Abstract
BackgroundThe present study was carried out during the two successive seasons of 2016 and 2017 on “Kalamata” olive trees (Olea europaea L.), at a private orchard located on Cairo-Ismailia Km 107 desert Road, Egypt. The trees were treated with four soil applications as follows: (T1) control (water only), (T2) organic matter of 10 kg chicken manure was added in both side of the tree under drip irrigation system at the 1st week of January, (T3) organic matter + 100 cm3 humic acid (Actosol®) for each tree, (T4) organic matter + bio-humic which contain 100 cm3 Actosol® and 150 cm3 of Azotobacter chroococcum, Bacillus megaterium, and Bacillus circulans in equal doses. Humic acid and bio-humic were added 3 times at the 1st week of March (full bloom), at 1st week of May (starting fruit set stage), and at the last week of July in the third stage of fruit development (70% of final fruit size) to study the effect of humic acid and bio-humic on the yield and fruit quality of Kalamata olive trees.ResultsThe result showed that all treatments improve the nutrient status (N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Zn, Mn, Cu) of the leaves, yield (kg/tree) and fruit quality, i.e., fruit weight, volume, specific gravity, dimension, and shape index, as well as fruit moisture content percentage and oil percentage in FW and DW than the control. Within all treatments, the bio-humic treatment (T4) is recommended, since it had the highest value of these parameters in comparison with the other treatments or control.ConclusionIt could be concluded that improving yield and fruit quality attributed to the positive effect of organic matter alone or in combination with humic or bio-humic in increasing the cation exchange capacity of the soil, reducing soil pH, enhancing the root development, increasing the root/shoot ratio, and production of root hairs of olive trees which increase the active uptake for most of the nutrients in the soil. In addition, bio-humic contains three bacteria that are now considered as plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) that play a great role in providing trees with NPK as bio-fertilizers and increased also the mineral status. Therefore, bio-humic positive effects reflected on improving the yield and fruit quality of Kalamata olive trees. In general, organic manure in combination with bio-humic had great effects on improving the yield and fruit quality of Kalamata olive trees than using organic manure alone or use organic manure combined with humic acid.
Highlights
The present study was carried out during the two successive seasons of 2016 and 2017 on “Kalamata” olive trees (Olea europaea L.), at a private orchard located on Cairo-Ismailia Km 107 desert Road, Egypt
The aim of this research is to study the effect of organic manure in combination with humic acid or in combination with bio-humic (which consist of humic acid combined with three plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR); Azotobacter chroococcum is used as nitrogen biofertilizer, Bacillus megaterium and Bacillus circulans which are used as phosphate (P)- and potassium (K)-solubilizing bacteria) on the yield and fruit quality of Kalamata olive trees
The result proved that organic manure compound with humic acid or bio-humic had a positive influence on increasing leaf mineral status that reflected on improving yield and fruit quality, especially the treatment of bio-humic (T4) which maximized the yield and gave excellent fruit quality due to the bio-humic content of the mentioned three PGPR that play a great role in providing trees with NPK as bio-fertilizers and increased the mineral status
Summary
The present study was carried out during the two successive seasons of 2016 and 2017 on “Kalamata” olive trees (Olea europaea L.), at a private orchard located on Cairo-Ismailia Km 107 desert Road, Egypt. Olive cultivation (Olea europaea L.) has been widespread in many countries throughout the world since several hundred years due to that it is an important fruit crop for human nutrition and many food industries such as oil extracting, pickling, and fodder. “Kalamata” olive cultivar is considered one of the most important commercial table olive varieties in Egypt and needs special treatments under sandy soil and other types of reclaimed soils condition, since the poor soil fertility and low water holding capacity are generally the main soil problems that influence on Kalamata yield and fruit quality
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