MANAGEMENT OF THE LEVEL AND DURATION OF WATER DEFICIT IN DIFFERENT PHENOLOGICAL STAGES IN OLIVE AND PISTACHIO TREES IN ORDER TO IMPROVE THE FRUIT FUNCTIONALITY AND FLAVOUR

Project information
"THIS SUBPROJECT WILL BE WORKING IN THE DEFICIT WATER MANAGEMENT BASED ON PLANT MEASUREMENTS OF TWO FRUIT CROPS VERY IMPORTANT IN THE MEDITERRANEAN BASIN. IN THE LAST TWO DECADES, THE RESEARCH WORKS RELATE WITH IRRIGATION SCHEDULING BASED ON PLANT MEASUREMENTS HAVE BEEN STRONGLY INCREASED. HOWEVER, THERE ARE A FEW ARTICLES IN WHICH DEFICIT IRRIGATION WAS SCHEDULED ONLY WITH TOOLS THAT USE THESE TECHNIQUES. FOR INSTANCE, IN OLIVE TREES THERE ARE ONLY THREE PAPERS AND TWO OF THEM HAVE BEEN PUBLISHED FOR OUR RESEARCH GROUP. THE INDICATOR SELECTED FOR THE EXPERIMENTS IS THE MIDDAY STEM WATER POTENTIAL. SUCH ELECTION IS NOT TRIVIAL BECAUSE, THOUGH IT IS NOT A CONTINUOUS INDICATOR, THE EASY INTERPRETATION AND LOW COST WILL PERMIT A BETTER TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER TO GROWERS THAN CONTINUOUS SENSORS. THE OBJECTIVES TO THIS SUBPROJECT ARE: (I) CONTROL OF THE CONDITIONS OF WATER STRESS (DURATION AND LEVEL) IN PHENOLOGICAL PERIODS NON CRITICAL TO THE CROP IN ORDER TO OBTAIN DIFFERENTIATED PRODUCTS.(II) MANAGEMENT OF MODERATE WATER DEFICIT CONDITIONS IN PHENOLOGICAL STATES CRITICAL TO THE CROP IN ORDER TO OBTAIN DIFFERENTIATED PRODUCTS.(III) DETERMINATION OF NEW CRITERIA FOR EVALUATING WATER DEFICIT AS A WAY OF PREDICTING THE ACCUMULATION OF COMPOUNDS RELATED TO FUNCTIONALITY OF OLIVES. THE EXPERIMENTS WILL BE PERFORMED IN OLIVE AND PISTACHIO TREES. THE RESEARCH WORKS OF THIS TOPIC IN BOTH FRUIT CROPS IS VERY DIFFERENT. IN OLIVE TREES, THERE ARE SEVERAL SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES PUBLISHED AND, EVEN, COMPANIES WHICH ARE WORKING WITH THE PRESSURE CHAMBER TECHNIQUE TO CONSULT THE IRRIGATION SCHEDULING. BUT IN PISTACHIO TREES, WITH LOWER AMOUNT OF SCIENTIFIC WORKS, THERE ARE ONLY PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENTS. THEREFORE, THE NUMBER OF EXPERIMENTS PROPOSED AND THE FINAL RESULTS IS GREATER IN OLIVE THAN IN PISTACHIO. ON BOTH FRUIT CROPS THE SUBPROJECT WILL INCLUDE THE DURATION AND LEVEL OF WATER STRESS. WE HYPOTHESIZED THAT WHEN BOTH ELEMENTS ARE CONSIDERED THE WATER DEFICIT IS MORE ACCURATE. SUCH INCREASE IN THE ACCURACY WILL PERMIT THE WATER DEFICIT EVEN IN SENSITIVE PHENOLOGICAL STAGES IN WHICH A REDUCTION IN YIELD QUANTITY AND/OR QUALITY IS POSSIBLE. THEREFORE, SOME OF THE EXPERIMENTS WILL BE PERFORMED IN VERY DROUGHT RESISTANT PHENOLOGICAL STAGES, SUCH AS MASSIVE PIT HARDENING IN OLIVE TREES, OR IN SENSITIVE, SUCH AS KERNEL GROWTH IN PISTACHIO TREES. THIS APPROACH WILL PERMIT LIKELY TO OBTAIN DIFFERENCES IN THE FLAVOUR OR FUNCTIONALITY OF THE COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS. IN ADDITION, THE SUBPROJECT ALSO CONSIDERED THE EXTRAPOLATION OF THRESHOLD VALUES AND APPROACH SUGGESTED. FOR THIS REASON, ONLY IN OLIVE TREES, 5 DIFFERENT EXPERIMENTAL ORCHARDS IN 3 LOCATIONS HAVE BEEN CONSIDERED (CIUDAD REAL, CORIA DEL RIO (SEVILLA) AND MORON DE LA FRONTERA (SEVILLA)). FINALLY, THIS SUBPROJECT WILL EVALUATE THE IRRIGATION EFFECT IN THE INDUSTRIAL PROCESS. IN OLIVE OIL THE INDUSTRIAL EFFICIENCY WILL BE MEASURED. IN PISTACHIO TREES THE PERCENTAGE OF SPLIT NUTS WILL BE OBSERVED. IN TABLE OLIVE, THE INFLUENCE IN THE FERMENTATION PROCESS WILL BE MONITORED. ALL THE COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS (OIL, TABLE OLIVE AND PISTACHIO) WILL BE SEND TO SUBPROJECT 2 IN ORDER TO EVALUATE THE FUNCTIONALITY AND SENSORY QUALITY. "
Project partners: 
UNIVERSIDAD DE SEVILLA
Project dates: 
January 2014 to December 2016
Contact project
Funding
Funding agency: 
Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad.