Meri-Rastilantie 3 B. FI-00980 Helsinki, Finland e-mail: info@world-food.net Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment Vol.9 (3&4): 430-433. 2011 www.world-t: \X/ Effects of different soil management practices on production and quality of oli\ t groves in Southern Albania Bardhosh Ferraj \ Zydi Teqja \ Lush Susaj \ Ndoc Fasllia 2 , Zef Gjeta 2 , Ndoc Vata 1 and Astrit Bali _ Agricultural University of Tirana, Horticultural Department, Koder Kamez, 1029, Tirana, Albania. 2 Ministry of Agricvk Food and Consumer Protection, Tirana, Albania. *e-mail: aballiu@ubt.edu.al Received 23 June 2011, accepted 28 September 2011. Abstract Theexperiment was conducted in threeconsecutiveyears from2006 to 2008, in Vloraregion, south of Albania, in a25 years old olivegrove | with alocal cultivar named Kalinjot. Theplot was situated in an uniformhill with asloping gradient of 5 to 6% and aplanting density of I ha 1 (7 mx7 m). A randomized completeblock design (RCBD) with 5 replications and plot sizeof 245 m 2 containing 11 olivetrees was weather was dry in the summer with atypical Mediterranean distribution of precipitation fromautumn to spring, and no irrigation was c throughout thewholeexperimental period. Several crop management practices were applied: Conventional (no intervention, fallow anc en chemical control (glyphosate and diuron applications) and organic (cover crop and straw mulching). Production of olives per plant (POP| mean weight (DMW), drupe oil content (DOC) and drupe oil acidity (DOA) were recorded for a 3-year period. The different soil i practices influenced theoliveproduction per plant and drupeoil content under therainfed growing conditions. Compared to common co farmer practices, organic soil management practices and chemical control of weeds provided higher yield dueto reduced competition of olh e1 soil water reserves, thanks to reduced number of weeds and improved soil physical properties. Organic mulching and mixed leguminous ( seems to bethemost sustainablepractices in terms of yearly production and nature preservation. Key words: Fallow, grazing, organic mulching, leguminous cover crop, weed chemical control, olivedrupeproduction, oliveoil quality. yf Introduction Olive tree is considered owe of the most important frui t tree to I onian and Adriatic coastline. Albaniacounts about 5 million olive trees scattered across 118,639 small agricultural farms. The annual oliveoil production ranges from5000 to 6000 tons 9 , with revenues reaching about 30 million, whileoil consumption is 2.1 litres per capita. 'Kalinjot' is themost widespread olivecultivar in Albania, occupying over 55% of theareaunder olivetrees. Dueto the high envi ronmental adaptability and hi gh oil content, 'Kal i nj ot' continues to dominatethevariety structureof new olive orchards in Albania. Actually farmers areapplying quiteextensive soil management practices of olivegroves, whileobviously better soil management practices are needed to improve olive growth and productivity. Thesoil has to maintain agood structure, allowing roots to explore the maxi mum possible volume. It should be well aerated, wi t h regulated ratios of air and soil water; not too much water 10 induce erosion and water logging, and not too little to saf eguard the olive tree functionality, especially during the cni ci al pen :o> : f plant development and fructification 7 . High-yi el di ng : . -1 -re- develop buds of optimal length, promote f l ower byd - ~ giveagood percentageof fruiting, and stimulatefrail dei ci apanC. Hence, maintaining good availability of waier. ~_ - r ~: i re 430 e'diboVrydvates dvxrmg the crop rae essential to mzi Maximal oil yield and quality arekey components of oil nl production that must be maintained if an orchard is to economically viable 5 . In recent years, the greater awareness] sustainable development in the economic and social sector-1 associated with agrowing interest in organic agriculture, wi defined as a cultivation system that seeks to produce croc* | maximumnutritional quality whilerespecting theenvironmeii i conserving soil fertility, by means of optimal utilization of W| resources wi thout the appl i cati on of syntheti c chemi l products 2 . The aimof the present work was to evaluate the effect of I different types of crop management (conventional, i ntegrai and organic) and weed control (tillage, mulching, and hei bkj application) on theyield and production quality of olive orcha^ Materials and Methods The experiment was conducted in three consecutive years fr: 1 X - :e 2008. in Vloraregion, south of Albania. The experimes r ;: \\ i s situated in a 25 years-old orchard, planted with a c _ : IT named 'Kalinjoti', widespread in Albania and kno^r ->argeenvironmental adaptability and high oil content. The f F xxl Agriculture& Environment, Vol.9 (3&4), J uly-October J i situated in auniformhill with a sloping gradient of 5 :: - ' aplanting density of200 plants ha" 1 (7 mx7 m). Arandami zec leteblock design (RCBD) with 5 replications and plot size ;: ; m : containing 11 olivetrees was used. A sampleof 2 randomh :ted olive trees was monitored