CLONAL SELECTION IN PORTUGUESE OLIVE VARIETIES

A clonal selection project comprising eight olive varieties was started in 1976 in the Alentejo area. Among other, two main selection criteria were considered: yield level, expressed as cumulate production (kg), and yield stability expressed as the alternate bearing index of Pearce and Dobersek-Urbank (1967). A preliminary survey allowed for selecting 95 trees (clonal starting material) among an initially controlled population of 1 290 olive trees. For clonal selection the Rallo (1974) scheme was used. After vegetative multiplication of the experimental material we are now proceding to the setting of comparative trials for the selected genotypes, in order to confirm the previous evaluation of the selected main characters and other secondary characters which may be important.