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In southern Italy, the olive oil sector is an important part of the primary sector and its development requires support from research to ensure its sustainability. This work proposes the first step for set up a decision support system (DSS) for establishing mechanisation in agricultural operations for different olive groves. To contribute to this goal researches have been carried out to test the ability of remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS) to map olive groves and their agronomic characteristics. In detail, this study aimed to classify olives grove areas in terms of agronomic suitability and detect horticultural characteristics of olive groves in order to develop a fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making method for managing mechanical harvesting and pruning. The detection and interpretation of horticultural traits was conducted on two different olive groves areas of Sicily. Results demonstrate that fuzzy technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution can be a useful decision-making tool combined with the automatable methodology for data acquisition. Copyright © 2016 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

The in vitro culture of olive explants very often results in poor growth and reduced proliferation of axillary buds. Many different factors have been considered and in many cases the unusual, for this species, surrounding environment has been held responsible for the scarce results obtained. Recently oxidative stresses have also been investigated and among the different factors involved, wounding, sterilisation, nutritional components and culture environment were claimed as main stress-inducing agents. This experiment reports on a preliminary study on two important Sicilian varieties, Biancolilla and Cerasuola, aiming to find the existing relationships among olive explant growth and proliferation and the different factors of stress. A second goal was to to find the best nutritional medium and optimise the explant-surrounding environment to reduce at the minimum level the various (oxidative) stressing factors. The effects of two standard media OM and MSM, respectivey added with sucrose or mannitol, were compared. Results point out that growth parameters such as lenght, node mumber, fresh weight of shoots and basal callus-tissue production are strictly related to the carbon source present in the medium. A strong oxidative stress component is acting in olive explants cultured on sucrose and the capacity to counteract the damaging effects of oxidative stress is mainly linked to the peculiar antioxidant cellular machinery of each cultivar, In cv Biancolilla the utilization of OM media induces greater stress conditions as highlighted by strong variations in some enzyme activities and reduced growth.

The present study was aimed to evaluate the agronomic behavior of different rootstocks, recently licensed by the Dipartimento di Coltura e Difesa delle Specie Legnose of the University of Pisa, and tested in a high density planting system (2220 trees/ha). Trials were carried out in an experimental orchard established by the Dipartimento di Colture Arboree of the University of Palermo and located in Sicily (Sciacca – Agrigento – 150 m a.s.l.). The observations were carried out on clonal rootstocks: I.S. 5/8 (Polluce); I.S. 5/19 (Castore); I.S. 5/23; I.S. 5/29 and GF 677 grafted at dormant bud with the low chill requirement cultivar “Tropic Snow”. The orchard was established in 2004, trees were spaced 4,5 m x 1 m a part and trained at “V” shape. In the three-year period 2006-2008 phenological, morphological, biometrical and ecophysiological traits were studied. Plants grafted onto clones of the I.S. series resulted less vigorous than those grafted onto GF 677. The highest levels of production/tree were observed in GF 677, however, in relation to the different development of the trunk cross section area (TCSA), differences statistically significant in terms of production efficiency among the various graft combinations were observed. The highest average fruit weight was observed in plants grafted onto I.S. 5/29, while the rootstock I.S. 5/23 induced a greater scalarity of maturation. Despite the young age of plants, some of the I.S. series rootstocks seemed to help to overcome some agronomic limitations produced by GF 677, with particular reference to vegetative growth and fruit quality. Observations carried out on the effects of water stress showed that plants grafted onto GF 677 attained values of water potential less negative and maximum assimilation rates higher than plant grafted onto I.S. series rootstocks. Among I.S. clones, more intense levels of water stress were detected in Castore and I.S. 5/23, while a more moderate stress was observed in I.S. 5/29 and Polluce; results also confirmed by measurements on the photosynthetic activity.