Olive Trees Survive Spanish Heath
07/12/2018 - 00:00
In 2016 the owner of El Cadoso, an estate 16 kilometres from Seville, the capital of Andalusia, in Spain decided to capitalise on his land with a super intensive olive plantation. He opted for the Arbequina variety to obtain a higher yield and production of extra virgin olive oil.
The first five hectares were planted in July 2016 with a planting frame of 1.8m x 4m resulting in a total of 1,388 plants per hectare. A year later, another five hectares were planted with 1,333 plants per hectare, using a planting frame of 1.5m x 5m.
The company Todolivo carried out both plantations with the assistance of state-of-the-art technology in the form of a GPS alignment system, with simultaneous placement of plant and support (cane) and an application of 20g of TerraCottem per plant.
The property decided to use TerraCottem to make the most of the available irrigation water, promote growth and reduce plant losses. Planting was carried out in the middle of summer with a greater mortality rate expected due to the high temperatures suffered during this period. At 85 days after planting, a first evaluation was made in four rows with a total of 781 plants. The 1.92 per cent mortality rate was far lower than anticipated, with 4-5 per cent expected in these conditions, so the survival rate was above 98 per cent.
A spokesperson for the estate commented:
“During August when temperatures were above 40ºC, we couldn’t irrigate for five days because of a breakdown in the irrigation system. Thanks to the application of TerraCottem, the plants did not suffer excessively and perfectly withstood the water stress, avoiding a great loss of plant material and investment.”
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