Vol.4, No.8, 376-381 (2013) Agricultural Sciences
http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/as.2013.48054
Sprouts seasonal elongation of two olive cultivars in
a high-density orchard
G. Strippoli1, G. A. Vivaldi1, S. Camposeo1*, F. Contò2
1Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of Bari Aldo Moro Via Amendola, Bari, Italy;
*Corresponding Author:
2Department of Economics, University of Foggia Largo Papa Giovanni, Foggia, Italy
Received 21 May 2013; revised 22 June 2013; accepted 15 July 2013
Copyright © 2013 G. Strippoli et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
ABSTRACT
The new high-density cropping systems (>1200
trees ha−1) represent a very interesting proposal
for olive orchard profitability. It is crucial to
know the morphology and the dynamics of
sprout elongation of a cultivar in order to fully
assess its suitability for a high-density olive
orchard. For this reason we planned a research
on two cultivars, Coratina and Arbequina, in a
high-density orchard. The apical sprouts elon-
gation of Arbequina early stopped at fruit set
without a further step, while Coratina showed a
little growth flux after pit hardening. Similar
trends showed the lateral proleptic sprouts.
Only the sylleptic sprouts of both cultivars had a
second period of activity. In all cases, the
sprouts elongation finished at the end of sum-
mer, when oil accumulation started. Coratina
showed higher apical shoot growth and inter-
nodes mean length than Arbequina. On the con-
trary, Coratina showed lower lateral proleptic
shoot growth and nodes number than Arbequina,
but the same internodes mean length. No sig-
nificant differences were observed between cul-
tivars for growth, nodes number and internodes
mean length of sylleptic shoots. The differences
observed between the two cultivars could be
explained considering their different vigour. The
introduction of this innovative cropping system
is allowed to register a considerable reduction
of production costs. The result is a considerable
increase in the economic performance of the
olive grove and a consequent reduction in the
unit cost for kg of oil. These data are very useful
for varietal choice and field management in
high-density orchards and then for new olive
breeding programs.
Keywords: Arbequina; Coratina; Proleptic Axis;
Sylleptic Axis; Growth Flux
1. INTRODUCTION
Today the millennial olive tree cultivation all over the
world can be defined in a change of epoch: it tends
quickly to move from traditional low-density (<200 trees
per hectare) to modern medium-density cropping sys-
tems (300 - 400 trees per hectare) and overall to new
high-density cropping systems (>1200 trees per hectare),
which represent a very interesting proposal for olive or-
chard profitability [1]. The high-density cropping sys-
tems are characterized by strong reduction of production
costs thanks to total mechanization, from planting to har-
vesting [2]. Cost reduction allows you to make new com-
petitive companies with production facilities archaic. The
improvement of productivity is fundamental in contexts
that are now confronted with major international chal-
lenges, and the cost containment is essential for the sur-
vival of the farm. This cost reduction must then neces-
sarily be accompanied by sustainable production policies
as now required from Europe and from the market [3].
The high-density cropping systems are based on early
bearing (3rd year from planting), yield stabilization start-
ing from 5th - 6th years from planting (8 - 10 t per hectare
per year) with very negligible alternate bearing and con-
tinuous harvesting [1,4].
Several physiological and agronomic aspects are al-
ready started to be studied for high-density olive or-
chards: light interception [5], soil management [6], irri-
gation [7, 8], harvesting time [9]. Moreover, in the lit-
erature some vegetative and productive parameters are
considered in order to assess the varietal response since
considerable differences are observed among different
cultivars, mainly depending on both growth habit and
vigour [1,2,4, 10]. In fact the benefit of these new sys-
tems mainly depends on the availability of cultivars with

G. Strippoli et al. / Agricultural Sciences 4 (2013) 376-381 377
compact habit and slow canopy growth, owned by Ar-
bequina and Arbosana, two Spanish cultivars on which
these systems were calibrated up to now [2]. It is crucial
to know the morphology and the dynamics of sprout
elongation of an olive cultivated genotype in order to
fully assess its suitability for a high-density olive orchard.
The first one to define and introduce the study of plant
morphology was Goethe, the famous German writer [11].
It has long been accepted that the plants are modular
organisms that develop through repetition of elementary
botanical entity, continually subject to change during
ontogeny [12]. The study of the plant architecture has
been developed as a new scientific discipline about 40
years ago, coming from the earlier works on plant mor-
phology [13]. At first, plant architecture investigations
have focused on canopy analysis of the tropical species
[14]; then these concepts were applied on temperate for-
estry tree species [15,16] and only more recently on fruit
tree species, such as apple [17], apricot [18], and peach
[19]. Although the architecture of some plants consists in
single vegetative axis, most of the tree species show a
more complex architectture, composed of several axes
(sprouts, shoots, branches) one derived from the other by
means of a repetitive process known as branching [20].
