New approaches for precise irrigation in hedgerow olive orchards

16 páginas.-- 5 figuras.-- 2 tablas.-- 46 referencias.-- Comunicación presentada en el VIII International Olive Symposium. Split, (Croatia), October 10-14, 2016.-- Fernández Luque, José Enrique et al...This work focuses on the suitability of precise irrigation (PI) in hedgerow olive orchards with high plant density. The success of PI relies on a wise choice of irrigation system, the irrigation strategy and irrigation scheduling method, as well as the production target. After 6 years of testing of different irrigation strategies and a variety of methods to schedule irrigation in an 'Arbequina' olive orchard with 1667 trees ha-1, we address here the potential of PI for this type of orchard in an area of southern Spain where water for irrigation is scarce. We conclude that PI is a suitable option for fruit tree orchards nowadays, thanks to increasing knowledge on the crop response to water conditions and to technological advances that increase the applicability of PI to commercial orchards. Our results suggest careful choice of the production target, and illustrate the importance of a detailed economic analysis to properly decide on the main aspects related to PI.This work was made in the frame of the research projects AGL2009-11310/AGR (Spanish Ministry of Science and innovation), AGL2012-34544 (Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness) and AGR-6456-2010 (Junta de Andalucía), and with funds by the FEDER programme. Thanks to the owners of Internacional Olivarera, S.A.U. (Interoliva), for allowing us to make the experiments in the Sanabria orchard. We also thank Silvia Seller, agronomist, and Juan Francisco Bernabé, foreman, for their technical assistance. The author I. Garcia-Tejero has a contract co-financed by the Operational Programme of the European Social Fund (ESF) 2007-2013 "Andalusía is moving with Europe".Peer reviewe