to collect experimental da:^. irrigation possibilities existed in theplot and no irrigation v* zs ucted throughout thewholeexperimental period. The climate dry in the summer with atypical Mediterranean distribution precipitation fromautumn to spring. Prior theexperiment to commence adeep tillagewas performed fy thesoil subsurface, in terms of water permeability, aeration weeds population. Further on, several crop management ces wereapplied; conventional (control with no intervention, and grazing), chemical control (glyphosate and diuron cations) and organic (cover crop and straw mulching). Conventional practices were adopted as common farmer's soil agement practices. In the control variant, no intervention at is applied throughout the course of experiment and weeds left freely grown. In case of grazing variant, cereals were at end of autumn (25 kg of seeds per hectare), and grazing conducted by natural pasturing of 5 sheep/variant from ry to May. Thefallow systemwas conducted and maintained nechani cal tillage in J anuary at the depth of 17-20 cm, and a quent tillage (15-17 cm) in the end of April or beginning of Chemical control of weeds was conducted through the ration of respectively glyphosate (Roundup 36), 6 L/ha 1 in 500 L water, and diuron (Toterban 50), 4 L/hadiluted in 1 of water. Diuron was spread over the soil after tillage in ry, while glyphosate was spread over vegetation cover - May, when most of weeds reached 10 cmheight, cover crop was composed by amixture of leguminous and crops (2:1). Plants were seeded in October and foraged as grasses in May. Meanti me, the organic mul chi ng was ted by soil coveragewith a 10 cmthick wheat straw. Prior ching the mechanical tillage was conducted in December -ni chi ng itself was laid down during J anuary. Except of ni rol (no intervention) and organic mulching whereno fertilizers % ere :o therest of variants acommon fertilization program u i r .ed as basic dressing. Fertilizers were broadcasted by hsn d during J anuary. 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), drupemean weight (DM W), drupeoil content (DOC) and drupeoil acidity (DOA) were recorded for a 3-year period. POP was obtained as average per plant by hand harvesting the drupes fromall trees in the sampling area within each plot. DOC was determined by crushing small olive samples in amortar by hand and determination of oil content with the Soxhlet method and oil acidity by the titration method with potassi um hydroxide (0.1 N KOH). DMW was obtained by wei ghi ng 1000 drupes per sample, whi l e weed density was expressed by thetotal number of grasses and small shrubs counted in a fixed frame(0.5 mx0.5 m). Data obtained were subjected to ANOVA conducted by MSTAT-C. Thesignificanceof 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 practi ces and by the years (Tabl es 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 themost serious formof land degradation caused by conventional farming practices. Our data confi rms that grazi ng shoul d be consi dered 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, \\ seems that poor yields in such cases aremostly related to an insufficiency of water conservation. Organic mulching and fallow practice provided in our case the highest yield, as well as thelowest rateof drupe's acidity. It could 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 differenceat P<0.05). nent nonal i\ control 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 416a Grazing 23.9 c 328.1 b 23.5 1.15 182 b Fallow 35.5 ab 346.4 ab 23.4 1.10 115 be Glyphosate 30.7 be 344.5 ab 23.1 1.14 16c 28.8 be 342.6 ab 23.7 1.20 102 be Cover crop 28.4 be 338.4 ab 23.7 1.13 Mulching 38.0 a 349.2 a 23.7 1.05 52 be 2. Mean val ues of yi el d per pl ant (POP) accordi ng to di fferent soil management practices over years (mean values, different letters indicate significant differenceat P<0.05). nent tional I control 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 Fallow 31.2 cdef 36.6 abed 38.7 ab Glyphosate 24.2 ghij 32.5 bede 35.4 abed Diuron 21.9 ij 30.8 cdefg 33.7 abed Cover crop 23.8 hij 30.4 defgh 31.0 cdef Mulching 36.5 abed 37.5 abc 40 a of Food, Agriculture& Environment, Vol.9 (3&4), J uly-October 2011 431 be explained with better water availability to olivetrees, because both practices reduced competition fromweeds, as well as in case of mulching reduced evaporation rate. Since, with the exception of mulching, therewas no significant differenceamong different crop management practices regarding theaverageweight of drupes (Table 1), theproduction differences per plant are mostly due to differences regarding the number of fruits settled by the trees. In our experiments, no significant differences werefound among fallow, cover crop and mulching (Table 1). Anyway, the frequent tillagewhich is widely practiced is of doubtful agronomic values 1 . Sincein non-irrigated regions, with low rainfall, soil moistureis of vital importance, tillagecould haveanegativeeffect on soil water, because by turni ng the soil, stored water is lost through evaporation. Continuous tillage can also give rise to