Olive genetic improvement: Thirty years of research

A breeding program has been established down since 1971 with the aim of obtaining new valuable olive cultivars for table, oil and dual purpose. A set of 127 combinations have been obtained by crossing 12 table and 5 oil cultivars, for a total amount of 5,000 seedlings planted during 1975-77. The progenies have been analysed for traits of the tree (juvenility, vigour, habit, flowering entity, fruit set, productivity, ripening time), of the leaves (size, shape, colour), of the drupes (size, shape, skin and flesh colour, skin colour change, stone size and shape) and of the rooting capability. In 1987 the evaluation of data gathered during precedent years allowed to identify 200 selections, valuable mainly for the drupe traits (weight, size, shape variability, skin colour, precocity and period of colour change), and tree characteristics such as vigour degree, plant habit, flowering entity and productivity. During 1992-99 data about vegetative, productive and fruit characteristics (both analytical and technological parameters) were collected for all selections under study in three different Italian environments. Till now three new cultivars have been released.