Evaluation of pomological Characteristics, Fruit and Oil Yield of Fifty-Five Foreign and Native Olive (Olea europaea L.) Cultivars in Tarom Region in Iran

Study of adaptability and performance are important steps in the introduction of new olive cultivars for target regions. In this research, pomological characteristics, fruit and oil yield of 55 foreign and native olive cultivars were evaluated at Tarom olive research station from 2015 to 2017. The results showed that the effect of year, cultivar and their interaction effect on fruit yield were significant (P≤ 0.01). Cv. Toffahi with an average fruit weight of 11.36 grams had the largest fruit followed by cv. Jlot, cv. Chalkidiki and cv. Voliotiki with average fruit weight of more than 10 grams. Cv. Jlot had the highest fruit flesh (93%) and cv. Khodeiri had the highest (69.53%) dry matter oil content. Cv. Chalkidiki, cv. Nebali, cv. Arbequina, cv. Agromanaki, cv. Megaron, cv. Koroneiki with 66.28-55.67 percent dry matter oil content were among the cultivars with high oil content. The highest fruit yield per tree (80.16 kg tree-1) obtained from cv. Caridolia. Cv. Abusatl, cv. Moussaabi, cv. Arbequina, cv. Koroneiki, cv. Caridolia and cv. Conservolia were also high yielding with high yield stability cultivars, respectively. The highest oil yield belonged to cv. Caridolia, cv. Koroneiki and cv. Conservolia with 2974, 3412 and 2782 kg ha-1, respectively. Cv. Picual, cv. Chalkidiki and cv. Abusatl also produced more than two tons of oil per hectare.