Seasonal Variation of Soil Moisture in Irrigated Olive Trees

Olive growing counts as one of the most significant agricultural activities in Greece, from a financial, social and ecological point of view. Modern olive culture often includes exhaustive use of the available water resources having as a result adverse effects for production cost and the environment. This paper evaluates seasonal soil moisture content at three different soil depths (10, 30, 40 cm), in relation with rainfall and irrigation in an olive cultivar “Kalamon” orchard. Our results indicate strong variation of soil moisture as affected by season and irrigation. In addition, the role of drip-irrigation on soil moisture content appears to be more significant at soil depths up to 30 cm compared to lower soil zones. Specifically, at soil depth of 40 cm the soil moisture curves close to irrigation lines seems to coincide compared to these far away from the irrigation line.