California Agriculture

Traditional olive oil production is limited by its high cost, mainly due to labor expenses for harvesting and pruning. A new olive planting system based on hedgerows and harvesting machines could decrease production costs while maintaining high quality. To improve the efficiency of the continuous-straddle mechanical harvesters, vigor must be managed to limit tree size. However, few cultivars are adapted to this system. Selections from three cultivars are typically used in these super-high-density orchards. We field-tested ‘Arbequina i-18’, ‘Arbosana i-43’ and ‘Koroneiki i-38’ in an irrigated, super-high-density planting system in Catalonia (northeast Spain). We present a review of 6 years of horticultural data and summarize sensory characteristics and other properties of the resulting olive oils.