Productive and vegetative response to different irrigation and fertilization strategies of an Arbequina olive orchard grown under super-intensive conditions

• The study was conducted on a super-intensive Arbequina olive orchard.
• Irrigation and N and K fertilization were assayed.
• Productive and vegetative response depended on the three factors.
• Full irrigation led to the highest growth and yield.
• Nitrogen was always effective; potassium effect depended on soil and plant status.

The rise in olive oil consumption in most of the world's leading markets in recent years has forced the producers to seek for ways of increasing the productivity of their olive groves. Intensive and super-intensive orchards allow reducing production costs per liter, but largely depend on water and fertilizer supplies. Since olive is traditionally cultivated in regions where water is a scarce resource, stating the optimal irrigation doses for vegetative and productive response is essential. In this piece of work, super-intensive Arbequina tree behavior was found to be affected by water, nitrogen and potassium availability. Full irrigation led to the highest vegetative growth and yield, while reducing water supply to 25% of the needs from July to September 10th resulted in lower growth and in a yield reduction of 9.6% in the most productive year. Reducing also the water supply to 70% of the needs during the rest of the year (but using subsurface drip irrigation) resulted in an even lower productive response. Nitrogen fertilization had a straight effect on enhancing productivity, but potassium was only useful if soil and tree reserves had been depleted.