Horticultural performance of 23 Sicilian olive genotypes in hedgerow systems: Vegetative growth, productive potential and oil quality

The super high density (SHD) model is a new olive growing system characterized by earlier and higher yields, fully mechanized harvesting and reduced orchard management costs. Until recently all commercial SHD orchards were planted primarily with three varieties: ‘Arbequina’, ‘Arbosana’ and ‘Koroneiki’. To increase variety diversity, broaden available olive oil chemical and organoleptic profiles, and olive oils for marketing, minor local varieties should be evaluated for adaptability to the SHD system. This study compares multiple Sicilian native genotypes to the three current cultivars ‘Arbequina’, ‘Arbosana’ and ‘Koroneiki’. The cumulative fruit and oil production, trunk-cross section area, canopy volume, alternate bearing behavior and oil quality were evaluated in a SHD system. Among the standard cultivars ‘Koroneiki’ had significantly higher and ‘Arbequina’ average productivity respectively compared to earlier reports and was chosen as the reference for evaluating the performance of the Sicilian genotypes. Many of the genotypes investigated had olive and oil yields equal to or higher than ‘Arbequina’ ‘Abunara’ and ‘ADE’ had very high productivity. ‘Abunara’ produced a medium-high quality oil. The ‘KALAT’ selection had high productivity and low vigor, and therefore high productive efficiency. However, the oil polyphenols were low. The ‘Cerasuola’ and ‘Piricuddara’ cultivars had good productivity and a very high quality oils. These results confirm the need to evaluate and preserve local genetic resources as a strategy for improving SHD olive management and increasing olive cultivar and oil diversity.