.2 ab 23.5 1.18 416 a
Grazing 23.9 c 328.1 b 23.5 1.15 182 b
Conventional
Fallow 35.5 ab 346.4 ab 23.4 1.10 115 bc
Glyphosate 30.7 bc 344.5 ab 23.1 1.14 16 c Chemical control
Diuron 28.8 bc 342.6 ab 23.7 1.20 102 bc
Cover crop 28.4 bc 338.4 ab 23.7 1.13 144 bc Organic
Mulching 38.0 a 349.2 a 23.7 1.05 52 bc
Table 1. Mean values of estimated yield and production quality parameters and weeds density according
to different soil management practices (mean values, different letters indicate significant
difference at P<0.05).
432 Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment, Vol.9 (3&4), July-October 2011
be explained with better water availability to olive trees, because
both practices reduced competition from weeds, as well as in case
of mulching reduced evaporation rate. Since, with the exception
of mulching, there was no significant difference among different
crop management practices regarding the average weight of drupes
(Table 1), the production differences per plant are mostly due to
differences regarding the number of fruits settled by the trees.
In our experiments, no significant differences were found among
fallow, cover crop and mulching (Table 1). Anyway, the frequent
tillage which is widely practiced is of doubtful agronomic values
1
.
Since in non-irrigated regions, with low rainfall, soil moisture is of
vital importance, tillage could have a negative effect on soil water,
because by turning the soil, stored water is lost through
evaporation. Continuous tillage can also give rise to a loss of
organic matter and, as a result, can substantially reduce soil fertility
and the ability of the soil to supply nutrients. Obviously, the
management techniques, which imply less machinery needs, would
cause less soil compaction and erosion
8
.
It is well known that the cover crops have direct and indirect
effects on soil properties, particularly on their capacity to promote
an increased biodiversity in the agro-ecosystem. The cover
cropping is the most suitable soil management practice to protect
the soil surface from erosion, to preserve the environment, to
reduce production costs and to enhance the quality of olive oil
2
.
As also Corleto and Cazzato
4
concluded, we found that among
the soil management practices, the use of annual legume species
appears to be more appropriate for soil management than cereal
species or weed cover, with the latter contributing to higher water
consumption and nitrogen uptake. However, cover crops could
compete with olive trees for minerals, water and fertilizer if they
are not well managed.
Considering weeds as strong competitors for water resources it
is of highest importance to evaluate the influence of the different
soil management practices on the composition and density of
weeds
10
. Compared with control (no intervention) all other
methods showed a strong significant effect on the reduction of
total number of weeds. All chemical and organic practices belong
to the same statistical group regarding the total number of weeds,
though it seems that the best results were obtained by the use of
glyphosate. There was evidenced a total action over all weeds
(Trifolium sp.(L.), Sonchus sp. L., Xanthium spinosum (L.),
Heliotropium europaeum (L.), Centaurea solstitialis (L.), Poa
sp. (L.), Cynodon dactylon (Pers.), Bromus sp. (L.) , Agrostis sp.
(L.), Koeleria gracilis (L.)) and shrubs (Rubus ulmifolius (Scot.),
Dittrichia viscosa (L.)), apart from weed Arum italicum (L.), which
was not affected by glyphosate. Even by grazing there was a
significant reduction of weeds, except the fact that shrubs were
not affected at all. Due to that, a gradual increase of shrub
population was evidenced over years. Organic mulching was also
a good option to reduce natural weeds, but one might consider
that wheat straw is used to carry large quantities of seeds of
Triticum, Phalaris, Lilium and other species, which might
contribute to the increase of weed number in olive orchards.
In terms of olive production per plant, chemical control of weeds
provided similar results with cover crop and follow practice.
Obviously the positive effect of herbicides was related with
reduction of weed population and minimizing the competition of
olive trees for water reserves. Anyway, avoiding chemical
herbicides provides a two-fold benefit: the quality of the final
product is superior and the ecological balance is preserved
4
. The
systems which involve an excessively intensive use of herbicides
can expose the soil to severe erosion
1
.
Soil management practice seems to play a role to sustainability
of olive production. Mulching was the best method in terms of
production sustainability. It was the only method that had no
significant difference among years regarding the production per
plant. Despite the trend of gradual increase of production from
the first to the third year, all other methods showed significant
differences among years (Table 2). As a matter of fact, the
differences regarding average weight of olive drupes were less
significant. With the exception of control and grazing, the average
fruit weight cramped to almost the same statistical group for all
management practices and over years (Table 3). This
fact confirms the previous conclusion that differences
on plant production seem to be mostly due to
differences regarding the number of fruits settled.
The influence of soil management practices was
limited in terms of weed population density over years
(Table 4). There were a larger number of weeds in the
second year versus the first one, but it seems to be
due to weed biology and/or weather conditions
(rainfed) rather than the direct effects of soil
management practices. Generally speaking, the
number of weeds was reduced in the third year, but it
remained unchanged in case of grazing, and even
was increased (though not statistically significant)
in case of fallow.
Conclusions
The soil management practices influence the olive
production per plant and drupe oil content under
rainfed growing conditions. Compared to common
conventional farmer practices, organic soil management
practices and chemical control of weeds provide
higher yield due to reduced competition of olive tree
Table 3. Mean values of drupe weight (g) according to different soil
management practices over years (mean values, different letters
indicate significant difference at P<0.05).
Management Variant Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
No intervention 321 d 334.5 bcd 335.1 bcd
Grazing 328.9 cd 334.6 bcd 320.8 d
Conventional
Fallow 345.7 abc 345.3 abc 348.2 abc
Glyphosate 338.4 abcd 342.9 abcd 352.3 ab Chemical control
Diuron 342.4 abcd 340.4 abcd 345.0 abc
Cover crop 333.4 bcd 337.2 abcd 344.6 abc Organic
Mulching 339.6 abcd 348.6 abc 359. 4 a
Table 4. Mean values of weed number (plants/m
2
) according to different
soil management practices over years (mean values, different letters
indicate significant difference at P<0.05).
Management Variant Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
No intervention 296 bc 553 a 400 b
Grazing 183 cd 183 cd 180 cde
Conventional
Fallow 175 cde 68 defgh 102 defgh
Glyphosate 7 h 28 fgh 14 gh Chemical control
Diuron 81 defg 134 defgh 93 defgh
Cover crop 151 defg 158 cdef 124 defgh Organic
Mulching 44 efgh 89 defgh 22 fgh
Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment, Vol.9 (3&4), July-October 2011
433
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for soil water reserves, thanks to reduced number of weeds and
improved soil physical properties. Organic mulching and
leguminous cover crops seem to be the most sustainable practices
in terms of year by year production and nature preservation.