Long-term studies on ground management in rainfed olive orchards
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abstract
Two decades of research on soil management in rainfed
olive graves, encompassing four experimental ftelds,
one of which took eighteen years of continuous assessment,
allowed comparative evaluation of severa! treatments
including conventional tillage, residual herbicides,
post-emergence herbicides, covers of natural vegetation
(fertilized and unfertilized), sown covers managed as
green manures and incorporated into the soil, or shredded
and kept in the ground as a mulch, and sown covers
of self-reseeding pasture legumes. This series of studies
allowed showing that a better contrai of the herbaceous
vegetation improves olive growth and yield and a greater
development of the herbaceous vegetation improves severa!
indicators of the soil fertility, which creates a great
ambiguity. However, a large set of advantages comes
from the use of early-season self-reseeding annual legumes.
These plants presenta very short growing cycle and
develop asynchronously with the trees (in winter, during
the resting period of olive), showing reduced competition
for water, allowing high productivity even in rainfed conditions.
Additionally, they protect the soil from erosion ali
year round, with live vegetation during winter anda mulch
of dead vegetation during the summer, improve soil fertility,
including the increase of soil organic matter, and are
able to ftx nitrogen improving the nitrogen nutritional state
of the trees.
