Nuove teorie sulla crescita vegetativa e sulla formazione del fiore in olivo coltivato

The intensive olive orchards draw the attention to innovation and applications of knowledge in the two main sectors “fruit and canopy management”; the current agronomical practices, linked to tradition, must evolve, taking into account that the choice of plant material and pruning must be related to the knowledge of the phenomena that regulate growth in the species and the mechanisms of flowering in each cultivar. On the management of production, data on the different speed at which the tested cultivars start to flowering after planting are reported. Starting from the primordia of an accessory bud, the apical meristem became “mature” growing in the time with important differences between the cultivars, acquiring only in the second year of growth for ‘Arbequina’ and ‘Koroneiki’ (early bearing cultivars) the capability to produce principal lateral buds able to develop in the inflorescences: with ‘Frantoio’ the “aging” of two years is not enough to move the principal lateral buds to develop inflorescences: this cultivar start to flower only after four years of growth. On the management of the canopy, it is shown the different fate of buds at the same node at the time of its formation. At the base of each leaf two different types of lateral buds are present: the main lateral bud, characterized by a reproductive function, and one or more small accessory buds specialized for develop new vegetative branches reiterating the cycle. The apical meristem of new shoots (suckers) from accessory buds give rise to a new cycle of “aging” for the next production. Tipping or cutting the distal part of the branches determines the sprouting of the nearest to cut distal principal buds (acrotony), with new shoots formation (feathers) having the same “age” of the forming apical meristem. The use of pruning to obtain new vegetative shoots from latent secondary buds or bearing vegetation from mature principal lateral buds by summer topping at different level makes it possible an innovative canopy management, through the application of green pruning in olive trees