In particular, according to the time of woody bud break-
ing on the shoot, two types of axis can be distinguished:
proleptic if they come from resting buds and sylleptic if
they derive from steady buds [21]. Analysis of shoots
vegetative growth and modelling growth dynamics of
olive tree (Olea europaea L. var. sativa Hoffm. and Lk.)
is very recent, but made in arid areas under low and
very-low densities and rainfed cropping systems [22,23].
Considering that sprouts are the fundamental units for
both yield load and vegetative growth of an olive tree
[24], the aim of our research was to study the seasonal
elongation of all types of sprouts (apical, lateral proleptic
and sylleptic) on a olive shoot in order to highlight dif-
ferent varietal behaviours under high-density irrigated
conditions.
2. MATERIALS AND METHODS
The study was carried out in the olive grove located at
the experimental farm of the Department of Agricultural
and Environmental Sciences at Valenzano (Bari, South-
ern Italy—41˚01'N; 16˚45'E; 110 m a.s.l.), on a sandy
clay soil (sand, 630 g·kg−1; silt, 160 g·kg−1; clay, 210
g·kg−1) classified as a Typic Haploxeralf (USDA) or
Chromi-Cutanic Luvisol (FAO). The site is characterised
by a typical Mediterranean climate, with a long-term
average annual rainfall of 560 mm, two third concen-
trated from autumn to winter, and a long-term average
annual temperature of 15.6˚C. The olive grove has been
planted in 2006 with self-rooted plants; the trees were
trained according to the central leader system and spaced
4.0 m × 1.5 m (1667 trees ha−1) with a North-South rows
orientation, according to the Spanish high-density crop-
ping system. Props, drip irrigation and routine cultural
practices (nutrition, pruning, disease control) were set up
as already described [1,4]. The study was conducted on
two cultivars: Arbequina, on which the high-density sys-
tem was calibrated, and Coratina, the most important
traditional Apulian olive cultivated variety [25]. The
measurements were carried out in 2009, 2010 and 2011,
respectively at 5th, 6th and 7th years after plantation. A
randomized block experimental design was adopted: for
each cultivar the measurements have been replicated on 3
blocks of 3 plants and the observations were carried out
on all plants of each block. Before woody bud breaking,
two healthy well light-exposed shoots per tree (E-W)
were labelled (18 shoots per cultivar) in the middle part
of the crown. The shoots were homogeneous, with 25 -
30 cm in length and 15 - 20 nodes as mean. After woody
buds breaking, the length of the sprouts issued by the
apical bud and by lateral buds, both proleptic and syllep-
tic, and the nodes number were measured fortnightly on
each labelled shoot. At the end of the vegetative season,
the total length and the total nodes number of the new
shoots on each labelled shoot were determined. In this
work we did not separate sylleptic sprouts coming from
the apical or the lateral sprouts.
For each cultivar seasonal data were statistically
treated by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) fol-
lowed by post hoc testing (Tukey post hoc test) using the
R 2.15.0 software (R Foundation for Statistical Comput-
ing); standard error (SE) was also calculated. For detect
statistical differences between the two cultivars at each
measurement time t test was adopted.
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1. Apical Sprouts Elongation
In all years, apical woody buds expanding began in the
early spring (80 - 90 DOY), while lateral proleptic and
sylleptic buds breaking started few weeks after (110 -
120 DOY), just before full blooming (130 - 140 DOY),
without any difference between the cultivars (Figures
1-3). A general model of olive tree sprouts elongation
provides for two periods of activity: the major one occurs
during spring before blooming and the second one, less
important, occurs during early autumn separated by a
summer rest [26]. Our data differ from this general
model and statistical differences among sprouts type and
between cultivars were observed. Indeed the apical
sprouts elongation of Arbequina early stopped at fruit set
(150 - 160 DOY) without a further step, while Coratina
showed a little growth flux after pit hardening (190 - 230
DOY) better following the general model (Figure 1).

G. Strippoli et al. / Agricultural Sciences 4 (2013) 376-381
378
Figure 1. Seasonal growth trend of apical sprouts of the Arbequina and Coratina cultivars (2009-
2011 mean values, ± SE p ≤ 0.01 n = 54). The letters denote statistical differences among different
times within each cultivar (Tukey test, p ≤ 0.05). The symbols on the x-axis denote statistical
differences between the cultivars at each time (t test, **p ≤ 0.01, *p ≤ 0.05).
3.2. Lateral Sprouts Elongation Table 1. Growth, nodes number and internodes mean length of
apical, lateral proleptic and sylleptic shoots of the Arbequina
and Coratina cultivars at the end of vegetative season (2009-
2011 mean values, ± standard error; t test, **p ≤ 0.01, *p ≤ 0.05,
n.s. = not significant).
