Four olive cultivars namely Manzanello, Picual, Coratina and Arbicon grown at
Wadi El-Natroon area, Egypt under drip irrigation system in sandy soil were
compared for optimizing their own yield as well as fruit quality parameters during
2001 (off-year) and 2002 (on-year), by application of an integrated and balanced
fertigaion program including macro and micro-nutrients. Results showed that
remarkable and significant differences in leaf mineral contents, yield and yield
quality parameters were detected by using well distributed fertilizer program during
the growing season of olive trees. The treated four cultivars attained higher yield in
the “on" and “off" year than the control. The most outstanding olive cultivars having
greater yield were Picual, Manzanello, Coratina and Arbicon in a descending order.
Oil percentage was maximized with Picual olive while, Arbicon olive had the lowest
value. Free fatty acids (%), Iodine number as well as Acidity (%) were minimized in
Coratina olive and the lowest peroxide number as was in Picual olive. It is apparent
that for planting Picual olive variety proved to be the promising one due to its
greatest yield and best fruit quality specially when the actual requirements of macro
and micro nutrients were used through the drip irrigation system.