a loss of organic matter and, as aresult, can substantially reducesoil 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 themost suitable soil management practiceto protect the soil surface from erosion, to preserve the environment, to reduce production costs and to enhance the quality of olive oi l 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 thelatter contributing to higher water consumption and nitrogen uptake. However, cover crops could compete with olive trees for minerals, water and fertilizer if they arenot well managed. Considering weeds as strong competitors for water resources it is of highest importance to evaluate theinfluenceof thedifferent 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 Table 3. Mean val ues of drupe wei ght (g) accordi ng to di fferent soil management practices over years (mean values, different letters indicate significant differenceat P<0.05). Management Variant Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Conventional No intervention 321 d 334.5 bed 335.1 bed Grazing 328.9 cd 334.6 bed 320.8 d Fallow 345.7 abc 345.3 abc 348.2 abc Chemical control Glyphosate 338.4 abed 342.9 abed 352.3 ab Diuron 342.4 abed 340.4 abed 345.0 abc Organic Cover crop 333.4 bed 337.2 abed 344.6 abc Mulching 339.6 abed 348.6 abc 359.4 a Table 4. Mean val ues of weed number (pl ants/m 2 ) accordi ng to di fferent soil management practices over years (mean values, different letters indicate significant differenceat P<0.05). total number of weeds. All chemical and organic prac~ to thesame statistical group regarding thetotal number though it seems that the best results were obtained by glyphosate. There was evidenced a total action over i (Trifolium sp.(L.), Sonchus sp. L., Xanthium spr Heliotropium europaeum (L.), Centaurea solstitial^ sp. (L.), Cynodon dactylon (Pers.), Bromus sp. (L.), A* (L.), Koeleria gracilis (L.)) and shrubs(Rubus ulmifol: Dittrichia viscosa (L.)), apart fromweedAram italicum \ L was not affected by glyphosate. Even by grazing tfeers significant reduction of weeds, except the fact that sh not affected at all. Due to that, a gradual increase population was evidenced overyears. Organic mulching a good option to reduce natural weeds, but one mighi that wheat straw is used to carry large quantities of Triticum, Phalaris, Lilium and other species, whi ci contribute to the increase of weed number in olive ore In terms of oliveproduction per plant, chemical control provided similar results with cover crop and follow Obviously the positive effect of herbicides was rel att: reduction of weed population and minimizing the com - olive trees for water reserves. Anyway, avoi di ng c herbicides provides a two-fold benefit: the quality of die product is superior and the ecological balance is preserve: systems which involve an excessively intensiveuseof he can expose the soil to severe erosion 1 . Soil management practice seems to play aroleto sust~ of olive production. Mulching was the best method in t production sustainability. It was the only method that significant differenceamong years regarding the produc plant. Despite the trend of gradual increase of production the first to the third year, all other methods showed sign di fferences among years (Table 2). As a matter of f att differences regarding average weight of olive drupes were significant. With theexception of control and grazing, the a\ fruit weight cramped to almost the same statistical group management practices and over years (Table5 fact confirms theprevious conclusion that di ffa on pl ant producti on seem to be mostl y d differences regarding thenumber of fruits se~ The influence of soil management practices limited in terms of weed population density over (Table4). Therewerealarger number of weeds second year versus the first one, but it seems due to weed bi ol ogy and/or weather cond: (rai nfed) rather than the di rect effects of management practi ces. General l y speaking, number of weeds was reduced in thethird year, remained unchanged in case of grazing, and was increased (though not statistically signifi in caseof fallow. Management Variant Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Conventional No intervention 296 be 553 a 400 b Grazing 183 cd 183 cd 180 cde Fallow 175 cde 68 defgh 102 defgh Chemical control Glyphosate 7 h 28 fgh 14 gh Diuron 81 defg 154 defgh 93 defgh Organic Cover crop 151 defg 158 cdef 124 defgh Mulching 44 efgfa 89 defgh 22 fgh Conclusions The soil management practices influence the production per plant and drupe oil content rainfed growing conditions. Compared to co conventional fanner practices, organic soil manag practices and chemical control of weeds prof higher yield dueto reduced competition of olive 432 J ournal of Food, Agriculture& Environment, Vol.9 (3&4), J uly-October soil water reserves, thanks to reduced number of w eeds and proved soil physical properties. Organi c mul chi ng and .iminous cover crops seemto bethemost sustainable practices :erms of year by year production and nature preservation. References ufoy, G. 2001. 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