Similar trends showed the lateral proleptic sprouts
(Figure 2). Only the sylleptic sprouts of Arbequina and
Coratina had a second period of activity (Figure 3). In
all cases, the sprouts elongation finished at the end of
summer (255 DOY) when oil accumulation started. In-
deed during this last period, when daily temperatures
decrease, there is a strong competition between the nutri-
tional resources allocated to the vegetative organs and
those ones allocated to fruits [27,28]. In the high-density
orchard no sprouts elongation was ever observed in au-
tumn: it disagree with what commonly reported in more
arid Mediterranean climate especially for medium- low
densities cropping systems [22,23].
cv. Arbequina cv. Coratinat test
Apical
Growth (cm) 5.5 ± 0.6 8.0 ± 0.8 **
Nodes (n) 5.5 ± 0.5 6.0 ± 0.4 n.s.
Internodes mean length (mm)10.0 ± 0.1 13.3 ± 0.7 **
Lateral proleptic
Growth (cm) 4.4 ± 0.4 3.4 ± 0.4 *
Nodes (n) 4.1 ± 0.3 3.1 ± 0.2 **
Internodes mean length (mm)10.7 ± 2 11.0 ± 2 n.s.
Lateral sylleptic
Growth (cm) 4.0 ± 0.5 4.0 ± 0.7 n.s.
Nodes (n) 3.6 ± 0.4 3.1 ± 0.4 n.s.
Internodes mean length (mm)11.0 ± 3 12.9 ± 5 n.s.
3.3. Shoots Growth
In Table 1 growth, nodes number and internodes mean
length of apical, lateral proleptic and sylleptic shoots of
the Arbequina and Coratina cultivars at the end of vege-
tative season (300 DOY) are reported. Coratina showed
higher apical shoot growth and internodes mean length
than Arbequina (8.0 cm vs 5.5 cm and 13.3 mm vs 10.0
mm, respectively), but the same nodes number (5.5 - 6.0).
On the contrary, Coratina showed lower lateral proleptic
shoot growth and nodes number than Arbequina (3.4 cm
vs 4.4 cm and 3.1 vs 4.1, respectively), but the same
internodes mean length (11 mm). No significant differ-

G. Strippoli et al. / Agricultural Sciences 4 (2013) 376-381 379
Figure 2. Seasonal growth trend of lateral proleptic sprouts of the Arbequina and Coratina cultivars
(2009-2011 mean values, ± SE p ≤ 0.01 n = 54). The letters denote statistical differences among
different times within each cultivar (Tukey test, p ≤ 0.05). The symbols on the x-axis denote statistical
differences between the cultivars at each time (t test, ***p ≤ 0.001, *p ≤ 0.05, n.s. = not significant).
Figure 3. Seasonal growth trend of sylleptic sprouts of the Arbequina and Coratina cultivars (2009-
2011 mean values, ± SE p ≤ 0.01 n = 54). The letters denote statistical differences among different
times within each cultivar (Tukey test, p ≤ 0.05). The symbols on the x-axis denote statistical
differences between the cultivars at each time (t test, n.s. = not significant).

G. Strippoli et al. / Agricultural Sciences 4 (2013) 376-381
380
ences were observed between Coratina and Arbequina
for growth, nodes number and internodes mean length of
sylleptic shoots (4.0 cm, 3.1 - 3.6, 12.9 - 11.5 mm, re-
spectively).
As shoot development was the result of the two com-
plementary phases, known as organogenesis and disten-
sion [29], consequently in the climatic and cultural con-
ditions under study these phases should be in general
concentrated and sped up in spring, particularly for the cv.
Arbequina.
At all measurement times, Coratina showed ever sig-
nificant higher apical sprouts growth values with respect
to those ones of Arbequina (Figure 1). On the contrary,
Arbequina showed significant higher lateral proleptic
sprouts elongations with respect to those ones of Corat-
ina, except for the first two times (Figure 2). Finally, no
different sylleptic sprouts growth values were observed
between the cultivars at all measurement times (Figure
3).
The differences observed between the two cultivars
could be explained considering their different vigour,
already stated in the literature: Coratina is a cultivated
variety with a medium vigour, while Arbequina is a low-
vigour genotype [1,2,4].
4. CONCLUSION
These are the first data on seasonal elongation of all
types of sprouts (apical, lateral proleptic and sylleptic) on
an olive shoot under high-density irrigated conditions.
The introduction of this innovative cropping system al-
lows a considerable reduction of production costs. In
traditional olive groves most of the production costs are
definitely linked to the farming operations carried out
manually. These operations are fully removed in this
context as performed by continuous machines response-
ble for the management of the olive. The result is a con-
siderable increase in the economic performance of the
olive grove and a consequent reduction in the unit cost
for kg of oil [30]. These data are very useful first of all
for varietal choice and field management, such as fertili-
zation and pruning not only in high-density orchards, and
then for new olive breeding programs.
5. AKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research had the financial support of the National Research
Program (PRIN-MIUR, Project “Biological processes and environmen-
tal factors involved in the vegetative growth, fruiting and oil quality
control in superintensive olive (Olea europaea L.) plantings”.
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